I’m 45 years old and my dad still makes me and my sister give him our Christmas wishlists. This just gets harder and harder to do each year because I just don’t need anything and anything I do need, I just buy myself. But to appease him, we still go through the motions. I couldn’t possibly deprive him of his joy of shopping for us, now could I? Here are some of the items on my own shopping list this year; maybe they’ll give you some ideas for the folks on your list.
1. Cocoa Noir Dark Drinking Chocolate from Christopher Elbow. Always a great choice for me. Restocking someone’s exhaustible supply of something they love is a nearly fail-safe gift idea. Of course, since I was 15, my dad has given my two of my favorite things: chocolate covered cherries and Jiff creamy peanut butter both of which I was so over many, many, MANY moons ago, LOL. Now it’s just a running gag. I usually get at least 6 boxes of the cherries so I just regift them or use as stocking stuffers.
2. You know you’re a business geek when office supplies get you exited. Which makes gift cards to places like OfficeDepot and OfficeMax a good choice for the business geeks on your list.
3. Generally speaking, I hate giving gift cards (or worse, cash). To me, it says “I couldn’t be bothered to even try to think of something you’d like and you aren’t important enough to spend my time shopping for.” But obviously, in reality, we all have those people who are absolutely impossible to shop for. Like me for example, LOL. I’m always reading business books and go through them faster than you can blink so you can never fail with an Amazon gift card.
4. I’ve been holding off on getting this just because I knew it would give my dad something to put in my stocking that I needed: 4 Port USB Squid. Too useful.
5. I generally stay away giving clothing or decorative items for the home because those choices are so personal. I haven’t bought my daughter clothes since she was pre-teen because she is just too picky and I never get her style right even when I think I’ve finally dead-on, LOL. And I always dreaded gifts from my husband’s sister because she was into crafts and every year I’d get some hideous teddy-bear-in-a-wicker-chair or goose-with-a-blue-bow-tie themed handcrafted item that I would just as soon die than have to look at in my house every day, LOL. So I try not to inflict that kind of situation onto others myself.
6. But speaking of clothing, a few years ago I bought this Donna Karan wrap thing that I absolutely adore. You can twist and turn it into all kinds of interesting ways to wear it. But it wasn’t cheap, let me tell ya (it cost a couple hundred buckeroos). Then Victoria’s Secret came out with the same kind of wrap called the Soft & Sexy Wrap in all kinds of luscious colors for waaay cheaper. This might possibly be an exception to my give-no-clothing rule because it is just so versatile and stylish and fits with every body type. Oh, and it’s on sale right now, too.
7. Another exception to my no-clothing rule might be arm warmers. I have a million of ‘em. I wear them more for style than for keeping warm. I think they make great stocking stuffers because you don’t need to know anyone’s size and they are pretty utilitarian. My favorite online vendor for arm warmers is Sock Dreams. The gal there is a total sweetie. The orders go right out and she’s always getting new styles and colors all the time. A couple years ago, I bought some gorgeous chartreuse colored arm warmers (I am a total sucker for that color) from Nordstrom’s for $60. I have worn them exactly twice. And you know which ones I end up wearing just all the time? My $9 Cronert ones from Sock Dreams! (She has socks, leg warmers and other related stuff, too.)
8. One of the things I gave a few years ago that was a big hit were crepe kits. I bought a bunch of these crepe mix packages from this vendor up at the Freemont Sunday Market in Seattle. This mix is great because all you do is add water–everything else is already in there–and it comes out perfect every time. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find a website for this vendor (shame on them, LOL). All they have is a mailing address on their package–not even a phone number so I’m going to have to get up there soon to get my own stock replenished. Anyway, what I did was also get a bunch of crepe rakes (these are little wooden tools that you use to swirl and spread the batter evenly on the crepe pan) and put a package of the crepe mix, a crepe rake and a few crepe recipe cards (there are all kinds of sweet and savory crepes you can make) into a gift bag all together. It was a fun little gift, creative, and if you have a large group of people to shop for (like maybe business associates or something like that), it won’t cost a fortune to put together.
9. I’m doing a theme like that this year for some of the people on my list. Do you have a World Market or Trader Joes or something like that where you live? If you do, look for the section where they have all their little mini picnic packaged items. I picked up little sausages, cheeses, mustards, cans of lobster pate and salmon pate and some other things (all picnic sized) as well as boxes of good smoked salmon, crackers and some other hors d’oeurvey type stuff and put all of it together in little baskets. My dad loves to entertain. He always has a New Year’s Day get-together so I thought this would be perfect for him because he won’t have to shop for this kind of stuff and can just get the basket out from under the tree and put it all together.
I would really love to see you take your practice to an entirely different level in 2010 so you can earn better and stop struggling to find clients. As my gift to you this holiday season, from now until Sunday, Dec. 20, you can get this guide for $47 (a $20 savings).
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