What are the most thoughthful or clever gifts you are giving for the winter holidays this year?
Well I got my brother a diabolo for Christmas… 
I just bought myself an ATI Radeon X1600 Pro AGP GPU. 
I found this old book store, that is, “old book” store not old “book store,” downtown, and I found a bunch of Peanuts books from the 50s, and my dad really likes Peanuts so I got him some of those.
This has not been a good year for personal thoughtful gifts. I’m a little disappointed in myself.
My most original gift is the emission rights for half a ton of CO2 under the Kyoto agreement. I think he’s the type of person who will appreciate that.
hahahaha
hahahahaha
hahahahahahaha. that is the funniest thing i’ve heard all week.
My dad is quite a sports-fan, I found a compilation CD featuring recordings of radio commentary of some of the greatest moments in South African sport going back a 100 years.
My earliest sport memories are sitting around the radio with my dad.
My mom is into Punch and Judy style puppet-shows and, along with my dad, have turned it into a bit of a retirement cottage industry. I found her a big fluffy Panda hand-puppet. And a copy of the diary of Samuel Pepys, the first guy to describe such a show in the UK.
My brother-in-law is a supporter of Tottenham Hotspur so I’m getting him a Spurs shirt with the name ‘HEAVY’ on the back.
‘Brother-in-law’ is ‘swaer’ in Afrikaans, which is close to the Afrikaans word ‘swaar’, which means, you guessed it, ‘heavy’.
My dad and uncle used to call one another ‘Heavy’ before my uncle’s death and I think it’s time for the joke to be ressurected.
I sent my brother and sister to an online shopping site where they could compile a wishlist of books, cds or dvds they really wanted. I couldn’t think of anything kewl for them and I’d rather ask than waste money on something they already have, or don’t really want.
I still need to find something for my youngest sister, niece and nephew.
Suggestions?
Someone wise once said “The best presents don’t come in boxes.”
how do you actually buy half a tonne of CO2 emmisions ? i want to get some
I’ve been wondering about the psychology of present-giving.
OK - firstly, it’s easy if they tell you what they want.
Then you can pick up hints from what they’ve said they wanted in the past.
then you can base your gift on what you believe they like, seeing what they have already got and what kind of person you think they are.
But what then?
Do we buy what WE would like?
For example the little girls next door. My hubby and I both know what they’ve got and what they are like. But we would buy them completely different things. I said something to do with crafts cos I know they like making things. Hubby wanted to buy something completely different and more swanky. So he asked their mum. (
crafts it is).
So why did we want to buy them different things I wonder? What influenced our choices?
Anyway, just something I’ve been pondering. No doubt someone somewhere has done some research on it.
He’s not buying the emissions, he’s buying the rights to make those emissions i.e. paying an amount to help clean up half a ton of CO2 that he can then make guilt free. It’s called a carbon credit.
I got my girl a necklace, shallow I know but she likes these things, the value is in the time finding something perfect, not the cost i feel.
yeah i know that kington i just didnt word it too crash hot :p.
I have had white pages bound together in a beautiful leather cover
the book title said “<my friend’s name> memories”
that was a long time ago: now this friend writes a very interesting blog!
Have you heard of Derren Brown?
He’s a magician, a mentalist more specifically, who has perfected the art of gift giving.
He’s AMAZING.
Here’s where I got mine:
http://skarv.snf.se/snf/co2/index.asp
The shop is in Swedish.
The actual carbon credit is owned by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, but they won’t use it. You can print a certificate (also in Swedish) that you can use as a gift.
Does that :rooleyes: mean YOU will be playing with the diabolo???
I think I’ll get my mom a brand new Coker! :rooleyes: 
The same person who said: She lost her virginity, but she still has the box it came in.
Sorry, no really clever ideas.
When I was in eighth grade, we had a sex-ed assembly at our school…and, I kid you not, the guy seriously told us that if we had had sex, but regretted it, we could “repackage our virginity” for the next person.
Shhh! For Jacquie, I framed some cool pictures from our recent trip to Cozumel. We went to a dolphin place, where you get to swim with the dolphins. She loves dolphins, and has dolphin tattoos on her ankles. Anyway, we had no idea how cool this dolphin place was. Not only are you in the water while the dolphin swims right up to you and gives you a kiss, among other things, you get to grab onto the dolphin’s pectoral fins (she’s upside down for this) and she tows you all the way across the pen where this takes place, about 10m. I never heard of that! At the end, the dolphin does a number of big jumps, right in front of you!
So we bought the pictures they took of us, which came out very nice. scanned the best one, blew it up to 20 x 30", and made a mat with it and three of the 6 x 8 prints we bought. I hope she loves it.
For three other people we made photo books from the Kodak Gallery:
They are very cool. We’ve yet to have one made for ourselves, though they’ve gotten a lot cheaper than they were when they originally offered this service. There are other vendors for these things too. I’ll have to look into it for Valentine’s day…
I bought the CD package of The Bible Experience for my parents. Great cast of all the top celebrities contributed and it’s one of the most amazing productions I’ve ever seen…or heard in this case.
It’s an all African American cast. There’s an excellent video of some behind the scenes at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_OCovT8Y68
I also ordered a copy for me…um, er…I mean Mary ordered a copy for me for my birthday in January.
A friend of mine was still using a cassette tape walkman so I upgraded her to a fairly cheap mp3 player and put some music on there to start her off.
Another friend likes throwing playing cards and stuff so I bought him a set of throwing knives which he is in love with.
For a third coffee fiend friend I got, among other things, a cafetiere-mug and a pack of weasel coffee.
On the subject of gift psycology, when I dont know what to get someone, I usually end up buying them something that will make me and hopefully them laugh. My mum usually ends up with that sort of present. In the past I’ve got her things like walking hands and rubber chickens which she loves. This year I’ve got her a banana case, as reviewed in Uni, but dont tell her :). When I do know what I want to get someone and I know it will be perfect I’ll usually just get it regardless of cost (within reason :)) because I think making someone happy is worth more than money.