Sunday, December 12, 2010

Gift-giving guide for the clueless at Christmas

It's a fact: Some people are really bad at gift-giving. And by some people I mean me. The traditional gift for every wedding anniversary I've been party to has been paper — as in hastily scrawled IOUs for Palm Springs vacations, weekends at the Beverly Hills Hotel and landscaping. Widen the circle beyond my spouse and it only gets worse. One year my brother and I exchanged the exact same gift (a DVD of Pink Floyd's "Live at Pompeii" performance). And for three years running, I've inadvertently given my sister-in-law things that have ended up back in my possession, either because she already owned the same item or because I'd subconsciously bought her something I'd wanted for myself in the first place so she turned it back over to me.

There is the occasional truly inspired gift — long ago I decided my stock wedding gift to former paramours would be the gravy boat off the registry — but the combination of an impulsive nature, the attention span of a nematode and the pressure of a marathon holiday shopping season make me possibly the worst bestower of seasonal gifts of any creature with opposable thumbs.

That's why I've developed a handful of fail-safe coping mechanisms — which can be easily remembered by using the acronym "GIFT." As we hit the midpoint of the holiday shopping marathon, consider them a gift.

Get going — early

It's never too soon to start making a list. If holiday shopping begins in earnest in September for most of the country (which, according to the National Retail Federation, it does), the gifting-challenged should consider kicking into high gear for next Christmas before the last ribbon has been removed from this year's haul.

There's a bonus to this approach: What better way to figure out how well future gifts might go over than by noting this year's reactions? Remember the time your dieting or deathly allergic in-laws recoiled at a gift box of nut clusters as if it were bubonic plague? If you had, you might not later have gotten them each the biggest Harry & David gift basket you could carry.

As presents are unwrapped, feel free to make extensive notes — everyone will simply think you're conscientiously making a thank-you list.

Invest (time, not money)

It's hard to truly hate a handicraft — especially at the holiday season. And, since homemade oven mitts and marmalades can't be returned or exchanged, they have to be tolerated.

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