Christmas Lists - Love Them or Hate Them?

[wraithgirl]

I love giving presents. I love thinking about what the exactly right thing would be and then watching the recipient open it. When times are tough, like they are now, this is much harder as sometimes the perfect gift is out of reach financially, but still, somehow, I try my best to find something that will be appreciated. And I like to think that

Comments

[karmaqueenie]

I hate making them myself, as I feel greedy. But if there's someone I know who is going to waste money on something I'd totally hate, because they just don't get it (my mother, for example, has spent my entire lifetime trying to impose her taste on me instead of learning what I like) then I will give some direction. But rather than listing actual items, I might say something like "I like classic swing jazz, ukuleles, antique-y things, and jewel tones. I don't wear sweatshirts or large jewellry". At least it narrows things down for them.

And the nephew thing is tricky as I don't see them often and they a) are boys b) changing too quickly, so I appreciate some direction from their parents. But I often take the tack of "if they like that, they'll probably like this" --find something with the same character, but not the actual item, so it still fits but is a surprise and unique at the same time. I also sometimes do that will wedding registries - check out their taste, then find something unique that would go with what they have on their registry.

[wraithgirl]

Calling the parents is a good policy; it sucks to have to be your kid's Christmas registry, but it works and everyone is happy. Caution with the gift substitutes though - kids want what they want - similar is usually not good enough.

[gmajor]

That's an interesting point. How do you feel about wedding gift registries?

[wraithgirl]

I hate them too, but they are so part of the wedding culture now, they're hard to avoid. Once upon a time, they were needed as the new couple needed to be outfitted for their life together with an 18-piece tablesetting and matching wine glasses - both red and white please.

Now, I think they're Dodos, or should be. When couples marry, they are often blending two households full of stuff and they really, really don't need another toaster.

[karmaqueenie]

Oh totallly - I don't mean similar in the sense of "cheap imitation of what they really want", but something complementary. For instance several years ago my oldest nephew was into robots and transformers. He also liked play-doh. I found a play-doh factory that was shaped like a robot. It didn't actually do robot-y things like the transformer-robots, but he thought it was the coolest thing ever.

[wraithgirl]

Okay, that *is* the coolest thing ever! You win at most awesome aunt!

I'm second runner-up though - I bought DinosaurKid snowshoes.