Usually i get people really crap christmas presents. This is either due to lack of imagination on my part, or the fact that i leave it all to the last minute.
Having done no christmas shopping yet i want to know what presents people have really loved giving to other people, in the hope i may get some inspiration.
Well, this year I’m giving my mom a DVD/VHS combo player. I also got my boyfriend the complete Far Side collection. Great gifts.
Well, this year it was the gift that I stole from someone at work at the annual office gift exchange. After the party, as I was trying to figure out what to do with it, it dawned on me that the most fun thing would be to wrap it back up and give it to the original recipient.
She was unbelievably delighted.
I once gave a $200 leather bomber-jacket to my best friend for Christmas. It was all the money I had. We were not ever boyfriend/girlfriend yet when I was incapacitated for months due to a motorcycle accident the year before she cooked, cleaned and did everything for me until I could walk again. A true true friend.
One year, I gave my mom a personalized wall calendar – the sort where you provide the pictures to a copy shop and then make the calendar for you. I chose twelve pictures of my sisters and me, and matched them to the months. It wasn’t very expensive, but she loved it. I doubt I will ever get her a gift she’ll like or appreciate as much.
I once was up at two in the morning on Christmas Day blowing up a 9’ T-Rex for my nephews.
Yes, I used a pump.
I got my girlfriend tickets to Les Mis. Second row, so close we could rush the stage tickets. I also got her a huge Final Fantasy IX wall hanging/tapestry thing. WickedCoolStuff.com rules.
I gave my husband a $1200 tool chest. He thought it was the greatest gift ever. I also gave him a 400-disc Juke Box CD Player, speakers, knives, hot rod stuff, and other stereo equipment.
My best friend was unemployed and retraining as a massage therapist. He could not get his required number of hours in for practice unless he had a table, and he couldn’t afford one. I bought him one on eBay. He was floored. Yes, it was pricey, but compared to a new table it was half price. I now get free massages for life :).
Also eBay related: my brother really wanted this expanded version of the game CLUE but could never win an auction (he has poor technique). I just listened to him bitch, and then won a copy of the game for him and gave it to him. He said, “YOU GOT ME THIS! Holy shit!” Very gratifying.
Last year, I gave my parents a hardbound photo book containing pictures documenting their 35 years together – early photos from when they were dating, buying their first house, going on vacations, that sort of stuff. Can’t think of a present I enjoyed giving as much as that one.
Life.
My daughter was conceived on Christmas eve. 
This year, I gave a friend of mine, (LadyDisco on here actually) a set of 6 knives I found at Lee Valley. She had The Crappiest Knives I’ve Ever Seen. They were beautiful, and a bit pricey, but she’s getting married next year, and I figured it would be a great early wedding present.
When I was young I used to tell my folks that when I grew up I would be wealthy and send them to Hawaii. When I grew up I did not become wealthy, but I did become comfortably enough to send them to Hawaii. They didn’t want to go, so I sent them to Vegas instead. Dad got all choked up when I gave them the tickets.
Geez, how do you compete with SpectBrain?
My sister and I got my parents a camcorder a few years ago, and they cried (and filmed every god-damned thing, but that’s a pit rant for another day). I also got tickets to a Senators game, second row, great seats, which he loved. Both felt really great. Last year, though, I gave my girlfriend some beautiful wine glasses that she absolutely loved. That felt good.
3rd row goal line tickets to a redwings game for my DH, he says it was the greatest xmas gift ever, but he’s not sure if it beats the skydiving lessons I got him for his birthday last year.
When I was first dating my husband, he had this thing about Mortal Kombat the movie… (I know, what a dork.)
Anyway, he also collects different kinds of knives.
I was shopping at the mall and found a Mortal Kombat knife that was a copy of one from the movie. I got it for him, and I’ve never seen him be so excited about any other thing I’ve got for him!
And that was nearly 6 years ago!!!
Long ago everyone in the extended family conspired to give our grandparents a keepsake quilt. Everyone made two squares in any medium and subject they wanted (something to identify themselves, their favorite childhood memory, their feelings about the g’s). My mom sewed them all together with the batting (or whatever) and we presented it on Christmas Eve. They were thrilled.
I once bought an old klunker bike at a flea market, stripped it down to bare frame and rebuilt it for my boyfriend (he had recently sold his car and was walking everywhere he went). He was so impressed he broke up with me three weeks later.
My uncle owns and operates a barber shop and is a rabid old car buff. I drew his name for our family Xmas Xchange and got him a model of a '56 Chevy with a radio inside. Sounds cheesy, but the model was beautifully done and he still displays it (it’s been 22 years) in his shop, on a shelf he built especially for it. He keeps it tuned to an oldies station and sings along.
I got my husband the first 3 seaons of Babylon 5 on DVD.
He was/is a happy boy.
I’ve made a king-size Irish heart chain-pattern quilt for my parents this year. I’m almost done. It’s been two years (on and off) in the making of it… all the fabric was bought with a gift certificate they gave me for Christmas two years ago. I hope they like it.
Last year I got my girlfriend (now ex) the best gift I have ever given.
At some point while we were going out, she metioned to me that her favourite painting was thing one where a couple were dancing on a beach with the butler and maid holding umbrellas. This was maybe 2-3 months into our relationship (we started dating February of that year.) Well, while Christmas shopping, I was walking by a print store and saw a picture of a couple, dancing on a beach, with the butler and the maid holding umbrellas. I purchased it, put it in a frame myself, and when she opened it, she couldn’t believe I remembered that she told me she liked that painting.
