For years, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) CEO Warren Buffett had a straightforward Christmas tradition: hand out $10,000 in cash to family members. Nice gift, right? The only problem was what happened next.

The Money Vanished as Fast as Holiday Cookies

Mary Buffett, who was married to Buffett's son Peter, revealed in a 2019 interview with ThinkAdvisor that the cash never stuck around long. "As soon as we got home, we'd spend it, whoo!" she recalled.

You can imagine how well that sat with the Oracle of Omaha. This is a man who famously still lives in the house he bought in 1958 for $31,500. Watching his family blow through $10,000 like it was Monopoly money probably didn't align with his philosophy.

Enter the Stock Certificate

So Buffett did what any legendary investor would do: he pivoted. One Christmas, instead of cash, family members opened their envelopes to find a letter explaining they'd received $10,000 worth of shares in a company he'd recently purchased through a trust—Coca-Cola (KO) stock. The letter gave them a choice: cash it in or keep it.

Mary Buffett chose to keep the shares. "I thought 'Well, this stock is worth more than $10,000.' So I kept it, and it kept going up," she said.

Smart move. Buffett, now 95, continued the tradition with other stocks, including Wells Fargo shares. Those are up roughly 33% in 2025 alone and about 221% over the past five years.

Mary caught on to the strategy quickly. She started copying his picks, buying more of whatever he gifted "because she knew it was going to go up." When your billionaire father-in-law hands you stock tips wrapped in holiday paper, you pay attention.

The Awkward Gift Exchange Problem

The new gifting approach created its own challenge: what exactly do you give back to someone worth billions?

"The first year we were married, I realized, 'Warren is very rich. Therefore, he doesn't want anything,'" Mary said. Her solution? She gave him her music company's balance sheet. "I just wanted to show him, 'Look, we're doing good,'" she explained.

Not everyone can afford to distribute $10,000 in cash or stock certificates to loved ones like Buffett does. But cash remains a go-to Christmas gift for many Americans. An AP-NORC poll published this week found about 6 in 10 U.S. adults consider cash or gift cards "very" acceptable presents.

The numbers shift by age: roughly two-thirds of adults under 45 said cash is "very" acceptable, compared with 55% of those 45 or older. Some worry cash feels impersonal, though adding a thoughtful note can help bridge that gap.

Then again, if the cash comes with a side of investment advice from Warren Buffett, nobody's complaining about it feeling impersonal.