Gift Giving and Fairness

Giving gifts has a always been a somewhat sore subject for me. As a kid, my parents rarely got my brother and I what wanted -- possibly due to financial issues or naivety. As I grew older my brother and I would always take care of each other on Christmas. He would buy a gift I really wanted and I would buy him a gift that he really wanted, knowing that the gift would cost more money than what our parents were willing to spend.

Should equality in gifts given on Christmas be something that's desired? Admittedly, I never had to really deal with it until marriage, since I only had one brother to purchase gifts for.

When you have to give gifts to different related people do you:
1. Spend the similar amount of money on all parties, mostly so they will never feel bad?
2. Purchase gifts that each person will enjoy regardless of price (within limits of course), but not accounting for equality?

In bigger families, the equality thing seems to be the central aspect of gift purchasing. No one wants to feel like "He got something he really likes and all I got was this...". At the same time, can this reaction be avoided? I guess if you give many gifts, eventually everyone will at least have something they like. But a lot of money was probably spent on those other gifts that enabled you to feel that way.

What does the Bible have to say about equality in giving? God doesn't operate on fairness alone. He sees the means and the end and can adequately reward those who have proven themselves worthy. We, however, are not in the same position and to attempt to get to the concept of equality it seems we can lose sight of what the purpose in giving is all about. For extended family, we can't give as a reward, so we give that they may enjoy what they receive.

I say everyone should just give each other one gift they want for Christmas and let the monitary value of the gifts not determine their actual value or the value of the giver upon the recipient. I feel this issue is more of a heart issue than anything.