heh, my Mom does the bread thing every year for neighbors and close friends of the family, she’ll do up a basket with Christmas morning pastries, sweetbread, sometimes jams or special butters or hot drink mixes…seems to always be appreciated
In the same vein as Ms. Martha, I hand-make assembly-line style presents for people outside of my “Deserving of individualized handknits” circle. The past couple of years I’ve been on a ornament kick, this year I think I might do a partridge and pear duo.
That being said, I think that those work because they’ve had time and effort put into them. The one-gift-fits all doesn’t really work if it clearly indicates a lack of thought or effort put into it. If the givee is just giving to fulfill an expectation, and not from the heart…well, why the hell bother?
A gift should be freely given and graciously accepted. If your appreciation thereof is based on what the giver gives other people, then it’s your problem.
Exception: If your spouse gives you an expensive piece of jewelry and gives the same thing to his/her “friend from work,” you may have reason to be annoyed.
In fact my husband got his mother and I the same gift for Mother’s Day and I thought it was lovely - gold bracelets - mine was in pink gold and her’s was in yellow gold.
Well, I suppose technically mine was from my son but he’s not quite 10 months old and I’m pretty sure dad helped him with the shopping.
Or, as in the case of Love Actually, the friend from work gets an expensive piece of jewelry, and you get a CD collection you mention, even though the spouse thought about my gift - he better sleep somewhere else.
In all seriousness, I gave out homemade hot chocolate in little jars one year to all my co-workers, and handmade chocolates the year before. I figure, hey, it’s food - if you don’t like it - throw it away.
It used to offend me when my sister-in-law did the “matching” gifts - especially since I was single and living like a gypsy, and she kept giving me similar gifts as my sisters-in-law who had children and a house to store the stuff.
Now I just shrug my shoulders and do the matchy/matchy thing for her.
Well, if it were from Martha I’d just hock it on ebay. Something like that would annoy me. It really shows no thought. I like making flowerpots. So, everyone will want one for Christmas. :rolleyes: Then again, I can’t really imagine she really has that many friends/people who willingly deal with her. Not because of the flowerpot thing. I’ve always loathed Martha.
To answer the why bother part, I give gifts sometimes because I know in a group setting (more office wise than personal) there’s always that one person who has to whine about being singled out during the holidays. Nevermind that person tends to socially retarded and unbareable the whole year. So, I just get them something cheap and that most people would use. If they don’t like it tough cookies. Uusally, those social misfits are happy with whatever bone you throw them come Xmas or any other holiday that invovles gifts. With that lot, you have to be careful. Anything too nice or personal can be since as attempt at friendship or mating. :smack: I’ll never forget the time I gave the weird guy at my former job a Valentine’s day gift because I gave some stuff to others and he thought that meant meet me in the copy room I’ll suck your dick. :rolleyes:
And this is the funny part about people- when I left grad school there was a tradition of giving each graduate from our lab a particular book. When I was ready to go they couldn’t find the book in print and I was sad that I didn’t get the gift they give to everybody who left the lab.
It really is the thought, as long as the thought is good.
I’m glad to see the majority opinion is no.
A couple of years ago I bought everyone in my family a Clapper for Christmas. (You know: “clap on, clap off, the clapper.”)
My logic at the time was; everybody wants one but they just can’t bring themselves to buy one because they would feel too damn silly.
Sure enough, my logic seems to be sound as they all use them!
Ok - that raises an interesting question. In a previous relationship, I had a painting of my bf and I painted as Shrek & Fiona, and then one time I did my own painting of him and I that was kind of abstract.
While I would never paint my current bf and I as Shrek & Fiona, I have thought about having our painting done or painting a picture for him as a gift. I’ve held off because I wouldn’t want him to :eek: either.
No, that would not be creepy. Creepy would be to paint you and your bf as Shrek & Fiona, “just like my previous boyfriend”. Simply getting a portrait painted or painting a picture for him is rather sweet.
