Saturday, December 11, 2010

Christmas Shopping 101: A Cheat Sheet

A few weeks ago I was thoroughly stumped over Christmas gifts. I was a day away from going to the Christmas Land kiosk and buying everyone penguin ornaments with their names written on them. Instead, I interrogated everyone in my group office on what they were hoping to get for Christmas and what they had bought for other people so I could steal their ideas. Now you, too, can steal their ideas. With these 5 hints, plus the ideas I mentioned last time including making 80 gajillion chocolate-covered pretzels, I am ready for the manic Christmas gift exchange.

ALERT: If you're related to me, stop reading now, unless you're like me and hate surprises.

1. I recently learned about the ridiculously amazing Groupon. Use it, live it, love it.

2. Here's a list of books some people think are good. My two notable books-as-gifts? For fiction, the well-written, twisted tale The Likeness by Tana French and for nonfiction, the profoundly sad but moving The Memory Chalet by the late Tony Judt.

3. Depending on where you live, holiday craft fairs may be in full swing. Hit them up -- you can buy gifts for everyone you know and sip on Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa in a school cafeteria, in the same afternoon. This year we stumbled across cool paper mache holiday ornaments and knocked out about a third of the Christmas list.

4. Don't count out Etsy and ArtFire!

5. Toys R Us has stepped up their game in offering variations on old favorite toys. Let's just say, someone is getting a blast from their past in the form of the Super-Deluxe Mr. Potato Head-Mrs. Potato Head Combo Pack.

No comments:

Post a Comment