Daily Archives: December 5, 2012

I have to tell you I’m right on the cusp of being sick of gift guides. Maybe this is a personal thing though, because guess how many Christmas Presents I am in charge of buying this year?

One.

(Sad Trombone)

I know I’ve explained this before, but for the newly initiated, here’s the scoop: A few years back we decided to stop exchanging gifts on my mom’s side of the family. Not because we are scrooge-y assholes (I promise) but mostly because that side of my family is really small and none of us are crazy gift people. So. Shopping for that side of the family? Done. We instead spend the money we would have spent on gifts and just buy a metric ton of food. In the past we have also sponsored families, purchased gifts for needy kids, and cooked for a shelter where I used to volunteer. So see? Not jerks. Just not super gifty. What can I say, it works for us.

Now my dad’s side of the family is much larger and you would think that makes things more complicated, but in fact it’s pretty darn easy. A few years ago we decided to all draw names on Thanksgiving and just buy one person a $25 gift. Right around Thanksgiving we all come up with our Wish Lists and we start a giant chain of email with the entire family that usually devolves into something completely hysterical by the time Christmas gets here, but in the meantime everyone gets a chance to see what their “Secret Person” wants. It usually works out pretty well.

So all that’s left is gifts for me to buy is a gift for Garrett, and like I mentioned on our Anniversary, we generally just don’t buy each other gifts. Maybe we are scrooge-y assholes. Oh no wait, that’s right, we then try and plan something fun to do in the beginning of the year. And for the record, Garrett is in charge of “coordinating” the gifts for his side of the family and then I support his plan. Some years this works out better than others. 🙂

The sad part is I really do like gift buying. Well, maybe not so much the purchasing part, but picking out the perfect gift. But lately it seems like everyone and their mother is putting out a gift guide and I’ve only found a few that I thought were really awesome. So in case you’ve been “Marking As Read” all of those gift guides in your Reader, here are few to maybe give a second chance.

Hooray For Gifts

*The 2012 Balanced Bites Healthy Holiday Gift Guide

I’m totally buying a SCOBY like a nerd.

*Style Lush Gift Guide (100 gifts for $35 or less)

This is always a favorite because it is curated by a friend of mine. I stole many ideas off this list for my own wish list for my family exchange. Plus it’s 100 gifts for $35 or less. USEFUL!

*Food Lush Gift Guide

This is Style Lush’s sister site about FOOOOOOOOD. Good good stuff on this list. And 3/4 of them are under $25. I mean…what???

*Lottie and Doof Gift Guide

Do you need to shop for some Hipsters in your life? This may help. ha! There are a few neat things on it though.

*Indigo + Canary

This is a gold mine of fun things to sift through!

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But on the off chance that no gift guides will meet your needs, then please enjoy this:

Anthropologie: Holiday Shopping for the People You Hate

I haven’t laughed that hard in a while. Anthropologie, man. What is UP with that store?

Anyway, how’s the shopping going folks? What is your gift buying strategy? Do you buy for everyone? Draw names? Do a secret santa? Tell me everything!