Your Christmas Wish List

[tomalak301]

I'm having a hard time coming up with a list this year. I only have two things:

Star Trek: TNG Season 2 on Blu-Ray
A 2012 Giants World Series sweatshirt

I'm sure something else will come up but not sure what.

And of course world peace is always good, and this year hopefully the world really won't come to an end on the 21st, for obvious reasons.

[C. Cole-Chakotay]

I just want/need money. I'm have a very bad year financially and won't be able to send something to my relatives. I'm hoping they send me money as I am really, really broke this year.

I've always enjoyed sending them a little something (money) so they could use it on something they wanted.

[Robert Maxwell]

RoJoHen wrote:

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I think Christmas lists, by their very nature, miss the point of Christmas They make the holiday about "getting" rather than "giving."

"What do you want for Christmas?" is one of my least favorite questions.

Same here, but people are insistent, which is why I have a list. It's all stuff I'd eventually get for myself anyway, and I end up getting those people gifts, too, so the end result isn't much of a difference.

But it's still nice to get something someone specifically got for you, and to see how someone appreciates what you got for them.

I'm not someone who spends a lot on Christmas stuff or asks for anything very expensive, though. If someone got me a $5 book I'd be just as happy.

[auntiehill]

^Yeah, hubby and I have Amazon lists mostly to remind ourselves of things we want to get, but only share those lists with people who ask. Since a lot of family and friends live out of state, they often want to know what to get us, so we say, "Well, we have lists on Amazon, but really anything is fine."

I love giving gifts. It makes me very happy. I put a lot of thought into what they might like and make sure that everyone gets something.

[Gryffindorian]

I used to be bothered by the concept of obligatory gift-giving. This type of thing only happened at work. I thought, "If I gave Co-Worker #2 a Christmas present, then I'd have to get something for Co-Workers #3, #4, and #5 as well, so they wouldn't get offended or left out." Then I realized how silly it was. Gift-giving was not a popularity contest; it should come from the heart. Now I give presents only to those people I really like and have enjoyed working with all year long.

[Robert Maxwell]

Gryffindorian wrote:

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I used to be bothered by the concept of obligatory gift-giving. This type of thing only happened at work. I thought, "If I gave Co-Worker #2 a Christmas present, then I'd have to get something for Co-Workers #3, #4, and #5 as well, so they wouldn't get offended or left out." Then I realized how silly it was. Gift-giving was not a popularity contest; it should come from the heart. Now I give presents only to those people I really like and have enjoyed working with all year long.

This is why people just do gift exchanges. You want a gift, you sign up for the exchange and get one for someone else. You don't want a gift, you don't want the obligation, don't sign up. Easy.

[thestrangequark]

Gryffindorian wrote:

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When I started this thread, I also thought about asking what people had in mind in terms of ”giving” gifts, but I suppose it's not too late to do that.

As I mentioned, I usually get presents for various family members, friends, and colleagues. The majority of those come in the form of gift cards. It's so much easier for me to shop; I just get a whole bunch of them, and i'm in and out of the store. For my friend Madge, I try to get something more interesting. It adds an element of surprise and enjoyment in wrapping a present.

Well, in that case, and since I get so excited about Christmas presents:

-Already explained mom's tattoo

-For my dad, this great Trek shirt:


-For little sister: A pocket-watch necklace and ninjabread men cookie cutters (she bakes a lot):


-For older sister, this sounds lame, but a $50 Starbucks card. The reason I wanted to get this is because she is really struggling financially. She's in school, and she and her husband are supporting two kids. It seems like she's cut every single luxury out of her life, and she really deserves something that she can use to just be a treat for her. She loves getting fancy frilly lattes, so this will make her very happy.

-For best friend, the painting I made her last year but we never got to see each other:


-For nephews: toystoystoys and booksbooksbooks

-For brother-in-law...not sure yet, maybe the xkcd book

-For boss: fancy loose tea

-For other friends and coworkers I'll bring back chocolates and Applets&Cotlets from local Seattle companies

-For grandmother - she's the only difficult person. She's both snooty and miserly, so if the present isn't nice enough she'll complain about how cheap it is, but if it's really nice she'll bitch at you for wasting money.

[Gryffindorian]

Robert Maxwell wrote:

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This is why people just do gift exchanges. You want a gift, you sign up for the exchange and get one for someone else. You don't want a gift, you don't want the obligation, don't sign up. Easy.

We used to do that in the office, too. We'd set a maximum value of, say, $25 per gift. But after awhile, people got tired of getting scammed. My boss, in particular, was quite unhappy whenever he got undesirable presents (of less than $20, etc.). Some complained about getting "sexist" gifts; e.g., women's jewelry for a guy, or men's toolset for a female employee. One year, it got to a point where my boss required everyone to actually bring a receipt as proof of purchase, reflecting the actual dollar amount. Boy, was that a bad idea. It couldn't be helped, but some people didn't want to play by the rules. We haven't done a gift exchange in about five years ...

[Robert Maxwell]

Gryffindorian wrote:

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We used to do that in the office, too. We'd set a maximum value of, say, $25 per gift. But after awhile, people got tired of getting scammed. My boss, in particular, was quite unhappy whenever he got undesirable presents (of less than $20, etc.). Some complained about getting "sexist" gifts; e.g., women's jewelry for a guy, or men's toolset for a female employee. One year, it got to a point where my boss required everyone to actually bring a receipt as proof of purchase, reflecting the actual dollar amount. Boy, was that a bad idea. It couldn't be helped, but some people didn't want to play by the rules. We haven't done a gift exchange in about five years ...

Wow.

My company just has a holiday party and a $10 gift exchange. One of those things where everybody brings a wrapped gift, numbers are assigned, and you can either take one of the gifts from the table, or steal someone's gift that they already unwrapped. Lots of fun, and not much whining.

[Gryffindorian]

My boss suggested if everyone was going to bring a "crappy" present, then we could just do a white elephant gift exchange. It didn't matter. My co-workers always complained one way or another, so we decided to forego it every year and focus our efforts on giving to the needy, i.e., Salvation Army families.

[thestrangequark]

I've always thought it takes an awful lot of effort to inject such unpleasantry into something as wonderful as gift-giving.

[RoJoHen]

Tonight my job is hosting their annual Toys for Tots charity event. Last year we raised $3,000 and had hundreds of toys donated. It was the second-largest event in the area. It should be a great time.

[auntiehill]

^Awesome! That sounds like fun, and a great way to spread the Christmas spirit.

[Grey]

Everyone's getting crocheted snowflakes from me this year.

But since we're all sharing white elephant and gift exchange stories...

For the last five years the family has done the white elephant thing, and for some reason, the unspoken theme always seems to be kitchen appliances.

I left with a griddle one year, a mini-food processor another, and didn't quite get the blender everyone had their eye on about two years ago.

At last year's white elephant, I got one of those as-seen-on-TV food slicer things. It's actually been a real help to me.

I'm guessing each family ended up getting some fancy Bed Bath and Beyond kitchen thing for Christmas and wrapped it up to give away at the white elephant, hahaha.

[Gryffindorian]

thestrangequark wrote:

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I've always thought it takes an awful lot of effort to inject such unpleasantry into something as wonderful as gift-giving.

I work in the public sector, so maybe that's what it is.