A lot of people are so into a specific thing, if someone doens’t know what to get them for a gift, or doesn’t want to put much thought into it, this is what they get.
My dad loooves The Sopranos, Christmas get him a Sopranos season, birthday, get him a Sopranos picture, Father’s day, Sopranos this or Sopranos that. By extension you can also get him something having to do with Casino, Scarface or Goodfellas.
For Christmas I told my wife if anyone asks what to get me, tell them I DON’T want anything bar or beer related. That’s my cop out gift. My brother got me a bar set (WHY!!! I’ve had the bar for three years, I don’t need any bar tools, at least not the standard ones), my cousin got me a glass globe that pours out liquor and a bottle of Jose Cuervo (I normally drink Cabo Wabo Blanco or Patron, but this WILL work nicely for blended margaritas), my wife got me Hot Pepper Vodka (I’ll give her credit on the brand, it was Hangar1, but why pepper, I don’t drink bloody marys, it’s just gonna sit in the bar for years). My aunt however really spent alot of time. She got my 12 550ml bottle of beer. She said she went to many many liquor stores to find them all. I mentioned that I hadn’t had any of them and she said “Good, I didn’t want to get you ones you know you like, I wanted you to try new ones”
My BIL is a fire fighter, so you can figure that one out.
So, what’s your cop out gift and do you like it or would you rather people chose something else?
That’s mine, too, at least within the family. Years ago, we were on a family trip and we were playing a car game that required us to spot certain things. We were also videotaping. So there’s this videotape of some breathtaking mountains, and in the background, my happy voice calling out, “There’s a cow!” as though I’d never seen one before. It’s okay. I do like cows.
Is this a Saint Valentines Day thread? Because those gifts really have to be fine-tuned to the MHz of the relationship’s individual frequency. Birthdays and Christmas for people I’m not splurging on, though:
Practical shit - like a bag of white cotton gym socks, or a half dozen soft-bristle toothbrushes. Tampons and toilet paper would be over the line, but there’s a lot of stuff that people need to keep replacing but forget to since they’re such mundane items and the one they have still has some use left.
I don’t give gifts that say “Oh, this is to prove I truly understand your psychological makeup, so you must wear this coat/hang this picutre/use this shade of lipstick.” And unless its someone I’d have to mail the gift to, I don’t do the gift card thing and make them do the shopping.
I’m a freelance copyeditor, so people give me word-related books. Comma Sutra, Richard Lederer, “dictionaries” of funny/weird/rare words. Hardy har har. I wish they would just STOP IT. I spend enough time with my nose in real reference books. Guess what I do in my off time? Anything but read that crap.
I stick them up on a shelf for a while, and then they go to Goodwill.
I collect coffee mugs so pretty much any unique or mug with the right attitude (thinkgeek.com) would work. Give me a cutesy one and I will thank you and promptly put it in a box somewhere.
I also enjoy my coffee and some people assume that a variety pack of flavored coffees is appreciated. Again, I will thank you and and then stash it somewhere in the back of a cabinet until it expires and then toss it.
I generally make a point of informing people that I’m really not into gift exchanges. If you must get me something, make it chocolate (and not fancy expensive chocolate, either). I don’t want anyone pulling their hair out shopping or burdening their credit card on my account.
Stephen King books. I think I have them all, but my husband is always on the lookout for the next one, and sometimes finds one before I know it’s out! (Anybody reading Duma Key? It’s pretty good so far. I bought it for myself, though.)
Holy crap, yes. I have a well-known interest in the hard sciences among my family, especially astronomy, and every year I get some knick-knack or piece of crap book on the subject of astronomy. My MIL is famous for her misunderstood attempts at fulfilling this idea of a gift. She’s the queen of cop-out gifts.
Just because someone has an interest in something, doesn’t mean that any two-bit piece of junk is going to intrigue them. It has to be rare, or of quality. A chincy DVD of photos of space set to classical music isn’t anything special at all. Just get me a gift certificate if you really are that clueless, instead of wasting your money on junk. I can already look at all the photos I want on the internet.
So no, I can’t stand cop-out gifts. They never deliver like the giver thinks they will. It’s too bad, when a simple pair of jeans or a DVD of a movie I enjoyed would have been far better.
Christmas ornaments (this should surprise nobody on the Dope ) are always a default for me. Well, in November/December, anyhow ;). And I do enjoy getting them, plus there’s a nearly endless variety, and rarely are they pricey, so they’re easy for people to pick out.
The rest of the year, Amazon certificates are always safe me-pleasers. I use them as safe gifts for other people, also.
My cop-out gift is Yankee candles and related stuff. I like getting them, and I frequently give them to woman friends and relatives. I’ve been in their houses and seen them being used, so it’s a good choice, I think.
I have been trying for the last couple of years to make my cop out gift Origins body products. I got a nice lotion set from my sister-in-law (and brother, I guess) one year, and I told them they could get the same thing every year and I’d love it.
But no, my presents for the last several years have been crap earrings. Or maybe they’re not crap, they’re probably nice, but I don’t wear earrings. They have never seen me wear earrings.
Better than the unicorn stuff, though. For a while with my friends there was some joke about me liking unicorn and My Little Pony merchandise–I guess because that kind of thing is pretty far from my personality–but it went on way too long. The last straw was when I made a big effort picking out nice things one christmas and got some random unicorn toy in return. I was really disappointed, and I think they noticed because I don’t get that kind of thing anymore.
Yeah, it really was a lot better than the stuff he’s been doing the last few years. One of his best? Well, I guess that depends how many we get to pick, but I did like it.
Oh, here’s another one for me. I looooove chocolate. Let me clarify I loooove MILK chocolate. People that don’t loooove chocolate seem to be under the impression that chocoholics think darker equals better. I hate dark chocolate but people always seem to give me the darkest chocolate they can find. It get’s thrown out after a while. My wife will eat some of it, but I get a LOT of chocolate for christmas.
) are always a default for me. Well, in November/December, anyhow ;). And I do enjoy getting them, plus there’s a nearly endless variety, and rarely are they pricey, so they’re easy for people to pick out.