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It's December! NaNoWriMo 2010 is over, Thanksgiving is behind us, and the Winter Holidays are upon us.
Literally, if you're Jewish. Chanukah comes early this year, beginning on December 1st. Christmas is rushing in on us, and 2011 is hot on its heels. Looking back at my December Columns since I started writing for CT, I realized I'd never done a Holiday Gift column. It seems every writer needs to do a Holiday Gift Column, so I decided I needed to rectify this oversight. Hopefully, though, I can throw a little different twist on this overused schtick.
It seems that there is at least one person in every family that presents difficulties in gift-giving. Either they seem to already have pretty much anything they want that we could afford, or, their living space is such that more stuff just means something else to find some place to keep. Here, then, are some ideas for novel gifts for those hard-to-shop-for family and friends.
The absolute key to success in something like this, is knowing your recipient. You want your gift to appeal to the recipient, and to hopefully be something that they want, but haven't already acquired for themselves.
Memberships and passes are good choices for people who have interests in art, nature, history, etc. Many places like Botanical Gardens, Museums, Orchestras, etc. sell memberships or annual passes, and the opportunity to enjoy these attractions on a regular basis can be a great gift. The gift takes up no space in the house, doesn't need dusted, framed, or displayed, and - in many cases - comes with guest passes that allows the recipient to share the experience with others.
If your family member is interested in learning some skill or art, paying for appropriate lessons or classes can be the perfect gift. While we can learn a great deal on our own, a session or two (or more) with a talented professional can open up whole new perspectives on the discipline. Even if the recipient already has decent or even impressive skills, there are often seminars or sessions with leaders in that art, that your recipient would love to attend.
Time is one of the most precious gifts we can give. Particularly if your recipient is older and maybe doesn't drive any longer, giving the gift of taking them somewhere they enjoy, and enjoying it with them, can be more valuable than the cost of gas and admission to an event. The gift is far less about where and how much, as it is about with whom.
Gift cards are often an easy default, but even these can shine with some creative effort. For example, if you know your recipient really enjoys eating at a certain restaurant, but is often prohibited from doing so by budget constraints, buying them a gift card for that restaurant can be the perfect present. Better still, combine this with the previous paragraph, and take them to dinner at their favorite restaurant. If they have a hobby or interest, do a little intel work and find out their favorite supplier for this pastime, and get them a gift card for that supplier. One of the worst ways to do a gift card, though, is to buy it from YOUR favorite store, or, dredging the bottom here, from the only store whose credit card you have available balance on, even if your recipient never shops at that store. Seriously. Just because you like Victoria's Secret, for example, doesn't mean Grandma is going to like shopping there (and if she does, do you really want to know about it?).
Do you have relatives with tight budgets, young children, and harried schedules? Do you have any idea just how precious an overnight baby sitter and a night in a motel could be to them? It doesn't have to be Le Pretentious Ritz (though, shopping early online can often net you a great deal on an upscale hotel). I can tell you from experience that a night away in a Motel 6 can seem like heaven when someone is feeling the need for a break. Sure, you could give them a knick-knack or a kitchen gadget, but there's nothing quite like being able to enjoy lazing in bed, watching a movie without interruptions, not having little hands knocking on the door in the middle of the night, and getting to sleep in without worrying why it's so doggoned quiet in the house, to really refresh someone. Heck, I know a lot of parents that miss the simple pleasure of being able to use a bathroom ALL BY THEIR SELVES - without an AUDIENCE. You could give them that again for a day or a weekend. Join forces with other family members to coordinate the getaway, and you could find them eternally grateful and talking about this for years to come, long after that kitchen gadget that cousin Fred gave them has worn out and been thrown away (or donated to Goodwill, because it really sucked).
Do you have skills? Giving the gift of your talents can often be greatly appreciated. Maybe Mom's computer is bogged down with malware from her internet surfing, and could use the services of a Techie to clean it up and restore it to smooth operation. Throw her in some RAM while you're at it. Grandpa's too old to crawl under the old Buick and change the oil? Crawl under there for him, and let him tell you about the good old days, when cars were CARS, instead of being technological mine fields. Why, we went to the MOON with less computers than a new car has, and dad-gummit, his Buick has run just fine for fifty years without them e-lec-tron-ic brains tellin' it how to run. Yeah, he'll enjoy the time you spend together, and you might just learn a thing or two about that old Buick, which, incidentally, has more real metal in the engine than most modern cars have in the entire automobile.
We really can think outside the gift box, if we want to. Gift giving doesn't have to be an exercise in agonizing over the weekly sales ads, hoping SOMETHING jumps out at us for the perfect gift for Aunt Mabel. Sometimes, the best way to find the perfect gift, is to open our ears and listen to the person we're buying for.
Hag sameach Chanukah. Merry Christmas. Happy Kwanzaa. Joyful Winter Solstice. Great weekend. Whatever days are special to you this month, may you find peace and fulfillment in your celebrations, or even the lack thereof, and may 2011 find you healthy and ready to meet a new year with gusto.
Oh, and by the way, I finished my NaNoWriMo novel, "The Erikson Exigency," on Thanksgiving night, with a word count of 60,200. For those counting, this is my fifth straight WriMo win, and I have no plans on it being my last.
See you next year!
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