Is this a common thing now that so many people keep online profiles or family websites? Is it the new etiquette or is it a little too “gimme”?
My daughter has an Amazon wish list and I will check that out when I’m shopping for her, but I’ve never heard of an actual Christmas gift registry, and I hope no one I know ever tries to get me to buy from one.
I can take a little kid writing a wish list for Santa, or a teenager telling Mom and Dad what she would like, but that’s about it.
I have an Amazon wish list too, and my whole family is grateful for it. They can either buy something right through Amazon or buy it elsewhere and check it off the wish list.
Of course, it’s just that: a wish list. Not a get-me-this-stuff-or-else list.
Having an Amazon wish list is required by our family members. Other than that I’m not aware of Christmas gift registries.
My group of friends and family keep an Amazon wish list updated for holidays and birthdays. Anyone who doesn’t have one risks getting something ridiculous and white elephanty.
I can totally dig the Amazon wish list. However, a Christmas gift registry definitely smacks of gimme. Unless it’s for a child, it just comes off as pretentious to me.
Mind you I feel similarly about gift registries for marriage and pregnancies as well. I understand that nobody wants ten toasters or twenty-four binkies, but it also seems somewhat pretentious to me.
I will say I come from am upbringing that emphasized giving far and beyond receiving, so that undoubtedly influences my thinking on the subject.
Even an Amazon wish list strikes me as kinda gimme (which is not to say I don’t have one). The utility is that I’m hard to shop for, but I would never complain about someone implementing the, ahem, obvious solution to this problem.
(The other utility is, I can add stuff throughout the year instead of a mad scramble around gift-receiving occasions to work out a system for dividing the stuff I want into what I want to have and what I want to be given.)
I am hopelessly old-fashioned, but my son wants me to set one up. I’m of two minds about it (and neither of them make a whole lot of sense so I’ll save you the blathering) but will go on ahead and set one up. I suppose. Sigh. If it makes his life easier, I’m happy to do it - he really truly enjoys sending gifts to us. When he’s home on leave, his favorite thing is to sit with me on the couch, eat popcorn, and watch the movies he’s sent with me.
My mom already knows my “wish list”. Cash. 
I’m not always in favor of gift registries, but I’ve pressured all my siblings into having Amazon wish lists (not just for Christmas, but year-round). It’s very helpful when dealing with people who have specialized tastes in books, games, and cooking equipment. It makes my gift-giving obligations (please don’t judge, it’s what my family does and I’m ok with it) *much *easier.
I have an Amazon wish list, too, but I don’t think of it as a gift registry. When I browse the Internet, or Amazon, and see something cute, or that I might like to read, but don’t need or want right now, I will put it on there. Then when I do need it, or I have something to buy and need another $15 to get free shipping, I will go on the list and pick something. I think my daughter looks at it sometimes. My husband wouldn’t know how, and no one else buys me gifts.