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Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Christmas shopping ideas

I both love and loathe Christmas shopping. I love the presents that are easy to buy - the ones that seem to jump off the shelf in your direction screaming, "This is so (insert friend/relatives name here)!" It's the other half of the gifts that get me down - the ones you seem to spend the weeks up to Christmas stressing over. They also seem to be the more expensive gifts and I'm usually not quite what the recipient had in mind.

Each year, my shopping list seems to get longer - with the birth of new nieces and nephews and the introduction of special people I want to thank. I like to space the buying throughout the year if possible, lessen the Christmas 'crunch'.

Yes... it IS all extremely colour co-ordinated! Two colours per year, that's our rule!
If you think that's a bit weird, you should see my clothes line!
 
This year, I'm being proactive. I bought all the gifts that screamed at me from the shelf. Specialty board games, concert DVDs, cute clothing for my nieces, toys and funny books.  Then I bought a bunch of other gifts that would be cool 'just in case' gifts - a sort of one-size-fits-most for gifts:

* Recipe book
* Gum ball machine (although the kids found this and have declared it a family appliance)
* A reasonable chick-lit (Jane Green or something equally crowd-pleasing)
* Pretty glassware
* Long handled ice-cream spoons in a bigger box (waiting for me to add sprinkles, crushed nuts and two bottles of flavoured topping)
* Pretty brooch
* Assorted jewelry

Then I made a list of things I could buy 'last-minute' if necessary

* Movie vouchers
* iTunes voucher
* Restaurant voucher
* Bowling voucher
* Coffee voucher

And a list of experiences to somehow gift-wrap

* Trip to the driving range with one bucket of golf-balls
* An afternoon of kite flying (along with a kite)
* An afternoon chatting on the beach (complete with bottle of wine and a voucher for a kilo of prawns) - I'll admit, this is probably a gift to myself as well as my friend!

I wish I could cook confidently enough to offer a Mexican feast as a gift. Or if I was better with contact maybe offer to cover one kids' books!

Anyone have any ideas to add to the list?

I'm seriously hoping to avoid the Christmas panic this December. Now I've just got to work out who gets what... and where I've hidden all the gifts!


Linking up with Essentially Jess - IBOT. Trying to make it a habit. Apologies for the 'nothing' sort of post!!! Will start thinking about next Tuesday's post right away!






5 comments:

  1. I have a similar post in my head but refuse to say the "c" word just yet!! I grabbed some itunes cards a couple of weeks ago when they were on special but should have got a few more!! I hate thinking of things but this year I can pretty much wrap all my shopping up at our local markets!! I normally hae most of my shopping done but since we moved into our new place I have lost all my hiding spots, bugger!!

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  2. Living out here I do a lot of online shopping in November and one big shopping trip to the city. It's the little special things I miss buying by browsing and going to craft fairs and things. You have reminded me I need to get onto my list for this year.

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  3. I love the idea of giving 'experiences'. We've decided to do that for our kids this year and we've discussed making it a tradition with a few of our friends too. My kids have way too much plastic junk so I'd rather give them something they'll really remember - like a special trip to the zoo or something. I reckon there are a few parents out there who'd love the gift of someone else contacting the school books though!

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  4. Nothing 'nothing' about this post! I love getting ready for Christmas but I'm a bit lost this year. My kids all have so much I really don't want to add to the clutter. Haven't even thought of anyone else. Will have to visit the post office. They always have great stuff

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  5. This is a nice post. Until a couple of years ago, we found ourself buying for about 25 ppl. It was a bit stressful. Now we buy for all Chdn and each adult buys for another adult. We focus more on food and being together. Often with the Chdn we do a theme. One year we did bottles. They pulled out a number and found their bottle with matching number. We did have some gift vouchers attached to each bottle. They loved it. Bottles included bubble bath, lollies, soft drink, ice cream topping, a fancy flavoured cordial etc

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