The Lemon Fool

In the last month or so:

#1 Daughter had her 21st birthday - I gave her a large amount of money and a lockpicking kit (Quite good fun actually, you get a set of picks and a perspex padlock so you can see the tumblers)

I had my birthday - I got a new DAB radio with Bluetooth (As #1 Daughter too my one to Uni) and a new toaster

Spouse had birthday and I was completely out of ideas, so I bought some tea towels.

In desperation, what are you lot buying one another for Christmas?

You might inspire me.

B.

Spouse had birthday and I was completely out of ideas, so I bought some tea towels

If I did that, my marriage might be over

Last year, I donated to various charities and placed the acknowledgement in people's Christmas cards.

andycowl wrote:Last year, I donated to various charities and placed the acknowledgement in people's Christmas cards.

I HATE people who do that.

By all means give to charity. By all means don't buy people presents. Don't pretend that your gift to charity is in some way a present to someone else as well as that, it isn't.

Some books, a new nighty, some face stuff that she uses and the new Stones CD (due out tomorrow)

Only the last one is a surprise.

Slarti

I wasn't. I was just telling them what I'd spent the money on instead of what would normally be their 'present'. Thankfully, no-one reacted like you.

andycowl wrote:Thankfully, no-one reacted like you.

Thankfully nobody told you. I'm sure that some of the 'recipients' would feel exactly like me.

Moving swiftly on.....

I once (jokingly) bought my wife a torque-wrench for Xmas, I can still feel the indentation in my forehead.

After 40 years marriage, really we have everything.
It usually comes down to chocs &/or sherry.
A couple of years ago I bought her a second-hand microwave. Who says romance is dead.

V8

I'm following andycowl's brilliant advice.

I'm buying each of my friends a bottle of the finest vintage malt whisky and putting a note in their Christmas cards to tell them how much I've enjoyed drinking it.

Sadly, I only have one friend left.

PrincessB wrote:In desperation, what are you lot buying one another for Christmas?
You might inspire me.
B.

Anything consumable so it doesn't clutter the place up.

For her: Santal 33 from Le Labo*
For him: Thé Noir 29 from Le Labo*

Regards,
Chris

* Not in any way affiliated, just a happy customer

88V8 wrote:After 40 years marriage, really we have everything.

We have less than 40 years of marriage but also sort of have everything. We both certainly buy whatever we want when we want it, rather than saving it up for a present list.

We have a rule that each present we buy mustn't cost more than £5 and that personal/jokey is the intent. I tend to break the value limit more than my wife but the principle is still the same, a present isn't ever something (useful) that we would have bought for ourselves.

We've been married for 40 years too and lack little.
My wife usually gives me a modest list of desirables to choose from a month or two ahead.

I've noticed that any items which I don't buy for Christmas tend to turn up over the subsequent weeks and months though.
She doesn't read lemonfool.

Every January my wife and her friends have a "White Elephant" re-gifting party. They drink wine and try and offload their worst unwanted Christmas gifts onto each other, or any other amusing junk they might have. As they get drunker it becomes quite competitive as people fight for the best (or worst) gift, according to a set of rules that I've never fully understood but found here:

http://regiftable.com/Regifting101/WhiteElephant.aspx

If she gets something dreadful from me for Christmas she never minds. Partly because she is Jewish and doesn't really believe in it all anyway, but partly because it is perfect fodder for the White Elephant.

So I can't go wrong either way. More here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_ele ... t_exchange

In 21 years of running my shop I got accustomed to the late shopper, often male but sometimes female, who would ask me what to buy for their spouse or teenager or a distant relative they hadn't seen for 25 years or the betrothed of an off-spring they were about to meet for the first time - a fair enough question and one with which a shop owner or retail assistant in a 'good' store (you can't really expect help in a Pound Shop though doubtless there will be assistants in such places who will go beyond the call of duty and try to provide it) will try to tackle helpfully. In our case this included not just suggestions of what to buy but reassurance that we'd exchange the gift for something else in January if necessary.

What I never could understand was not that people might find it hard to know what a significant other would like but they could provide no information about the significant other whatsoever. For example how can you be married to someone for 25 years, sleep in the same bed (very often), watch TV in the same living room, eat meals at the same table, have children together, go to weddings and funerals and on holiday together, and not be able to say if your SO (male or female) has pierced ears or what colour hair they have or even if it usually tends to be the same colour or change regularly or if they tend to wear scarves or not? Of course a proportion of those who don't know what to buy can provide all this information and often came back afterwards to thank you for helping them choose something which gave such evident pleasure to the recipient but it is remarkable how many people can tell you absolutely nothing about those with whom they share their lives.

I have on occasion been tempted to ask customers if their significant other was of the same or different race to them (given that my shop was in Luton it was a perfectly reasonable question and one which is relevant to choice of colours in personal items such as jewellery, scarves, etc) but I never dared being too afraid that some of them might not be able to answer that question either!

rgifford wrote:Don't pretend that your gift to charity is in some way a present to someone else as well as that, it isn't.

It can be, depends on the person. I've tried very hard to get my friends to donate to charity instead of buying me Stuff I neither want nor need, even provide a list of charities that I support, but have had very little success. On the one occasion somebody actually this did I was overjoyed, it was the best present I've had.

hermit100 wrote:

rgifford wrote:Don't pretend that your gift to charity is in some way a present to someone else as well as that, it isn't.

It can be, depends on the person. I've tried very hard to get my friends to donate to charity instead of buying me Stuff I neither want nor need, even provide a list of charities that I support, but have had very little success. On the one occasion somebody actually this did I was overjoyed, it was the best present I've had.

That would be a different case to the one I was replying to. Well done for encouraging giving and stopping waste.

I am buying my five grandchildren (10 years to 17 years old) a gift voucher from Pandora (this seems to be the in thing these days - all girls I may add) and my son and daughter and families as expensive or otherwise a Christmas hamper as I think they deserve.

I will also send money to charities of my choice (which I may casually mention to them but not formally as I do not consider it any of their business)

I no longer have a wife who can guide me so that seems to be reasonable.

this doesn;t really answer the question, but my eldest son and I have have our own xmas tradition whewreby we visit a nearby town we would normally never go to, have lunch in wetherspppns or similar, and visit whatever piundland/99p/bargain basement shops there are and buy presents for the wntire family.

there are five of us in the family, and both he and I have £5 to spend (well five gifts to get, one for each member of the family). We buy each other an extra gift each ie we don;t buy for ourselves.

Its daft, its fun and mens everybody gets a couple of extra presents to open on the day, none of which are serious but still with a bit of luck can be quasi-meaningful (Or just plain stupid!). We get to spend a daft afternoon together which is also nice.

didds

In my family we now do Secret Santa for anyone over 21 (apart from our daughter who gets significant cash plus chocs or biscuits or something disposable). Target is between £5 and £10.

I've drawn my niece's husband this year. I like didds' Poundshop idea. I'll be in there today and pick up seven or eight items. Brilliant idea, thanks.

One of the stupidest, most practical cheapie presents I've ever been given. Turns a lemonade bottle into a watering can. Works brilliantly, mainly because there's nothing to go wrong. I wish I'd thought of that, Oscar.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Lawn-Garden- ... KJBEEEDKD0

Second most practical cheapie: leaf grabbers for the garden. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Whitefurze-G25 ... f+grabbers . Also breaks the ice at naughty parties. Who needs Donald Trump when you've got some of these?

BJ