My family decided instead of buying everyone presents (that none of us need), we would have a gift exchange. It was a great success last year and made Christmas more about being together than stuff.
So I need to get together a list of stuff I want. I really don’t need anything. I’m very girly, I like makeup and jewelry. I like to golf and hike. And xc ski but that’s pretty specialized.
Our limit this year is $70. Give me some ideas. Lol!
I forgot, I need to get a list together that my 80 year old mother and il’s can find.
Does it need to be a physical item??? Can’t be like a subscription service ?
Hiking poles?
A nice brand name fleece like Patagonia (or whatever is cool to you)
One of those packs for your back that holds water for hydrating during any of your activities?? (a smaller one, not a gallon of water)
Manicures
Hair Cuts
Blow Drys
Dinner in a Box
A book series
A DVD series
Netflix / Hulu subscription
Amazon Prime Subscription (more than $70 except for students)
Birchbox (or similar)
Home Monitoring from RING ($10/mo) no contract necessary
Can definitely be online. Does not have to be a physical item. Good ideas, thanks.
My H has been asking for a genealogy testing kit, so that’s going on his list.
No one lives in the same city, so probably nothing that is specific to my town. Unfortunately.
Some things I would like. A Kendra Scott necklace. Jo Malone perfume. Lululemon or athleta clothing. I’m afraid that those are so specific that if my mom or mil gets my name that they will have no idea what those things are, so I want to have other ideas.
Last year I got an instant pot. My mil got my name. It’s fine but I’ve used it very little.
Well, if you really don’t need anything material…but want to make an impact…And have fun too…
KIVA.org makes micro loans to people all over the world. We gave it as a present once and it was a big hit. For as little as 25 bucks you can back someone’s dream. You choose the dream to back. And it’s not a donation–it’s a loan. The money is usually paid back and you can either get the money back or choose to invest in another dream.
It runs a bit like a kickstarter but as a loan. People have a business plan and have specific goals to start a business.
Anyway, it’s pretty cool.
I was going to suggest having a donation made in your name to an organization that you support if you don’t need anything. Since my D is a teacher and she is always trying to get things for her classroom she does a lot of donorschoose to get people to give money for her class.
If Mom and inlaws may not “get it,” maybe exclude them. Your family can give them a present or two together and ask them for something easy- movie tickets or a dinner gift certificate. If you have cold weather, mittens for all (even a bad choice in mittens still means warm hands.)
My issue is one of mine insisted on this secret santa thing for a couple of years. Then I later learned they don’t do that for her boyfriend’s family, which is 5 sibs, 3 parents, and two step sibs. She protested those gifts have a much smaller max spent. I said, fine, I’m getting you all something this year, regardless. I won’t spend a lot, but for me, the biz of needing to find one $50 gift for the name I chose was a pain. That one request at that price wasn’t as much fun.
YMMV. We’re only 5 people and aren’t usually extravagant for the holidays.
What is a Sims necklace and where do you get it? I googled it and wasn’t sure about the results. I have 4 adult nieces and two sisters to buy for
For gift ideas, I just requested YETI wine tumblers from my MIL who starts her shopping very early. My husband and I have 1 that we received at a work function. We are constantly fighting over it
The torquoise is very popular. The ivory is much prettier in person. The stone has taupe veins running through, it doesn’t look like the photo all brown. The ivory is a pure ivory color.
H’s family did the “secret santa” thing for a number of years among the adults. H and I hated it. For one thing, MIL and FIL were included, although everyone got gifts for them whether they had them in the exchange or not. Some of the families live in different parts of the country, so things had to be shipped, adding to the cost and time. There wasn’t really a set dollar amount, so you had no idea what to spend. People were always getting things they wanted to have returned (often on the other side of the country). It was a total pain and people got thing they didn’t really need/want or could have bought for themselves. We all have more than enough money to buy ourselves stuff. Eventually, H and I convinced everyone else to stop, and it has reduced the stress considerably.
It probably sounds like the Grinch, but we don’t really like all the hoopla around gifts at birthdays and christmas, and would as soon cut that to a raw minimum.
If you’re all at least a little tech savvy, could you send an email with some specific links - a sweater from Athleta, some lipstick from Sephora, etc? That way the person can pick the gift, but you’re sure to like it.
If they aren’t computer literate, maybe someone from the younger generation can help them look online. My mom loved to sit with D1 and “window shop” together on D’s laptop.
