Our family’s unusual Christmas gift exchange idea

We celebrate Christmas Eve with our extended family, and each year we try to come up with fun ideas for our gift swap that also don’t break the bank. In the past, we’ve done everything from White Elephant swaps to kitchen tools — think about how many different kitchen gadgets the dollar store carries!  While the children in the family have a traditional gift exchange, my kids always want to take part in the adult’s swap too, and my youngest son still reminds us that the cheese grater in our kitchen actually belongs to him.

This year, my sister came up with an interesting idea for the swap. She was inspired by the “What Is It?” segment on This Old House, where a guest asks the show’s hosts what the purpose of an unusual-looking item or object is. Her rules: “Find or acquire an item that you think will stump everyone else on Christmas Eve. Don’t spend more than $5 on it.”  Everyone agreed that this sounded fun!

My sons and I went to two thrift stores and one antique store to find our “treasures!” I told them to help me look for items that they could not identify the purpose of.

I’ll share photos of our gifts below. After Christmas, I’ll update this post with the answers! If you think you know what any of these items are, feel free to post your thoughts in the comments too:

Item #1: (Yes, this lucky person will get two of this item…) 

Item #2: 

Item #3: 

Item #4: (Hint: It’s not what it initially appears to be…)

Item #5: 

Item #6: (The photo is a bit deceiving, as this item and its box are about 14″ long.)

I can’t wait to see what other wonderful items end up at our swap tonight. I may have to share some of those with you too! Merry Christmas!

UPDATE: My follow-up post has the results of our swap and the answers to what these items are! Read it here.