The holidays are coming up way too fast and honestly Im kind of panicking already. Every year my extended family in Ohio—theres like 15 of us if you count all the cousins and my husbands side—starts texting me individually asking what my kids want or what we need for the house since we just moved into a smaller place. Our budget is super tight this year because of the move so I really dont want people wasting their money on random stuff we wont use or dont have room for, but I also feel so awkward just telling people what to buy over text. It feels demanding or something.

I spent like two hours last night looking for a way to just make one big master list that everyone can see but it absolutely has to be free. I saw Elfster mentioned a lot on some blogs but from what I can tell it seems geared toward doing a Secret Santa draw? I dont want to organize a whole gift exchange or a random drawing, I just want a place where I can dump links to things from different stores and people can mark them as bought so we dont end up with three of the same LEGO set or multiple air fryers. I also looked at Amazon Wish Lists but I heard that you cant really add items from other websites easily anymore or it gets glitchy and hides things, and I have some specific stuff from a local toy shop and a few small Etsy sellers that I really want to include to support small businesses.

Im also really worried about my older relatives being able to use it. If its too complicated or requires a huge login process my mom and my aunt are just gonna give up and buy another itchy sweater we dont need lol. I need something that works on a phone really well because thats how everyone in our family communicates. Is there a way to do this that allows for multiple people to add to a single family group list or should I make separate ones for each kid? I just want one simple link I can send in the family group chat where people can see everything in one place without it costing me anything or forcing everyone to sign up for a weird subscription service...