NationStates Jolt Archive

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/c/c3/Santa's_Little_Helper.gif

Honestly I don't do gifts, not because I'm an atheist, but because I hate getting gifts and I loathe shopping.

inspired by this.
*sprays the area with marshmallow gunfire and dives behind the couch*

((BTW, my wife bought me a rapid-fire marshmallow gun. She wishes she hadn't. :D ))

so... since Christmas is around the corner and the great christmas shopping season begins the friday after thanksgiving...

I figure, a thread for buying that wonderful and ideal christmas gift for that hard to shop for person.

this thread's purpose is to suggest gifts and even seek help in gift shopping for all NS'ers.

Let the Happy Gift Hunting begin!

I don't celebrate Christmas, so no gifts.

Honestly I don't do gifts, not because I'm an atheist, but because I hate getting gifts and I loathe shopping.

hence this thread. to make the experience a not so bad one.

hence this thread. to make the experience a not so bad one.

Seriously, if people want something they can buy it themselves. If they can't afford it then it's probably something they'd feel guilty about being gifted.

One thing I've taken to doing lately is giving gift subscriptions to stuff like the Wine Of The Month Club. I gave a membership to two of my friends as a wedding gift recently, and they love it. It's a way for them to stretch out the celebration over many extra months! There are Cake Of The Month clubs, Beer Of The Month clubs, and even a Dinner And A Movie Club that will provide a gourmet dinner and a rented movie for a special date. Fun stuff.

I also can't get enough of Edible Arrangements. They make bouquets of fresh fruit that are absolutely awesome. We got one that had melon, pineapple, apples, bananas, and strawberries, with random pieces dipped in chocolate as an added perk. I think these are especially awesome in the winter, because I seem to have more trouble finding fresh fruit to eat.

Here (http://www.giantmicrobes.com/) is a fun place to buy gifts from. Because when people get asked "So, what did you get for Christmas?", they get to give an awesome answer :p

Oh, and here (http://www.edible.com/shop/) too.

Honestly I don't do gifts, not because I'm an atheist, but because I hate getting gifts and I loathe shopping.

You got coal for Christmas once, didn't you?

I like slightly out of the ordinary stuff, to give and recieve. No socks or sweaters or anything like that. Last year I got my brother a pass to the Wild West Shooting Range in the mall, where he got to shoot a Glock. Fun stuff seeing as we only have hunting rifles and shit to play with around home.

Don't know what I'm going to do this year though, online or through the Sears catalog is all I really have where I live.

This year is my familys "small thing" year...every other year we do a cruise for the week and do just one or two small gifts for each other. Still not sure what to get any of them.

I'll probably also do a secret santa kinda thing with a group of friends for our classy-night party.

Mommy gets a calendar, daddy already bought a gift for me to give him..

Mommy is trying to get me to give brother and his fuck buddy prints of pictures I took that they like. I think that's lame and want to make them a baby themed gift bag. She says it'd go to waste, but last year I made them a wedding themed basket---a few months later they were engaged. That fact terrifies mommy.

Mommy gets a calendar, daddy already bought a gift for me to give him..

Mommy is trying to get me to give brother and his fuck buddy prints of pictures I took that they like. I think that's lame and want to make them a baby themed gift bag. She says it'd go to waste, but last year I made them a wedding themed basket---a few months later they were engaged. That fact terrifies mommy.

I'm glad my wife gets called "fuck buddy".

I say do a print and a small gift bag. It's nice to get things for a baby, but it's also nice to get stuff that is for you

I just spend time with people..my presence is present enough

I'm glad my wife gets called "fuck buddy".

I say do a print and a small gift bag. It's nice to get things for a baby, but it's also nice to get stuff that is for you

Aintchur wifey yet!

And ye makin some logial thinkin! Arrr!

Where are we going this year on teh cruise?

I don't celebrate Christmas. I instead refer to it as "the holidays", if for no other reason than that it pisses the religious conservatives off.

Gift in German is poison.

*sigh*

this thread's purpose is to suggest gifts and even seek help in gift shopping for all NS'ers.

It seems more and more that if somebody wants something they just go out and buy it themselves. Nobody really waits for a gift-giving holiday anymore so it's really hard to find a gift that somebody would want yet they do not already possess.

For years I have gotten around this by giving gift certificates to stores I know they like(like Barnes & Noble). This isn't really a satisfying gift though - it's about as fulfilling as handing them cash.

What I started doing a few years back was giving gourmet food & Beverages ordered from the internet. People really seem to like it. Especially for a mobile society like the USA. Many of us live hundreds if not over a thousand miles away from where we grew up. That means that for many of us, a lot of the regional favorite foods of our childhood are not locally available.

I was born on the East coast. I grew up in the Midwest. I now live in the desert southwest. So many of the foods I love just are not available unless I special order them. Things like TastyKakes, live Blue crab, Malomars, white castle burgers, Charle's chips, etc. It can be real treat for someone to enjoy a food specialty they haven't eaten in years especially if it brings back great memories.

Aintchur wifey yet!

And ye makin some logial thinkin! Arrr!

Where are we going this year on teh cruise?

Miami, Florida; Labadee, Haiti; Ocho Rios, Jamaica; George Town, Grand Cayman; Cozumel, Mexico; Miami, Florida

*sigh* yes, that's true, you can always send money, or a gift card or gift certificates...

however I was hoping for another effect. like say... getting gift ideas from places I haven't been to. Like what would someone from Ireland consider a nice gift from Ireland. or from Japan, or Spain...

This is the Internet. connecting not just people accross the nation but around the world. Allowing a tiny bit of culture to travel to another person's home.

So can you imagine Ruffy's mommy getting a calendar from Germany?

Gartef getting some snacks from Hawaii?

or Ruffy's brother getting some children stuff from Japan?

but if all people will do is say "I don't celebrate Christmas..." or "let them buy their own gifts..." :(

*goes online for information to sign his friend up for the "Beer of the month" club.*

Gartef getting some snacks from Hawaii?

YES! Hawaiian coffee is fantastic! Macadamia nuts! Fresh Pineapples!

I don't like giving gifts but I use it as an excuse to get at least one gift, most likely related to upgrading my PC.

I have nobody to give gifts to because I have no money.

You got coal for Christmas once, didn't you?

No, I shoveled coal at Christmas.

Here (http://www.giantmicrobes.com/) is a fun place to buy gifts from. Because when people get asked "So, what did you get for Christmas?", they get to give an awesome answer :p.

They are a genius idea. *plots*

They are a genius idea. *plots*

my sister-in-law is a doctor... I'm planning on giving her a flesh eating one...

and my co-worker keeps insisting that I get the Flu vaccine... so guess which one she's getting. :p

my sister-in-law is a doctor... I'm planning on giving her a flesh eating one...

and my co-worker keeps insisting that I get the Flu vaccine... so guess which one she's getting. :p
I got the bad breath one for a dental student friend, kissing disease for a promiscuous friend, and HIV for my boyfriend :p

Living in Hong Kong means I can buy any old crap from the market stall and it's considered 'exotic' - this somewhat makes up for the enormous airline ticket price I have to pay in order to visit home.

I'm getting all my nephew and nieces some Aquadots this year.

I got the bad breath one for a dental student friend, kissing disease for a promiscuous friend, and HIV for my boyfriend :p

The gift that keeps on giving, eh?

I don't celebrate Christmas, so no gifts.

Alright, then. *unpacks gifts and wonders whom else she's gonna send his crap now* j/k ! don't you even dare think about such things


Anyhow, I'm not yet sure about (all) of my Christmas presents, but here is the preliminary list:

My not-boyfriend, who's both a Buddhist and a cat-lover, gets the "Philosophy with Fur - Dharma the cat (http://www.dharmathecatcartoons.com/15blog/)" comics as a book

Another flatmate (studying law) gets two hourglasses with colored sand in them; the cool thing is one is for five minutes and the other for an hour, and they have little lines on the outside so that you can also measure every one/ten minutes that have passed while the 'clock' is still running. For her birthday soon after, she gets a boardgame for lawyers

Yet another flatmate, a bioinformatics graduate and sucker for all yucky things connected with biology (who has recently confessed to being fascinated with those terrible dead things floating in brownish liquid you find in museums and stuff) will get a Thing in a Jar (http://www.traipse.com/thing_in_a_jar/index.html), which is probably the most awesome thing ever. (I've briefly contemplated given him one of the mircobe plushs that were linked to earlier in the thread; he's a dust mite allergic and I wanted to give him one, but this is better).

Mother gets one of those massage roller thingies.

Dad gets an origami-made 3D calendar (http://erikdemaine.org/thok/calendar.html), which is also a terribly awesome thing to make, especially if you use nice paper.

A friend will get one of those clip-on lamps that you use for reading late at night.

Alright, then. *unpacks gifts and wonders whom else she's gonna send his crap now* j/k ! don't you even dare think about such things

I suggest some shelter. No, you better not dare!

I suggest some shelter. No, you better not dare!
I feel uneasy with the idea of giving chocolatey things to people who don't have enough 'real' food, y'know? It's like that reality-removed kid I know from uni, stinking rich, who recently discovered his social conscience and decided to stand in front of a delicacies shop for a day and ask the popel shopping there to consider buying an extra can/bag/piece/.. of whatever they were buying and let him have it to collect and then donate it to a homeless shelter.

He ended up giving an basket full of things like caviar and pastries and other exquisite tidbits to those poor people. Tss.