How do you do your holiday shopping ?
I’m curious, independent of the economic situation, for the gifts you are planning, how will you go about the process ? Will you mostly be giving …
- hand made gifts
- shop at departments stores and malls
- buy direct from on-line stores
- Amazon
- eBay
- Woot
I won’t have too many hand crafted gifts this season but I will be making a few. Currently there is only one gift I plan to suffer the "bustling crowds" for. As much as possible I will shop on-line and watching for the best bargains.
Well, color me “Failure of Imagination.”
No one in my family wants or needs much of anything these days, so I’m looking for ideas to express my feelings and give some fun surprises to those near and dear.
I miss the (long gone) age when my nephews received toys. And though I had liked the traditional “girl stuff” during my own childhood, I really loved buying puzzles, games, and construction kits for my inquisitive, left-handed nephews. Now I am trying to come up with new and thoughtful ways to present cash, which is really what the find most useful.
When giving cash, I tend to obscure it. One year, I wanted to give cash so I cut a piece of 2×4 about the length of a standard brick. I then proceed to drill 1″ diameter holes into it and filled the holes with stacks of quarters. Then I wrapped it as a “gift”. It was fun watching the receiver pick up the gift, feel the weight, and the look of puzzlement as they mentally tried to guess what lay under the holiday paper !
Another option is you can put the cash in a simple toy that indicates something they might wish to spend it on.
I find that the under 25 crowd prefers gift cards to gifts. This bugs me for some reason. I hate getting gift cards (except REI or Starbucks cards which I often get from clients and I find quite personal since they know I go through a lot of outdoor items for work and a steaming hot chocolate from the drive though is something to enjoy after a cold wet trail run.)
I know gift giving should be all about recipient but there is a certain joy in searching for and finding a thoughtful gift for each person – homemade OR store bought. And, I also think there were good lessons learned as a kid by graciously accepting and appreciating gifts even when you didn’t get just what you wanted. As a kid, cash in a holiday envelope was something we got from relatives who didn’t bother to get to know you or didn’t want to spend much on you or lived far away so shipping would have been expensive. It never excited me much. But then again I don’t really enjoy shopping so buying my own stuff was more chore than pleasure. But even outside of that, the ‘concept’ of I’ll give you all cashcards and you give me cashcards seems just not festive and unecessary. Yes I desperatley need more money but that isn’t really the point. (Unless you want to drop a chunk of cash or a Home Depot card for $5K or so, or a gift certificate for a root canal – then….OK)
Our crowd usually gives experiencial gifts (zoo tickets, event admission, cooking class, glass blowing class, dog massage etc) or token homemade goodie gifts or something small from local artists This keeps it personal, supports the local economy and the arts, and the recipient gets something they might not otherwise have received or tried. Re-gifting is perfectly acceptable also. NOT just for office parties anymore!
And this year the preferred wrapping ‘paper’ seems to be a colorful store or non logo reuseable 99 cent shopping bag with a sheet of tissue stuffed inside and maybe a bow -or not. I wonder if that will be true for Christmas too. Actaully I am suprised Whole Foods hasn’t yet put out a signature holiday bag….
I totally agree on the whole “gift card” / “cash” front but at the same time, it is one way to give the gift of a root canal … hmmm … again, not exactly the holiday giving image I was trying for.
I do like the idea of “experiencial gifts”. I’ll think about those for some people who will enjoy both the thought and the experience!
One more thing, Zen, like many dogs, likes to unwrap presents so a gift card kind of kills that pleasure.
I LOVE gift cards. I am under 25 so I guess that fits.
I love to shop at All the Best Pets and at Eastside Dog and at High Maintenance Bitch and at The 3 Dog Bakery. (Hint to Santa). Shoppng means I get to pick out my own toys and snacks. LOVe shoppping. Love the ride in the car, love the smells, love the Love, love the free snacks before you even buy anything. All good.
Zen – unwrapping gift cards is very fun especially if it comes with a biscuit or a chewy tied in the ribbon on the outside of the box. Chewing anything plastic is very fun. A gift card gives when you open it, gives when you chew on it and gives when you take the remnants to the store for toys and snacks! LOVE gift cards. Cash just plain tastes bad.