After having kids, and scaling back to one income, we stopped the exchange with our parents and siblings. It had gotten to be an exchange of $20 gift cards, which seemed crazy. My mom had the hardest time with it. We just said put your effort into the kids. None of our siblings are married or have kids. When they do, we will give gifts to the kids.
That being said, now we tend to do a smaller homemade gift from the kids which seem to go over well. It gets rid of the sense of obligation and is back into a fun way to appreciate someone. It was too stressful the "mandatory" gift way.