Christmas shopping 2008 - Page 3

Fawn Liebowitz · #1 11-18-2008, 01:02 PM

I hate Christmas shopping, so I'm asking you all for ideas! Every year, I am invited to several "Dirty Santa" parties (not the ones with "naughty" gifts). What are some suggestions for generic gifts in the $10 - $15 range? I really have a hard time finding nice things in this price range. Christmas ornaments don't seem very original, and some of my friends have themed decorations and wouldn't use just any ornament. Help me, please!

Benzgirl · #2 11-18-2008, 06:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fawn Liebowitz

I hate Christmas shopping, so I'm asking you all for ideas! Every year, I am invited to several "Dirty Santa" parties (not the ones with "naughty" gifts). What are some suggestions for generic gifts in the $10 - $15 range? I really have a hard time finding nice things in this price range. Christmas ornaments don't seem very original, and some of my friends have themed decorations and wouldn't use just any ornament. Help me, please!

Dirty Santa (we call it White Elephant): We have one at work every year. Are you sure it is suppose to be "nice"?

Last year the "prize" gift was some kind of plastic gun that shot discs at people. Other great gifts were a bag of marketing give-away pens, post-it notes, and hand outs that you get from sales people, one guy framed an 8x10 of himself and autographed it, ugly Christmas Sweaters, CDs for Polka music, and lava lamps.

agzg · #3 11-18-2008, 06:51 PM

My SIL and I were also chapter sisters. She always got a giftcard from one of the stores that lets you put a picture on it. Always of her making a goofy face.

SWTXBelle · #4 11-18-2008, 07:31 PM

The Houston Sigma Chi alumni chapter has a neat tradition - the Jesus plate. They have a White Elephant gift exchange, and every year the Jesus plate has the starring role. It is a hand-painted plate featuring your favorite Son of God and mine, with "God Bless the _______ Family" on it. It was a wedding gift from a member's granny, and is tacky, tacky, tacky. The trick is to disguise the plate so someone will pick it - and have the honour of having it for the year to come.

AGDee · #5 11-18-2008, 10:27 PM

Our alumnae club does an ornament exchange, with stealing allowed. We each pick a number. Number 1 picks a package and opens it. Number 2 can choose to take Number 1s gift or can take a new package and so on. It's the only time you WANT to be last. The squirrel ornaments *always* get stolen. I'm so glad you people reminded me. I need to order an ornament from The Squirrel Store.

I'm considering taking all the digital pics of my daughter's trip to Europe and having them made into one of those bound photo albums where the pages ARE the pictures so they can't fall out or anything and you can arrange each page. That might end up being her birthday present though because I'm not sure how long it takes to get them (her birthday is in January). Does anybody have a company they've used for one of those?

SWTXBelle · #6 11-18-2008, 10:31 PM

I've used www.winkflash.com and been very happy. I do wait till they offer 50% off, so I can put ALL the pictures I want in them!

AGDee · #7 11-18-2008, 10:50 PM

Thanks! Those are more reasonable than some of the pricing I've seen, even at full price!

LucyKKG · #8 11-18-2008, 11:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

The Houston Sigma Chi alumni chapter has a neat tradition - the Jesus plate. They have a White Elephant gift exchange, and every year the Jesus plate has the starring role. It is a hand-painted plate featuring your favorite Son of God and mine, with "God Bless the _______ Family" on it. It was a wedding gift from a member's granny, and is tacky, tacky, tacky. The trick is to disguise the plate so someone will pick it - and have the honour of having it for the year to come.

That's hilarious. I love wacky traditions like that. My family has a tradition of designing the "Bowl Weasel". It's a ridiculous ongoing joke where we basically upgrade a plunger and try to one-up each other each year. I'm not sure whose turn it is this year.

AGDee · #9 11-19-2008, 07:21 AM

I should have mentioned that my brother and I have a disco ball Christmas ornament that travels back and forth between us. It started when we were kids in the 70's and my mom got the ornament. This was in the Disco days. One rock radio station here gave out DREAD cards (Detroit Rockers something Against Disco) and my brother had a DREAD card. So, being the pesky little sister that I was, I put the disco ball on his side of the tree (we each had a side where our presents went and where we hung special ornaments of ours). The next day, it appeared on my side of the tree. It would go back and forth the whole time. The first Christmas after he got married, I bought him his very own disco ball ornament which, every few years, shows up back at my house. Of course, it gets sent back to him too

Pike/PhiDeltmom · #10 11-19-2008, 07:55 AM

Simple......really, really simple this year. For years we had an unbelievable number of beautifully wrapped presents under the tree, everything from the big, extra special gifts to socks and candy. I was raised that way and carried on the tradition with my own family. I spent countless hours searching for the perfect gifts for everyone then hours upon hours wrapping them up. I received practically no help from my husband or sons. I'm sure If I'd had daughters we would have treasured these hours bonding and laughing. (

or maybe not, I'll never know) Anyway, not this year. My husband and I aren't exchanging gifts because we are saving up for a trip to Spain next May. As for my sons, the younger one is going on a short cruise (found a great deal on line) with his girlfriend and the older one is getting cash. As for my wonderful parents who started it all, they will receive cash, too. Of course once the sales start the day after Thanksgiving, I'll need to remind myself, no need for shopping. Keep it simple....... really simple this year.

honeychile · #11 11-19-2008, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LucyKKG

That's hilarious. I love wacky traditions like that. My family has a tradition of designing the "Bowl Weasel". It's a ridiculous ongoing joke where we basically upgrade a plunger and try to one-up each other each year. I'm not sure whose turn it is this year.

Not as a Christmas present, but my roomie & I passed a trophy back and forth for years. It was a small (4th place) trophy, the kind that had a slot to slide in the engraved placque; we found out early that we could slide that out and make a new "Best of..." placque of our own. I think it's my turn to send it to her?

honeychile · #12 11-17-2008, 12:41 PM

We only exchange gifts at Christmas, and we have a small family, so it looks to be a normal Christmas. Unfortunately, most of us must provide a list on Thanksgiving, so I can't do any real shopping until then. I've perfected the internet/Christmas Eve Shopping Spree over the years!

ForeverRoses · #13 11-17-2008, 12:56 PM

I started Christmas shopping back in August. My oldest son has been asking for "Bakugon" toys and I stumbled across some back in August, which is a good thing since they are now sold out everywhere. All I have left to buy the kids is stocking stuffers (usually new toothbrushes and bath stuff).

I still have my in-laws, parents, and nieces and nephews to buy for- but we do a gift exchange for the nieces/nephes them and we won't draw names until thanksgiving.

DoubleTDG · #14 11-18-2008, 03:20 AM

I got my mother's gift on EBAY, and when I went to pay for it I found I had money in my PayPal account. It makes me feel like I didn't spend anything on her because I thought my account was empty.

ree-Xi · #15 11-18-2008, 11:04 AM

I keep asking my sisters to do "secret santa" - where at least the adults pick names and give just give a gift to one person - but they said that sounds cheap.

Between hubby and I, we have 5 parents, 10 siblings/sibs-in-law, and 8 nieces/nephews. We don't have kids, so in essense, all the $$ we spend on the kids during the year and on Christmas doesn't really get reciprocated. I know that sounds harsh, but there seems to be such a sense of entitlement and competition, when it comes to getting gifts for people's kids. Heaven forbid one kid gets something more expensive than the other (the parents can tell), or if one kid's gift has several things in it (like action figures) and that kid's sibling's gift has one "thing" - the kids complain.

Hubby said that everyone is getting $10 gift cards this year and that's it. Part of me likes the idea, the other part wants to shop around for the "perfect gifts". But we always end up spending almost $1000 on other people and putting it on credit, and this year, that is NOT happening.