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About the Family Gift Registry

What is it? The Family Gift Registry is a place where families and friends can come together, make wish lists, and anonymously claim items on each other's lists. It's a website to make all gift giving holidays much easier so less time can be spent worrying about what to give loved ones and more time can just be spent giving and enjoying the occasion. What's different about this registry site? Not linked to any stores When adding items to your wish list you are only limited by your imagination. There are no store catalogs to browse and you can wish for items that have no monetary value whatsoever. No ads See any advertisements here? Nope. Don't count on ever seeing any, either. No sponsors No business entity is associated with this site. Your information, even the gifts you put on your list, never leaves this site. Only the other members of your families can see it. No spam The Family Gift Registry will send you one email every year, usually in early November, reminding you it exists in case you forgot about it (many people only use this site for the end-of-year holidays). If even that is too much email, you can opt out of it without closing your account. No fees Free to sign up, free to use. Lots of flexibility Create or join as many families as you like. Create a wish list for your one-month-old or your dog. Organize a secret santa game within your family. There are plenty of features here (detailed to the right) to let you do all kinds of things. If a feature doesn't exist or can be made better, request it! Who runs this site and how is it paid for? My name is Chris and I started the Family Gift Registry in 2005 when it was clear that the people in my family loved giving each other gifts for Christmas but had no clue what to give. It started as a personal side project and has remained that way as it has grown. At this writing (October, 2009) we have almost 700 users. I don't make money on this site. As detailed above, I have no revenue stream. People ask if this site will ever have ads or cost money to sign up, but the answer is always no. After all, how many useful free websites are ad-less these days? If you really like this site and insist upon helping me pay for the server and the time to maintain it, I guess I can accept donations. =)

Lots of features! Personal Wish List Create and keep a personal wish list that can be only be seen by your families. Personal Profile Maintain a profile that includes your birthday and various clothing sizes for family members to reference, should you choose to provide that information. Profiles can only be seen by other family members. Multiple Families Become a member of as many families as you like. Create as many families as you like. No limits. Claim Gifts Claim items on other's wish lists. See what items have already been claimed so you don't get the same thing for someone. Claims are anonymous and items may be set to allow only one or many claims. Shopping List See all of your claimed items organized by recipient. Budget Track what you plan to spend on your shopping list. Printable Lists All lists can be viewed in a printer-friendly format. Gift Comments Post public comments on a family members gift list that everyone but that family member can see to coordinate going in together on something. Make it anonymous if you want to maintain some secrecy. Or post private comments that only you can see as reminders to yourself when you're out shopping. Child Wish Lists If you have a child, pet, etc. that could use a wish list but has no email address or can't work the computer, create a child wish list for it. Create as many child lists as you like and control them all separately from your personal list. Invite New Family Members Inviting people to join your family is as easy as typing their email address. Invite many people at once. Family Management If you create a family you are the family administrator. Manage who's active, who can organize secret santa, and who else can help you manage. Secret Santa Organize a secret santa game within your family to keep holiday spending down. Poke Inactive Users Uncle Steve hasn't updated his list all year? Give him a poke to send an anonymous email reminding him to do so. Post and Share Images Not really a gift registry thing but still very much a family thing, post images to share with your family. Images can be kept within the family or shared publicly and will not be scaled down like how many other image sites do it. Groovy Icons One of my favorite parts of adding a new feature is designing the necessary icon(s) for it. Look at this little house. Isn't it cute?