If you are a busy person and especially not a girl/woman, the Christmas shopping can tend to get a bit burdensome at times. The pressure in on not only to shop for everyone on the list (even according to naughty and nice as well), but you have to make sure that your gift is different than what they got last year, is in vogue, suitable for them and is according to their likes. The easiest for me is to shop for my nephew and niece and the most difficult, a mountainous task, is to choose for my girlfriend Yvonne. Everyone else is in the middle range from easy to difficult.
Most of my colleagues always suggest me that instead of shopping physically, I can always shop online and save myself the trouble. However I don’t know why I am not that comfortable shopping online when it comes to buying gifts for the holidays. Shopping physically gives me the feel of the gift that I am buying for my loved one and helps me connect with it, hence transferring the love. Online shopping, no matter how advanced it gets, cannot do that for me.
Shopping for the kids took no time. My nephew, 9, specifically wanted a remote controlled helicopter this Christmas and since he had been nice, I got him one. My niece, 6, on the other hand had a tall order, literally. She wanted a life size teddy bear, six feet at least. Shipping it was going to be a problem and hence I asked my brother to get one for her at my expense. With that done, the real battle of the gifts was right ahead. The most difficult task when buying for adults was of choosing different gifts for guys and girls. Why didn’t they have cool unisex gift that you could just pick and gift?
It’s a guy thing –
There were four guys on my list, Daniel, Neal, Lorenzo and my brother. And shopping for them was not so easy as well. This year, I couldn’t go to the NBA games with Daniel due to the heavy workload I had and hence, as an apology and also as a message of how much those games with him meant to me, I got him NBA memorabilia and I knew he was going to like that one.
This year, I had to be careful of what I got Neal and Lorenzo. Kaitlin had made the mistake of getting them similar gifts last year which had its own repercussions. Those nut jobs kept cracking ‘we are not twins’ jokes for the whole month. Lorenzo had become quite the wine aficionado this year, and hence I picked up a classic wine for him. Took a lot of searching, but I finally got it. Neal had been having desires of tracing his Native American roots but couldn’t do so due to work. I got him a package which would point him in the right direction.
My brother’s gift was going to be special this year. He was not a smoker as such but occasionally he liked to take out dad’s pipe for a smoke. He liked collecting them as well, a hobby which he got from dad. This year I was going to add an exquisite piece to his collection that I had seen at an antique store while shopping with Yvonne.
You see, shopping for the guys was so easy. All I had to do was just remember what they needed this year.
It’s a girl thing –
Three girls, two girls and one lady actually – Kaitlin, Yvonne and my sister-in-law; and even after knowing them for years, I still didn’t have an idea for their gifts. Getting something fashionable, which was the easiest choice, was out of the question as Yvonne, being from the fashion industry would get that. On the other hand, their gifts had to be at par and as caring as the guy’s gifts.
Kaitlin had begun her Real Estate business this year which was going quite well, but it so happened that I always saw her having a hard time going through all the bunch of documents she would carry. So, as I easy choice, I decided to help her get rid of that clutter by getting her a Tablet PC.
My sister-in-law was the perfect American housewife, all with her shiny kitchen and her perfectly manicured lawns and great family values. For her, her home was everything she wished for. Hence, it was difficult to choose for her as she had every gadget and appliance she would need in the house. I had no other option than to go for jewelry which Yvonne helped me out with.
It’s an Yvonne thing –
Finally, the most daunting task – choosing for Yvonne. Daunting not only because she was my girlfriend, but also since she made it hard by being from the fashion world of New York. Bringing down the stars seemed a lot easy for her than buying a gift because she was a lot choosy. But ‘stars’ worked their magic for me in the end after all. I found this online service where one could name a star after themselves or a loved one. Now there is a star in the Pisces constellation (her sun sign) by the name Yvonne Reynolds.
The guys’ gifts didn’t take me long, but the gal gifts, they took me almost a month to decide and get. Luckily, anticipating the problem, I had started planning early; way early.
