I am feeling a little blah about the holidays this year and no great gift ideas are coming to mind for anyone on my list.
The best thing I have come up with for my husband so far is bike lights. Sigh.
So I thought I’d steal some ideas from the dope.
Any great ideas you have this year? Anything amusing?
If you’re on my list you get a 50 dollar gift certificate. If you’re not…nothing. My list is small.
Bah, humbug!
I’m actually giving presents this year!
My mom is getting Totoro hand towels and a book set with a CD (the books read by Stephen Fry).
Kids are getting Legos, a pull-up bar, Tintin books, and (knockoff) Ugg boots.
Don’t know yet about my husband, but in an ideal world I’d get him a Xoom tablet.
My plan this year is to try to shop locally (almost exlusively). Am breaking that rule for hubby, who will probably get some cool Doctor Who or Firefly swag from Etsy and I have asked for auto-start for my car (to help get it warmed up in the cold, Nebraska winter). The hubby also is a huge collector of vintage maps, so I will probably take one in and have it framed for him.
Family in S.C. will receive goodies baked and shipped by a local caterer (that are de-lish). Employees are getting invited to our huge catered holiday party at our house as well as something small for them like a scarf or earmuffs (again with the local). We have a great community of artists in Omaha and I like to support them as much as I can buy getting gifts from them.
Not a thing if I don’t find a job. Which sucks, since this is the first time in 8 years I have a girlfriend, and I’d like to get her something.
I had the brilliant idea of gifting those huge three-pound bags of nuts from Sam’s Club. Everybody who will be at my house on Christmas morning will get a bag. It will be fun and feel indulgent, without it being a lot of money for gifts.
Other than that, the close menfolk get a bottle of scotch and the close womenfolk get a box of chocolate truffles. And everybody gets some stuff off their Amazon wish list.
I’m baking homemade beef and potato dog biscuits (recipe from the “Food Gifts” Better Homes and Gardens magazine out on newsstands right now) for all of the dog owners on my list. They’re freshest for about a month according to the recipe, so I can’t bake these far ahead.
I’m also making more “bunny biscuits” for the woman who boards my rabbits while I’m on vacation; I brought some over today to thank her for getting me some hay on short notice, and to our delight, one of her elderly rabbits who’s fussy about food gobbled up a biscuit immediately. I gave her a copy of the recipe too, and some cooking tips, but I think I’ll just bake her up a big canister right around Christmas.
I was at Trader Joe’s today and saw a 4-pack of salt and herb/pepper grinders for $8 - I think the flavors were thyme/lemon, chili pepper, edible flowers, and… blanking on the last one. That would be a great gift idea for my mom, who doesn’t live near a TJ’s.
Still thinking about other ideas. I’m going to try to go with locally-made and/or small producers, Etsy sellers (ones who I know make stuff rather than buying mass-produced cheap items and reselling them outright), that kind of thing.
I don’t really give specific gifts for Christmas. I do what I always do only more. I try to help people by pitching in, fixing things, covering for them and so forth. I don’t have anything in common with a 15 year old so only cash will do or I can allow myself to be played into driving them shopping and buying what they want. A 15 year old is very good at measuring how much you are good for without looking in your wallet. But I have the upper hand here. I know my time is short and they are merely spending money they might get later anyway so in that sense, it costs me nothing.
This year’s theme seems to be flashlights and computers. The boy asked for a computer as a combo birthday and Christmas gift, so all parents and grandparents are chipping in to buy a nice one with the operating parameters he wants. And my husband has wanted a new one for a while. We were going to delay the purchase, but his old one died yesterday. (My daughter got a notebook last year, so she’s covered.)
The parents are getting an assortment of rechargable flashlights, including ones that come on if the power goes out, lanterns for vehicles, and just a basic one to keep around the house. Plus Santa pictures of the kids. Pictures for the grandparents and uncles, plus some funky something. Da Niece and her fiance will probably get cash.
I’m stumped for my daughters. Probably plane tickets for the eldest, maybe clothes and a new (music) keyboard for the middle. The baby would be just as happy with boxes and wrapping paper…
Probably cookies for the circle of family friends. Baking cookies is awesome and fun (except for the darn cookie press used to make certain shaped cookies), and a tradition from my childhood.
As for my actual family…not quite sure yet. Books for some people, maybe. I need to get my mom something extra special since she’s had a rough year. And our dogs need squeaky toys to rip up in 5 minutes on Christmas morning 
Nothing. Nobody I’d ever give gifts to celebrates Christmas.
Foam fruitcakes from Running Press. They are funny and cheap. I gave a few out last year and everybody had fun tossing them around to the extent that all the non-recipents requested one (or something equally goofy) for their next year’s gift.
I’m giving my parents a cuckoo clock.
Several years back, we opted for a $10 gift exchange game, and it’s been a relief and a lot of fun. With un/underemployment and other personal financial issues, plus that fact that we’re all adults and we tend to buy ourselves what we want, this works out perfectly. Frankly, I’d rather have $10 worth of candies or toilet paper than a sweater or a CD. And many of the gifts being exchanged/stolen are pretty funny, so we have entertainment with our gift swap.
I don’t really celebrate Christmas. I’m knitting a scarf for my sister, but even she isn’t someone I reliably get a Christmas present for. She and I are much more apt to get something at some random time during the year and say “this is your Christmas present.” This is some yarn I bought last summer and the scarf is quick enough that I should be able to finish it in addition to a hat and a pair of socks that are both “due” before the end of the year for craft exchanges.
I have another friend who I get something for if I see the exact right gift for him around this time of year, and this year I did – he’s a huge fan of Martin Clune (actor from Doc Martin, a show he originally found that we both ended up loving), and I saw DVDs for another show with him (Martin Clune) that I’m about 97% sure he (my friend) doesn’t know about, so I got him those.
Doesn’t a bottle of Scotch cost about ten times what a box of chocolate costs?
My husband will get some CDs and books that he’s mentioned. Nobody else gets gifts, except for the evergreen centerpieces I give my hairdresser, co-workers, etc.
My husband and I aren’t exchanging gifts this year since we’re spending a small fortune on a vacation in February.
The kids have both made their initial suggestions and they’re both pretty practical, my daughter would like us to pay for a tool kit she needs for her jewelery making class and my son wants some hiking clothes for his second annual hitchhike across Canada trip. Apparently he had a wonderful time this year but was cold. I’ll have to come up with something fun to go along with them. For the rest I generally just bake. My inlaws don’t want more stuff, they’re a big fan of consumables. Grandmother in law moved into a nursing home this year so we’ll have to figure out something special for her to be able to share.
That all depends on the brands of the Scotch and the chocolates. For instance, for a slightly higher-end chocolatier, Vosges chocolate bars can be found in some grocery checkout lines around here (Chicago), but you can spend, say, $75 on a box of 32 orf their “exotics” truffles. And there are definitely more pricey chocolatiers out there.