Gift Guide Gluttony

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!

******

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!

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5 Responses to Gift Guide Gluttony

  1. sizzle says:

    That Anthropologie gift guide cracked me up. There is some crazy shit in there! And soooo expensive.

  2. Emily says:

    I am nearly done shopping… a few things to pick up, but I know what I am getting everyone, so the hardest part is done. We buy a LOT of gifts. We give gifts to our parents, but not our siblings. I took care of mine and told my husband he needs to shop for his, plus his grandma. Between us we have 7 nieces and nephews, plus my husband has 2 godchildren and they each have a sibling that we don’t want to leave out… so 11 kids. I shopped for all of them. We have 2 couples we exchange gifts with, some years we do a couples gift, this year, I found things for the girls, so my husband is responsible for the guys (so they will probably get booze). My mother-in-law’s family does Secret Santa, this year it’s by couple, so we need to get one gift for another couple. My husband and I tend to go overboard on each other. My family stopped opening presents on Christmas morning, to accommodate my oldest brother’s wife’s family’s schedule, when I was 11 or 12, so I’ve had Christmas morning envy for a long time. Now that I’m married, even though we don’t have children yet, I love being in my house on Christmas morning and opening a lot of presents. I was mostly done with my husband when he gave me a list… so I went extra over on him this year. And our spoiled rotten pug gets a stocking full of treats and toys. Oh and we live in a new neighborhood and have very sweet neighbors, so I want to put together some small neighbor gifts just in case. My biggest challenge this year with gift giving is a doozy. I have a niece who is obsessed with Harry Potter and I’m knitting her a scarf that’s supposed to be a replicate of the movie. I’ve done the math and there are over 102,000 stitches in this thing. I’m a fast knitter, but I will still be spending every spare second from now til Christmas working on this thing. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I agreed to it. I just hope she loves it. Sorry for writing a book. Have a very merry holiday season!

  3. Caitlin says:

    Holly! That Anthropologie gift guide cracked me UP! Thank you! And also, hi, I’m the writer of the Food Lush gift guide. Thanks so much for linking to it – I am thrilled that you like it. It’s a huge compliment coming from you!

  4. Aleigh says:

    Thanks so much for linking to my gift guide! Glad you found it helpful even in the midst of all the guides out there…

    Aleigh

  5. Michelle says:

    I have a ridiculous number of SCOBYs. I usually end up saving them until I run out of room and then compost a bunch. I’d be happy to send you one if you’re interested.