Gina, I don't know how large your family is, but perhaps next year, in lieu of buying and exchanging gifts for and with everyone or totally doing away with exchanging gifts, why not do a Kris Kringle / Secret Santa?
Everyone puts their name in a hat and each person picks a name, doesn't tell anyone else who they picked, and has to buy that person a present.
This way the gift giving does not get out of hand, there's no stressful, commercialized shopping where you just buy a bunch of gifts without putting any thought into it.
With having to buy a gift for the one person who's name you picked, you can put some thought into what to buy and also keep the enjoyment of exchanging gifts.
BTW, I thought of you on Christmas. The TNT channel played 'A Christmas Story' all day long!
My parents, brothers and sister and their spouses, my grandmother and an uncle and aunt do just that. I like it because it cuts down on the shopping. Also, I don't have to cram tons of presents into the car. My sister picked my name this year, and I got a shirt and tie, the new Dan Rooney book and a gift certificate from Border's. We set the amount at $75.00.
My children and their cousins do this as well.
