i have one big quirk when it comes to gift-giving, and it is this: i don’t like to give people exactly what they expect. as such, i am not a fan of amazon wish lists, wedding and baby registries (except for the whole price gun scanner thingie, which is awesome), letters to santa, or any other means of people telling me what i should buy them.
don’t get me wrong–these things are not bad in general. registries are great, because it lets people know what you want. letters to santa are great, because they are cute, and give parents a clue as to what the toy-du-jour is. amazon wish lists are great because you don’t even have to go to a store to buy anything; you just click a few times and voila, a new dvd or book will be at your friend’s house in a few days.
all that stuff is good. most gift-givers like to know what you want. but not me. i just don’t like to use any sort of list.
like i said, it’s a quirk.
i feel that if i know the person well enough to give them a gift, i should know them well enough to be able to find something on my own. and something that will surprise them. in a good way. and then both gifter and giftee can be pleased, the giftee because they got something cool, and the gifter because they were so creative.
hmm. actually, as a concession, i will budge a bit and stipulate that wedding and baby registries are slightly different, since they include items that the couple really does need for their new home or new child. as such, when buying gifts for these events, i do try to get something on the list. however, i still try to give something cool, something i know the couple will use to do fun things. case in point: giving leila and brian the rice cooker leila pointed at in the store = extremely boring, and i only did it because i’d been out of the country for the month before the wedding. giving katie and fred a smoothie maker, and ron and buzz a group-purchased set of nice tools = not so boring.
(ok, and one more concession can be made in the case that a person really wants something specific, like last christmas when i wanted the lord of the rings special edition dvd, and i told david to get me that and nothing else. but he did a really smart thing by telling me it was sold out, and i, the gullible, believed him, thus allowing the present to still be a surprise. go david. sneaky.)
but for christmas, birthdays, and other occasions, i always hope to be at least somewhat more creative than that. even if it’s just a book they’ve never heard of but i think they might enjoy, or a movie they don’t have but i think they might like to have. mainly i just like to try to surprise people.
most of the time, i feel that i’ve failed if i have to resort to a pre-ordained list of gift ideas. how dull! how boring! how unoriginal of me!
the hardest people to be creative for are my grandmother and my dad. the easiest are my mom and sister. i’ve probably given some strange gifts over the years in my attempts to be original, but most of the time i think it works out.
anyway. we might actually get to play softball tonight, as it hasn’t rained since tuesday. cross your fingers…