One of our favourite Christmas traditions is the family op shop run where everyone piles into the car and we go op shop hopping. It’s enormous fun and has become one of my favourite parts of Christmas.

Last year, we bought 41 presents for a grand total of $250.70 and 25 of them were books! We spent $119 on books alone (we’re all nerds).

The rules of the op shop run are simple: every person must buy at least one present for each other person. That means everyone receives at least five gifts. There’s no minimum or maximum spend.

The trickiest part? You have to keep your purchases secret from the person they’re meant for! This makes our op shop run both challenging and hilarious. Evil Grin Because, it’s not easy to hide something from someone who’s in the same shop, using the same checkout, and hopping into the same car as you.

It turns into a team game of deceit and pretence, where we all have to work together. One person distracts the gift receiver while the buyer sneaks through the checkout and out to the car, and the receiver pretends they have absolutely no idea what their siblings are up to. This is why it is so much fun!

The kinds of treasures you can find in op shops are endless. There are: kids’ toys, clothes, pot plants, crockery, board games, and books galore! You can even score piles of wrapping paper, gift bags, and craft supplies to wrap your presents beautifully without spending a fortune.

Here are photos from last year's Op Shop Haul

First, this was the selection of wrapping paper to choose from at St Vinnies. We picked up some lovely rolls and savings we made on wrapping paper alone made the trip worth it.

Here are some of the books we all picked out for each other.

Here are some of the other treasures we found: bird statues, a horse on a stick, more books, super comfy shoes, jewellery boxes, coffee cups, and even a freezy mug.