Giving great gifts.

[podzol]

What are the most thoughthful or clever gifts you are giving for the winter holidays this year?

[forrestunifreak]

Well I got my brother a diabolo for Christmas... :rolleyes:

[UniTyler]

I just bought myself an ATI Radeon X1600 Pro AGP GPU. :D

[James_Potter]

I found this old book store, that is, "old book" store not old "book store," downtown, and I found a bunch of Peanuts books from the 50s, and my dad really likes Peanuts so I got him some of those.

[Borges]

This has not been a good year for personal thoughtful gifts. I'm a little disappointed in myself.
My most original gift is the emission rights for half a ton of CO2 under the Kyoto agreement. I think he's the type of person who will appreciate that.

[iridemymuni]

the emission rights for half a ton of CO2 under the Kyoto agreement.

hahahaha

hahahahaha

hahahahahahaha. that is the funniest thing i've heard all week.

[GILD]

My dad is quite a sports-fan, I found a compilation CD featuring recordings of radio commentary of some of the greatest moments in South African sport going back a 100 years.
My earliest sport memories are sitting around the radio with my dad.
My mom is into Punch and Judy style puppet-shows and, along with my dad, have turned it into a bit of a retirement cottage industry. I found her a big fluffy Panda hand-puppet. And a copy of the diary of Samuel Pepys, the first guy to describe such a show in the UK.
My brother-in-law is a supporter of Tottenham Hotspur so I'm getting him a Spurs shirt with the name 'HEAVY' on the back.
'Brother-in-law' is 'swaer' in Afrikaans, which is close to the Afrikaans word 'swaar', which means, you guessed it, 'heavy'.
My dad and uncle used to call one another 'Heavy' before my uncle's death and I think it's time for the joke to be ressurected.
I sent my brother and sister to an online shopping site where they could compile a wishlist of books, cds or dvds they really wanted. I couldn't think of anything kewl for them and I'd rather ask than waste money on something they already have, or don't really want.
I still need to find something for my youngest sister, niece and nephew.
Suggestions?

[Into the blue]

Someone wise once said "The best presents don't come in boxes."

[iridemymuni]

how do you actually buy half a tonne of CO2 emmisions ? i want to get some

[cathwood]

I've been wondering about the psychology of present-giving.

OK - firstly, it's easy if they tell you what they want.
Then you can pick up hints from what they've said they wanted in the past.
then you can base your gift on what you believe they like, seeing what they have already got and what kind of person you think they are.
But what then?
Do we buy what WE would like?

For example the little girls next door. My hubby and I both know what they've got and what they are like. But we would buy them completely different things. I said something to do with crafts cos I know they like making things. Hubby wanted to buy something completely different and more swanky. So he asked their mum. (:) crafts it is).

So why did we want to buy them different things I wonder? What influenced our choices?

Anyway, just something I've been pondering. No doubt someone somewhere has done some research on it.

[kington99]

how do you actually buy half a tonne of CO2 emmisions ? i want to get some

He's not buying the emissions, he's buying the rights to make those emissions i.e. paying an amount to help clean up half a ton of CO2 that he can then make guilt free. It's called a carbon credit.

I got my girl a necklace, shallow I know but she likes these things, the value is in the time finding something perfect, not the cost i feel.

[iridemymuni]

yeah i know that kington i just didnt word it too crash hot :p.

[wobbling bear]

I have had white pages bound together in a beautiful leather cover
the book title said "<my friend's name> memories"
that was a long time ago: now this friend writes a very interesting blog!

[James_Potter]

I've been wondering about the psychology of present-giving.
Have you heard of Derren Brown?
He's a magician, a mentalist more specifically, who has perfected the art of g (http://youtube.com/watch?v=befugtgikMg)ift giving.

He's AMAZING.

[Borges]

how do you actually buy half a tonne of CO2 emmisions ? i want to get some
Here's where I got mine:
http://skarv.snf.se/snf/co2/index.asp
The shop is in Swedish.
The actual carbon credit is owned by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, but they won't use it. You can print a certificate (also in Swedish) that you can use as a gift.

[BillyTheMountain]

Well I got my brother a diabolo for Christmas... :rolleyes:

Does that :rooleyes: mean YOU will be playing with the diabolo???

I think I'll get my mom a brand new Coker! :rooleyes: :D

Someone wise once said "The best presents don't come in boxes."

The same person who said: She lost her virginity, but she still has the box it came in.

Sorry, no really clever ideas.

[monkeyman]

The same person who said: She lost her virginity, but she still has the box it came in.

When I was in eighth grade, we had a sex-ed assembly at our school...and, I kid you not, the guy seriously told us that if we had had sex, but regretted it, we could "repackage our virginity" for the next person.

[johnfoss]

Shhh! For Jacquie, I framed some cool pictures from our recent trip to Cozumel. We went to a dolphin place, where you get to swim with the dolphins. She loves dolphins, and has dolphin tattoos on her ankles. Anyway, we had no idea how cool this dolphin place was. Not only are you in the water while the dolphin swims right up to you and gives you a kiss, among other things, you get to grab onto the dolphin's pectoral fins (she's upside down for this) and she tows you all the way across the pen where this takes place, about 10m. I never heard of that! At the end, the dolphin does a number of big jumps, right in front of you!

So we bought the pictures they took of us, which came out very nice. scanned the best one, blew it up to 20 x 30", and made a mat with it and three of the 6 x 8 prints we bought. I hope she loves it.

For three other people we made photo books from the Kodak Gallery:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/PhotoBookOverview.jsp
They are very cool. We've yet to have one made for ourselves, though they've gotten a lot cheaper than they were when they originally offered this service. There are other vendors for these things too. I'll have to look into it for Valentine's day...

[yoopers]

I bought the CD package of The Bible Experience (http://www.inspiredby.com/home.htm) for my parents. Great cast of all the top celebrities contributed and it's one of the most amazing productions I've ever seen...or heard in this case.

It's an all African American cast. There's an excellent video of some behind the scenes at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_OCovT8Y68

I also ordered a copy for me...um, er...I mean Mary ordered a copy for me for my birthday in January.

[twerpy]

A friend of mine was still using a cassette tape walkman so I upgraded her to a fairly cheap mp3 player and put some music on there to start her off.

Another friend likes throwing playing cards and stuff so I bought him a set of throwing knives which he is in love with.

For a third coffee fiend friend I got, among other things, a cafetiere-mug (http://www.smartcafe.co.uk/products/hot_cafetiere_mugs.asp) and a pack of weasel coffee (http://www.lazyboneuk.com/store/pro501.html).

On the subject of gift psycology, when I dont know what to get someone, I usually end up buying them something that will make me and hopefully them laugh. My mum usually ends up with that sort of present. In the past I've got her things like walking hands and rubber chickens which she loves. This year I've got her a banana case, as reviewed in Uni, but dont tell her :). When I do know what I want to get someone and I know it will be perfect I'll usually just get it regardless of cost (within reason :)) because I think making someone happy is worth more than money.

[Borgschulze]

Have you heard of Derren Brown?
He's a magician, a mentalist more specifically, who has perfected the art of g (http://youtube.com/watch?v=befugtgikMg)ift giving.

He's AMAZING.
I want a BMX Bike.

[forrestunifreak]

Does that :rooleyes: mean YOU will be playing with the diabolo???

I think I'll get my mom a brand new Coker! :rooleyes: :D


Oh, well, yeah partly, but what I meant by it was that a diabolo probabbly wasn't something Podzol would give to people she knew....

[ntappin]

So I was just talking to a friend of mine about how I don't really like the holidays and particularly the gift giving and it came down to giving and recieving great gifts.

I was describing how christmas gift giving has pretty much just turned into getting people stuff that they want or need already. Usualy stuff that if they had the money for they would buy themselves. To me that kind of takes the spirit out of it. The idea is supposed to be a gift from the heart, I don't care how hard you looked for that thing they wanted it still isn't the same as buying them something they totaly wouldn't have thought of, don't need but will still end up loving. I know its not easy to do but really I don't like how its turned from xmas into xmust.

I do appreciate getting nice things and stuff but really I would much rather see it being getting one or two things that surprise me than getting something I need. Because to get something that surprises me shows that the person who has bought me the gift thought long and hard about it, they thought about me, about my interests and about my feelings and they found something to suit them. If I were to recieve a gift like that from one or two people instead of each person in my family giving me something I needed, I think this gift giving season would be much nicer for all. It would really take the pressure off.

Now everyone is stressing on what to get people, it should just be if you can't think of what to get for someone, don't get them anything. If you can't think of what to get me, don't get me anything, save your money, come to my house, hang out with me instead.

That being said, I managed to do this method of gift giving for 4 people I know. I only bought one person something they asked for/needed/wanted, the rest are getting things I know they will love, I may have had hints that they would like it, but they have never asked for these for anything, nor do they need them.

A friend of mine loves frisbee (as do I but thats not the point :p) and about a year ago we spotted these frisbees online that have LEDs built into them in such a way that the whole frisbee glows well enough to play at night and in the dark without any problems. A couple weeks ago I spotted one of these at a store downtown, so I picked it up for him.

My brother and I were hanging out in Toronto (where he lives) in the summer and we got caught in the rain, I had a really girly umbrella (left at my house after a party so I kept it since I don't have one :D) and we laughed about it, he mentioned seeing online or somewhere a funny umbrella that said Merde Il Pleu (shit its raining in french). He thought it was pretty cool but since he already had an umbrella that he liked plus he didn't think they would have it very big which is what he likes, he didn't persue it. I was visiting a friend at work and they were selling these, so I bought him one.

When getting some gift bags out of the cedar chest in my room where we keep old things and seasonal things I found a really large Fedex bag that had all of my moms Beatles clippings and memorabelia (she was about 16 during the high season of the Beatles and was very organized about her following of them) I found lots of newspaper clippings and magazine articles but I was afraid to touch them before I didn't want to damage them. This led me to the idea of getting those plastic sheets you can put in binders to keep papers clean and tidy. So I bought a hundred of them and a really big binder and set to work taking each page of articles and putting them carefully into the plastic sheets where they would be preserved and more easily accessed than tossed in a bag.

Finaly a friend of mine who I used to date before she moved to Korea (who actualy inspired me to think about buying out of obligation instead of a true desire to do so) and I started talking more regularly recently and she was really missing her friends back here in Ottawa, so although I hadn't planned on getting her anything (a phone call to Korea is already a pretty good gift) I am getting together with pretty much all of our friends from high school in a couple days and I'm going to get some pictures to print and send to her.

These are the kinds of gifts I feel are worth giving.

Unfortunatly I am still bound to the spirit of Xmust and therefore for my father who I seem to have a great deal of difficulty thinking of things to get him, I bought a pair of brown leather gloves, something he wanted for Christmas. :(

So does anybody else feel bound by Xmust just wanting to break free. I must admit I am a bit of a grinch about the whole holiday season but I do have my reasons.

Edit: wow thats freaking long, sorry for the huge rant, hope it doesn't get anybody down on the holidays.

[monkeyman]

Edit: wow thats freaking long, sorry for the huge rant, hope it doesn't get anybody down on the holidays.

Actually, if anything, it's inspiring. Two thumbs up for you. I only got two gifts for people this Christmas, for my girlfriend, and my brother. The one for my girlfriend is based off a few inside jokes, and the one for my brother (who is addicted to olives....which I hate) consists of a jar of bleu cheese-stuffed olives. Sounds completely disgusting to me, but they're just weird enough that he'll probably like them.

[ntappin]

Thanks Monkeyman, it wasn't meant to be quite as grinch as I felt it sounds, but dems da breaks. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[monkeyman]

Thanks Monkeyman, it wasn't meant to be quite as grinch as I felt it sounds, but dems da breaks. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

It wasn't really grinchlike, at all...it was more spirit-of-Christmas-ish than most things.