When I was in second grade, our elementary school set up a little “Santa’s Workshop” which had little gifts you could buy for friends and family. Well, I got some money (don’t know how, but I did) or they had little tickets and I went to the Santa’s Workshop. I know I bought both mom and dad something, but I only remember my mom’s. I got her some earrings, which were probably dirt cheap plastic, the kind you’d find in a quarter machine or something (OK, not THAT cheap). But I felt so proud. I had never bought my parents presents before, because A) I was in second grade B) I had no money and C) Every year beforehand I had made them something for Christmas for a class project. That gift stands out in my mind because I was so proud.
The best gift I ever got for someone was a gift I got for my then girlfriend for Valentine’s day.
I paid for the Notre Dame Glee Club (I’m an alum) to call up my girlfriend and sing, “Let me call you Sweetheart.”
She loved it. It was the best gift only because I really thought about it and it came from the heart.
Tibs
TroubleAgain wrote:
Where in the world can you find electronic fish?
(Other than that annoying wall-mounted “singing big-mouthed bass”, I mean.)
I have a brother that is just one year older than I am. He has always been one of the most important people in my life. I always would try to get him the best gifts I could manage. Nowadays, we have set a moratorium on gifts between us, on the premise that we should spend our money and time on the little kids in the family, but at least I got in a couple good ones before that.
Dave is a very literate guy. One year, in high school, I bought him a copy of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations. He loved it. That was twenty years ago, and I think he still keeps it at his bedside. He browses it constantly.
Another year, the last time I was living at home so that I could spend most of my money on non-essentials, I blew a lot of cash on a quality SLR camera for him. He’d always talked about wanting to take better photos. That was a very successful gift, because it became his hobby. For a while, he spent all his spare cash building a complete outfit around that camera, and he’s never without it. He keeps it in his car at all times.
I guess I’m a bit too practical, but I always feel best about a gift that the person is still enjoying years later.
Well I think I’m a bit young to get overly special gifts but a few have stood out in my mind. Last Christmas I really liked a certain guy, he was your perfect gentleman, the sweetest guy I’ve ever met. I wanted to get him something special for Christmas, price didn’t mean much because I really cared about him. So I asked him what he was hoping to get for Christmas. He refused to tell me, he’s the kind of guy that tells you that you don’t need to get him anything for Christmas. So I told him that if he didn’t tell me what he wanted I would just get him a teddy bear. So he didn’t tell me what he wanted. I got him a teddy bear that was 2-3 feet tall I think, it was hip height. We named him McMurphy, it is the sweetest, softest, most adorable teddy bear, I almost wanted to keep him. I do believe that the guy loved it, we still mention him every once in a while. It’s one of thos fond memories you can look back on and smile.
More later…
Kitty
The best gift I ever gave is an ugly embossed plaque thingy with a bust of Schiller on it. It is proportioned like a coin, but about 4 inches in diameter.
I met my best friend of 10 years when we were assigned to be roommates in college. That first year she read a book called Tam Lin by Pamela Dean. She passed it on to me, and it meant a lot to us because the main characters were English and Classics majors (like us) in the first years of college. One of the major plot points is that the students pass around a bust of Schiller that was stolen from the library. He makes appearances at events throughout the book and is captured and held hostage several times.
Eight years later I was wandering through this teeny tiny antiques store in Washington and I saw the thing hanging on the wall. It was priced at $30. I have no doubt that it is not worth more than $2.50, but I forked it over anyway because I could not stop laughing when I saw it. I decided not to wait for a special occasion and gave it to Cait when I got home. It now hangs in her kitchen.
I think what makes it so cool is that it means everything to us, but nobody else truly gets it.
I’m not sure I will ever find a gift that perfect for anyone again.
Rachel stop reading this now.
I personally think that books make the best gifts, especially when they mean something to the both of you. I got my best friend a book called “These Are the Gifts I’d Like to Give to You” It’s really really sweet. Some of them I just insist on bookmarking for her because they are thigs that she really needs in her life. To know that to us she is perfect no matter what, a life full of love, knowing that everything is going to be okay and lots of others. I was originally going to give it to my boyfriend because a few of them really do have special meanings and make me all warm and fuzzy inside just thinking about them but he needs his space and how dare I make him feel trapped so I’ll just go and give him about 1/3 of the gift that I originally thought of for him and leave he rest of my creativity for when I actualy have a boyfriend again, one who loves me enough to stick around.
Kitty
Certainly the most appreciated gift I ever gave anyone was a heart-shaped coupon for my boyfriend. It was good for any (well, not ANY - within reason) intimate act he chose, whenever he chose it for the next 48 hours. (Just be sure you’ve had enugh rest before you give one of these puppies out!) It’s still his favorite gift ever and even though the coupon is gone, the big silly grin will last a lifetime.
I got a replica of the “Robin Hood” mug used in 12 O’Clock High for my (now ex-)girlfriend. She’d been looking for it for years and years and years, never knowing that it was not a Royal Dalton or other mug, but was made easpecially for the film.
A company made a few replicas in the 80s or early 90s, and I got three. One for me, one numbered one for me, and one for the SO.
By the time the replicas came out, SO knew that the Robin Hood mug just didn’t exist. It was fun to give her this gift because of that.
I give my friends my loyalty and trust. Sometimes a piece of my heart goes with it. I hope I don’t run out of pieces any time soon. There’s too many people I want to be with and care for and experience. There’s not enough life to live for all the people in this world to love.
Awwww! {{{Tasha}}} I know you won’t run out of pieces anytime. You have the biggest heart of anyone I know. Love ya!
I swear, you two have a way of making me well up with happy tears like so few people can bring forth from me. It’s because you both have pieces of my heart that I gave to you that I know you’ll keep and not smash into little bits ever.
[Note: I’m sorry for hijacking the thread. I just had to say that.]
My love and time.
Thanks, tracer, I needed that laugh. You know darned well I meant an electronic finder of fish, not a finder of electronic fish. And I KNOW that someone will give one of those damned singing fish for Christmas…sigh…
I just spent an hour wrapping and packaging my best gift for this Christmas. I’ve been researching my family history, and a while back my third cousin and I found each other on the Internet-- we were both researching the same guy, a common ancestor. A few weeks later I happened to be traveling through the city where she lived, and she offered to put me up for the night and show me the sights. We had only communicated by email, so it was definitely an act of kindness to an (almost) stranger. Anyway, in November I hiked to the top of a little mountain in New England where our common ancestors settled in the 1700’s (the mountain is even named for the family), and brought down a little stone from the top of the mountain. I bought a little potted Bonsai tree, placed the stone at the base of the tree, and sent it away to my distant cousin. I thought the “family tree” symbolism would be appreciated. I hope she and her family will like it!
Now if I can only find something for my father… :rolleyes:
I used to write in a journal a lot about my ex-boyfriend and he’d hassle me accordingly asking what I wrote. One night after such, I went through the book and copied everything I wrote about how he made me feel, what I thought about him, onto little shreds or paper and put them in the jar.
I gave it to him the next day. Y’know… just because.
A few more entries: My husband bought me my own bowling ball and shoes, a gift that delighted because it would horrify the majority of my friends but I LOVED IT.
But the best gift he gave me was a plaster-of-paris Wendy’s frosty mounted on a plaque. This is because…we were taking our first trip together and had stopped for lunch at Wendy’s. He had ordered a frosty; I hadn’t. I anticipated him asking me if I wanted any of it. As it happened, when he was about half through with it, he put it into the cupholder, wadded up a gum wrapper, and tossed it in. It was the perfect single-guy move, the type of thing you’d do if you’d been on your own for a while, as he had been prior to meeting me. He happened to look over at me staring at the now-ruined frosty with a look of longing and sadness on my face, and burst out laughing and apologized for being a thoughtless prick. My birthday was several months later, and he apparently spent a long time trying to figure out how to color the plaster of paris to be the perfect frosty shade. It looks great.
When our neighbor’s daughter got married, my parents bought a butt-ugly ceramic squirrel with nut-cracking utensils housed in its belly. It was a joke. Next major holiday, the squirrel came back with a flower arrangement in it. They’d taken it to a local florist and asked them to use it. My parents painted it green with shamrocks all over it and back it went for St. Patrick’s day. On and on. It has had flowers hot-glued onto it, multiple layers of paint, clothes made for it… unfortunately that marriage didn’t last. When the bride remarried, my parents had a handwritten note added to their invite: The Couple Requests No Squirrels. Heh.
My wife and I just created what we hope will be another wonderful gift.
Her family has a Christmas tradition wherein they appease the “Tomten.” A tomten is, they explain to me, a sort of elf or gnome that protects one’s house. I’d never heard of it, but they say the story has its origins in Scandinavia. (There’s a book that tells this story, by the woman who wrote the Pippi Longstocking tales.)
Every Christmas Eve, they (actually, I should say “we” now, at least on the Christmases I spend with my inlaws) put a plate of cookies, a cup of milk, and a lit candle on the porch. In the morning, the candle is out, and the milk and cookies are gone, taken by the tomten in payment of his protective services.
This year, we went to one of those paint-your-own-pottery places (specifically, for Seattle readers, we went to Paint the Town in the University Village) and hand-painted our own tomten plate and cup. The cup is simple, just shaded blue; the plate features a snowscape, with dark treeline and night sky lit by a single star, a barn in the distance to the left, and a line of footprints in the snow leading off to the right. If it turns out properly after going into the kiln (fingers crossed), it should be quite lovely, and we expect her mother and grandmother to adore it. And what’s more, we’ll be able to use it this Christmas!
It was a heck of a lot of work – hours and hours painting detail with not-very-fine brushes and goopy pottery paint – but it should be really, really neat.