Has gift giving become an obligation?

In a recent IM conversation with my cousin, I started to wonder "has gift giving become an obligation?". Since when? I remember a time when gift giving wasn't an obligation and it wasn't something you did in order to see what you can get out of it.

Both my husband and I have large families. I'm talking huge! It's roughly around 35+ people (and those are only the ones that live in the same state as I do). My husband's family, it's right around 14 (and I'm excluding the cousins, aunts and uncles here).

I've always been a big fan of just doing a Christmas dinner and not exchanging gifts. Let's be realistic, you "can" in a sense purchase gifts for those 40+ people, but what's going to be your budget limit? 10 bucks? What kind of sucky gift are you planning to give?