Oh my goodness! I come from a large family (7 siblings, most married, with kids) and we have never exchanged gifts amongst each other regularly. I cannot imagine the money involved in buying 18 people gifts! Gifts are a non-obligation, truly. And while I can appreciate the difficulty in laying this out for the first time with your family, I can nearly guarantee that you will feel nothing but wonder afterwards.

I would not send anything around formally, but, I would make it a point to tell each sibling something along the lines of, "hey, this year is a pretty tough one for us financially, and we are not in a position to exchange gifts this year, I hope you can understand". And leave it at that. No need for details, excuses, etc. They are your FAMILY. If they can't understand, frankly...they don't deserve a gift anyhow..he he he.

Then, AFTER the holidays, I would make it a point to explain to each family member that you simply are not participating any more....too much money, everyone buys themselves something anyhow if they really want it, or, do a gift exchange, a white elephant, find a charity to bless as a family, etc.

I can't believe there aren't more of you in your family that feels this way, too.