Gift Buying

It's that time of year when presents must be purchased. Anything new this year ?

a friend/client of mine and local resident posted this…

http://www.mindfulstyle.com/blog/

For what it's worth ... I was telling a friend about my recent DNA results and he said he thought that would make a cool holiday present. I'd never thought of that, but thinking he might be right ...

https://www.ancestry.com/dna

Just used E bay to buy a computerized chess set for my oldest Grandson. It is the old fashioned kind with a board and chess pieces to use. Discontinue in about 2004 I felt the tactile part of the game was important for him as

he is learning and improving. Probably only available used through E bay. Someday I will write my various

passwords down

I told my husband to sit down with the kids and go through the Heifer International catalog and "buy" me something from there. Sure, I could pretend that I did this for altruistic reasons, but the real reason is I just don't want anymore stuff coming into the house.

Please re-think going with Heifer. Giving a farm animal often brings more costs to people receiving the 'gift'.

http://awfw.org/no-animal-gifts/

,

Several years ago I 'bought' my nieces their Christmas gifts at Heifer International in an attempt to curtail our annual remote exchange of gifts (everyone now on the West Coast with many children). Not only did no-one acknowledge this change in gift-giving, but I was now inundated with even more brochures in the mail from Heifer International and I have only to assume that my nieces also now get monthly mailings about how their donations can help to alleviate poverty. Bottom-line: I get more paper mail and I've never been sure my gift was appreciated or that their children learned anything about sharing.

Mini-rant over: I love that YOU think that this makes a great present to you from your family!!!

I have volunteered in several third-world countries and it is not unusual to see families raising some of these animals.

spontaneous said:

I told my husband to sit down with the kids and go through the Heifer International catalog and "buy" me something from there. Sure, I could pretend that I did this for altruistic reasons, but the real reason is I just don't want anymore stuff coming into the house.

That's the problem with donating -- you get overwhelmed with appeals in the future, both email and paper mail. I recently discovered that donating through PayPal lets you stay anonymous, but PayPal keeps the records so you can still take the tax break. Of course, that won't work as well for the gift of a donation.

krnl said:

Several years ago I 'bought' my nieces their Christmas gifts at Heifer International in an attempt to curtail our annual remote exchange of gifts (everyone now on the West Coast with many children). Not only did no-one acknowledge this change in gift-giving,

When man caves first became a thing my husband and I gave my BIL an air hockey table, it flipped over and had fooseball on the other side. Sure, it was probably a stupid gift, but we meant well. BIL opens it, looks at it, and says "What am I supposed to do with this?" Hell, I'd rather have it not be acknowledged at all than get a response like that. On the plus side, he is no longer my BIL so we don't have to deal with him any longer.

The rule I've adopted at least 6+ years ago was that we only purchase for kids/teens and not adults. Adults are too much of a headache. Besides, all of our major adults live out of state. The kids/teens like gift cards, Netflix memberships and money. Done.