Twins Married to Twins on the 'Pressure' of Gift-Giving in Quaternary Marriage: Surprises Are 'Rare'

When Brittany and Briana Deane Salyers were growing up, friends and family of the identical twin sisters would find themselves in a quandary at Christmastime, asking themselves: Do they want the same or different gifts?

"They didn't know what they were quote-unquote 'supposed to do,'" Brittany tells PEOPLE exclusively.

The twins say they wanted separate gifts, but because they are also so similar — in their likes, dislikes, and lots of other ways — they usually ended up wanting the same thing.

"And people were like, 'then what do we do?' " Brittany says. "Sometimes they would get us the exact same gift but in different colors."

Now, the twins and their husbands, identical twins Jeremy and Josh Salyers, live under the same roof with their young sons, who are cousins but also genetic siblings. And that can present a bit of a dilemma during the holidays.

"There's some internal pressure with the four of us twins to be creative with gift-giving," says Brittany. "We want to think of something that the other one hasn't, yet we have such similar ways of thinking. Sometimes it's fun to be creative and surprise the other twin."

This Christmas, all four twins collectively decided on a big gift to each other: a trip to Orlando earlier this month to visit Brittany and Briana's paternal grandfather, William Deane, 87, who had not yet met Josh, Jeremy or the couples' sons, Jett and Jax.

While there, the couples also attended a friend's Sleeping Beauty-themed wedding at Disney World. Briana and Brittany were bridesmaids and, naturally, wore identical outfits picked out by the bride.

Back home in Virginia, there are plenty more presents under the family's Christmas tree — but probably not a lot of surprises.

"I already know what Josh would want, and he knows what I would want," says Jeremy. "I'm pretty sure I know what his gift is to me, and I think he knows what mine is."

"The reality is," he explains, "that you spent so much time with each other and had so many shared experiences that your thought patterns tend to go the same direction after so much shared experience."

Meanwhile, Brittany and Briana have settled on identical presents for their 39-year-old husbands — and it's what they both wanted.

"I would go to Jeremy and ask him, kind of try to hint it around something that I thought they might like," she says. "And Brittany would go and do the same [with her husband Josh]. And they both kind of gave the same answer."

Similarly, shopping for each other doesn't take a lot of guesswork, according to the twins.

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"At this point in our lives, in adulthood," Briana says, "it's expected that each set of twins has similar taste."

And while it doesn't always make for the most creative exchanges, Jeremy agrees there is an upside to their twin-tuition. "I pretty much know what he's thinking most of the time," he says of his brother Josh, "and he feels the same about me."

That's why on Christmas morning at the Salyers house, he adds, "we may be able to get some kind of surprises, but it's rare."