Buying for Christmas

Buying for Christmas should be somewhat easy, right?  I mean, usually people tell you what they want and then you go buy it.  All that you have to do is come up with a couple creative gifts that they either didn't ask for, will surprise them, or they mentioned earlier in the year and then they forgot about.  Except, some people in my family, ahem, Doug, my in-laws, my brother don't feel the need to produce a list of what they want.  You ask and the answer you receive is "I don't know what I want" or "I don't want anything in particular".  You and I both know that neither of those statements are true.  Everyone wants something.

Doug gave me a list of a several things he wanted, however, a lot of it is stuff he needs to buy/pick out for himself, my in-laws don't know what they want and my brother, well, he's a procrastinator and it's now December 21st and I still don't know what he wants.  This makes it very hard to buy meaningful Christmas gifts that don't disappoint.  I have looked at my list of items I have purchased for Doug and to be quite honest, it's pretty pitiful!  I have a feeling he's going to be slightly disappointed on the 25th. 

Buying for Weston, my parents, my sister-in-law and my cousin have been a lot easier.  They made lists and/or told me directly what they want, so it was very easy to go purchase those items.  I hope that they are all happy with their gifts under the tree on Christmas morning.

My only other gripe is gift cards.  I don't necessarily mind buying or receiving them.  In fact, there are stages in life in which giving or receiving a gift card is a lot less stress and hassle.  When you are buying for a teenager, it is so much easier to let them buy items for themselves.  It is far too hard to buy for most teenagers because their tastes are quite eclectic.  I also feel that gift cards can be helpful to supplement a main gift.  That said, I feel like buying gift cards as the main gift is taking the easy way out, by being impersonal and by not shopping for what you think the person would really enjoy having.

Hopefully I can finish my shopping and wrapping very soon, seeing as Christmas is now in 4 days.  EEK!

Advent ornament addition day 21.