My friend Poison Oak mentioned her family is thinking about doing a used book exchange in lieu of holiday gifts this Christmas. This sounded pretty interesting to me so I asked her how they were going to do this. They haven’t sorted out all of the logistics yet but this is what they’ve come up with so far:
*Her sister in law suggested asking spouses to determine who has read what. Her brother likes the idea combined with the asking spouses idea.
This got me thinking about how it could be done which of course led me to ponder the idea of doing it like a Bookcrossing book box. (First person puts in 3-5 books and mails it to the next person on the list. That person takes out the book(s) he/she wants and puts an equal number in and mails to the next person etc… Great idea but probably not good for Christmas gift exchange, right? Probably a cooler idea for a family who lives far apart to do over the course of a year or something.
From there I thought about other gift exchanges I’ve been to and the one that’s sticking in my head is my mom’s Wild Women of the UU White Elephant party every December. This would be a great idea if everyone is going to be in the room during the gift exchange and if the family looks at this as “fun” and not necessarily all that serious. The way it would work is each person wraps a used book from their collection and brings it to the “party”. When they arrive, they get a number. Person number one choose a gift from the table and unwraps it. Person number two chooses a gift, opens it and can either keep the book or trade with number 1. Person number three chooses a gift, opens and either keeps it or exchanges with person number 1 or 2. etc… Loads of fun unless you happen to get the book you’ve always dreamed of and someone “steals” it from you. I could see the adults in my family doing this and having a good time with it.
Do you have any ideas for my pal Poison Oak and her family?
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