The Missus can be hard to buy for. She likes Patagonia, so I got her a Patagonia shirt and a Patagonia hat. I got a free teddy bear from Ben Bridge for getting my Sub overhauled, so she’s getting that. (Why not?) I got her DVDs of Gaslight and Notorious. She loves the former, and she mentioned TCM never shows the latter. But that’s not enough. She has a patient who is an artist – no mean feat, since he’s legally blind – and she bought one of his prints. She wanted to have it framed at Michael’s, but they had a fire. Fortunately, her print was undamaged; but they’re closed until further notice. So I’m thinking I’ll get her a $100 Visa gift card so that she can have it framed somewhere else.
Pretty lame Christmas presents, but it’s the best I can do without a ‘wish list’.
Although I might buy my kid a set of tires, because he can’t really afford them, and I kinda don’t want him to die. So, I guess using Christmas as an excuse works.
We gave my husband’s parents a new electric blanket and a set of flannel sheets. My mother has made it clear she wants nothing and she’ll be pissed if anyone gives her anything - so we may take her out for a nice lunch or dinner. We paid for an electrician to fix some issues at our daughter & SIL’s house - that was their gift. And, of course, the grandkids are getting an assortment of toys and games. My one grandnephew is getting a small toy and some money for his college fund.
Among my sibs and our assorted offspring, we do a goofy exchange every year, and the rule this year was that the gift must come from a thrift store, no price limit, only a size limit (it has to fit in a car.) I scored a chocolate fountain for $10 and my husband got a couple of wooden cow-themed thingies - one has a hook to hold a bunch of bananas, and the other is a basket-like thing. He and I quit exchanging gifts eons ago, tho I suppose this year you could say we’ve given ourselves a trawler- we close the deal sometime before Christmas.
I don’t feel excited about one thing I’m giving anybody. It was a job to do, so I just went with whatever was being sold to me at the moment. However, maybe the recipients will like what they get…I really have no idea.
The boy and his girlfriend are getting an air fryer. They asked for an automatic litterbox cleaner, but I couldn’t find one under budget.
The girl is getting her triple AAA card renewed, plus a nice colored pencil set and a fancy coloring book.
Mom’s getting the (fake) diamond earrings she asked for.
Grandma’s getting some playing cards with dogs on them, and a fruitcake. She’s got dementia, so she’s really hard to shop for, but the good news is she won’t even know who gave what.
Most of the others are on my husband’s side; he just wants to write them all checks (even the little kids). Normally I wouldn’t let him fail Christmas like that, but this year I’m gonna.
And I still have one gift left to get: for my brother. I spent a few days in his company a couple months ago, and though I suppose I love him, I don’t know or like him at all. He’ll probably get a bottle of rum like last year.
No kids in my life, so I don’t get excited either. I have been pleased with things I got The Missus, but I just didn’t get any signals this year. I finally got to watch three episodes of a series on toys on The History Channel. I’d be excited if Wifey gave me a vintage Frisbee like the one blondebear posted a picture of in this thread, a Slinky, some Hot Wheels, and some Silly Putty.
Wife and I discussed, and neither want anything. If we want something, we buy it. Come to think of it, she’s out running errands right now and I asked her to buy me a couple of bike inner tubes. Maybe she’ll wrap them up for me?!
I’m very fortunate my wife and I see eye to eye on this.
My sister’s husband REALLY likes getting NUMEROUS gifts. (He has repeatedly mentioned that he got “cheated” out of his October birthday, despite the fact that 1 kid & SO travelled from OR to Chicago to visit, and they went w/ 3 of their kids/SOs to a vacation rental which the kids paid for. But he was CHEATED b/c he didn’t get to unwrap a bunch of crap! He really is a great guy in just about every respect, but IMO just an unreasonable baby about this.)
Really a PITA for my sister. He has way more clothes than he’ll ever wear, and she has been successfully decluttering their home. Seems stupid to go on line and buy underwear and socks, just to have something to wrap up, but that’s likely what she’ll do. I told her whenever she goes grocery shopping next week, she should wrap up all the non-perishables and let him unwrap them!
All adult households are getting a set of silicone pot covers, a box of Swiss Coloney petit fours, and a tin of Italian cookies.
The older nieces and nephews (teens or close to it) are getting $50 amazon gift cards, because who knows what they want, and gummy candy. The younger ones just get the candy.
My wife is getting a big seal pillow, PJs, some fuzzy cat socks, and I’m taking her to see Hedwig and the Angry Inch live at a local theater this Sunday.
We’re so spread out that I don’t really give presents unless I’ll be doing so in person. I did some shopping for the youngest ones on Amazon this year. My great-nephew & great-niece in Oregon will receive a pair of tonguedrums (one each, they can decide which color they prefer) and my trio of great-nieces in Alabama will receive a set of Boomwhackers.
Some DVDs, a large tongue drum, and a subscription to Disney+ for my SO. She already has a wooden tongue drum but it’s cracking in places.
I’m giving Madame P. new white gold rings for her precious fingers; my daughter gets a couple of My Little Ponies (she’s 40 now, but I’ve been giving them to her since she was 6); my son-in-law’s getting a chainsaw, and my 20-year-old grandson’s getting an actual forge. He says he wants to be a blacksmith, and make his own swords.
We don’t have a lot of money, so like last year, my gift-giving is limited to simply sending out Christmas cards to family, church members, and friends around the world.
For the second year in a row, I bought the cards from OzFoxes.com, makers of one of my favorite comic strips. The card in question is a fox in the snow; the inside says “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”. I hand-wrote a personalized message for everyone inside it.
My wife is getting a Cricut machine, whatever the top-of-the-line model was in September – they were on clearance to make room on the shelf for a new model. $250 off the sticker price. She’s been coveting one for years. My boys are getting her a cordless glue gun and a brass door knocker.
Pretty exciting stuff. Not.
My boys are teenagers so we’re mostly giving them cash and gift cards. They aren’t excited about “stuff” anymore, which is kind of nice. My youngest son will get a new pocket knife and my oldest, who just got his driver’s license, will be getting a roadside safety kit to store in the back of his car. I’m sure he’ll be thrilled.
I still have a few random family members to shop for and hell if I know what to give them.
Additionally, out TV died after 5 years of almost non-existent use so I went to Freddy’s last night and bought the family a new one – a much smaller one, thank God (I noted in the “first world problems” thread that the TV was so big it partially covered a tapestry we hung on the wall). The new TV has Roku so we can stream TV channels through it rather than having to use the Xbox which is really nice.
My wife and I quit giving each other gifts a few years ago. We have enough “stuff” and don’t need any more. We buy ourselves something instead. She got a nice diamond ring, I got a bottle of 25 year old Dewar’s Scotch. We usually have a game night with prizes for the kids but as they have gotten older, few are coming. We are only having 4 this year. One of the prizes this year is an oak table lamp I made. It turned out excellent.
We are not buying for each other as such, we have booked a trip for xmas/new year and have spent the money we’d normally use for gifts on that. We have tickets for a comedian and a rock singer that we very much want to see, and that’s enough for us.
I bought token gifts for a couple of friends that I see regularly, but I have no family left to buy gifts for (my brother and I are pretty much estranged so don’t bother with them). I prefer the idea of giving something practical, paying a bill, arranging a repair etc which I would do for family but it’s hard to do that for friends.
My mum used to say she didn’t object to gifts, as long as it was something she didn’t have to dust!
Gift cards for most of the adults I’m close to and then some baked goods for everyone. I did find a nice candle set for my sister, which she actually asked for.
I’m making peppermint bark and orange & rosemary shortbread and a few other things. I hope it all comes out good cause thats the main gift for quite a few folks this year.
I had no idea such things existed. I was afraid to google “tongue drum”.
Me? Getting wife a foot massager and a half-dozen books she’s asked for. Kids are getting money. Dad a gun safe (small, just to hide from housekeepers). Dogs are getting the usual treats.
I 
