Got all essentials done, mostly through Amazon. Might get a couple of bonus gifts later.

Usually I leave it to the last minute, but I'm doing a bit of travelling before Xmas this time, needed to sort it early.

So yes, I'm feeling pretty damn smug about it.

Next year though I expect I'll be supporting local businesses again...

Not stressed at all - done. Half online, half in the flesh.

This sounds crazy, but the thing I ordered that most people are going to go nuts over is the Slanket. I got one for my FIL, my MIL, a co-worker, a niece, and my son. Last year they sold out right before Christmas and I couldn't get any. It's just a huge, super toasty microfiber blanket, with sleeves and a drapey cowl neck. I have one and love it. Anyone who knits or reads or does puzzles has to have one. My co-worker still has WebTV, so she can sit on her sofa and be warm and still keyboard.

The largest group of Slanket lovers are supposedly young male gamers, interestingly. They liked to be snuggly while they pillage and maim, I guess. Know how when you look at something on Amazon, often they suggest buying a certain other thing to go with it for a special price? Last week I looked on Amazon to see if they had any Slankets, and they did (only in red, they're gone now), and the suggested companion buy was Mario Kart Double Dash.

Bonus Slanket Image:

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i'm so glad those are sold out. i suddenly decided they were perfect for everyone.
i have totally fallen prey to seasonable suggestibility syndrome.

That would be seasonal with the ability to add herbs and spices.

Not done, but not stressed, either. I'm finished with the online part- we're going out this weekend (tomorrow and Saturday) to do the rest. I'm looking forward to it.

I should work for Slanket in a Pepsi Blue capacity.

I'm sure they would be super simple to sew, but geez, that micro fiber fleece stuff is expensive if you've ever priced it in a fabric shop.

Too bad they're sold- that could be something my Mom would like. Although I don't know about paying $45 for that fleece stuff.

As for gift buying, we're scaling back this year. I'm giving my sisters cash, and I'll hopefully think of something nice for my parents. Shopping for Stynx is done (for the most part).

I'm not really stressed. We have all the small gifts done, now we have to do the bigger gifts (parents, sibling).

*sigh* but we really have zero idea for mr. gaspode's mother. She's so hard to buy for.

Budget and style, let's do the bunnies (s)hop it out for you.
A couple hundred for a sassy in law?
Fifty on a favorite lesbian aunt?

Yeah, tell us your budget...we'll suggest gifts. Your own personal shoppers!

I'm buying handmade this year. Actually, I'm making most of my gifts because I am broke as fuck. Mix CDs, collages, perhaps a nice diorama or two...

Except for Mr. Boy, he's going to be getting an orchid. I'm not making that.

If you want to give the gift of ART this year, hint hint, I've got an Etsy shop and a lot of my work is for sale (if it's up for sale, a price will be included in the description). Support a bunny! Give the gift of art, so much more personal than a Slanket!

I haven't done any christmas shopping for anyone. Screwed.

I have gotten it figured out, mostly. In Oregon, we are getting the "kicker" which is a refund on income taxes. I am wondering whether I get a pre-owned MacBook for daughter now, or wait till June when she graduates.

She is going to be in a cinema program in college (if she decides to go) so, my ignorant self just assumes that a Mac would be better than a PC laptop. . .

For my mom (who has hundreds of elephant tchotchkes) I am getting the audiobook of Water for Elephants. I am stealing ico's idea and getting the audiobook of the Steve Martin memior for my brother.

Stocking stuffers - magnets from that website that got listed and (rightly) deleted here yesterday.

Improvising all others.

Give the gift of art, so much more personal than a Slanket!

Well. I probably spent about 300. buying from etsians this Christmas. I'm obsessed with etsy. But you know, there are some people who just don't appreciate hand made goods. I've made gorgeous handbags in the past for my MIL and my nieces, and they were recieved with disdain. I've knit a few really great scarves and made a couple of other beautiful things as well (hand made soaps and bath bombs and things), and there are just certain people for whom these items are seen as inferior - my MIL especially. She thinks that handmade gifts aren't as good as something you can buy from a store. And I know that about her, which is why she's getting something manufactured. That's what makes her happy.

danf, I just recieved that Steve Martin cd in the mail. I think he's going to love it. I wish more people on my list were collectors of things...I love hunting down things like that.

I just recieved that Steve Martin cd in the mail.

Well, yeah. Plus, we grew up in So Cal. And from the excerpted passage in New Yorker, it looks like he talks about growing up there. And I was lucky enough to see him at a club opening for a now-forgotten band.

Not to mention maybe being behind him on the 405 a few times.

(I once gave my bro a print subscription to the Onion, and he hated it so much he canceled it. So go figure.)

Screwed

Yeah, me too. Am I tressed? yeah. I only have 1 used paperback purchased for someone so far. Every year I keep threatening to opt out of the commercial aspects of Christmas, and every year I seem to get closer. This year, for me, it'll be all-amazon all-the-time. <bah style="humbug:on">

When in doubt, go ninja.
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I *love* that! I made my little nephew a ninja tooth fairy and gave it to him at Thanksgiving. It looked a lot like this (but bigger), but it had a pocket on its butt to put a tooth in.

i won't be done until the 23rd or 24th.

but i've got a good reason for that.

I don't shop online that much at all. I eBay a few things, because reclaimed bits of the family past are always favorite gifts for my relations. I also buy some books from Powell's sometimes. But overall I try to look at stuff online, and purchase in a brick-and-mortar store, trying to support local retailers. Sometimes I'll just get the ISBN for a book and have our bookstore order it. Our music store has a great selection of CDs and will also order. Fancy foods, boutique doodads, home stuff - we are fortunate here to have great local shopping for stuff like that. I also enjoy the sensory experiences of shopping IRL - carrying a bunch of rustling bags, chatting with clerks, stopping for hot coffee, passing people on the street. The whole 'Silver Bells' thing.

I haven't done that much shopping uet. Cash flow is slow, so I'm going to wait until payday on the 14th to get started. For the most part, my big decisions are made, though. I am capping things at a low dollar amount per person.

Got my brother a new Jean Shepherd biography in Indiana while I was there, and have a few other items in storage, like a vintage Italian hotel ashtray - my mom has quite a collection of those. This one is from 'Firenze.' So I'm doing all right.

Concentrating more on coming up with a mass-produceable work gift for people. I've settled on small canning jars filled with the ingredients for Mayan-spiced hot chocolate: just add milk.

ico, that's true, and sucks, about original/handmade art as gifts. Pearls before swine! I love handmade things - send 'em here instead! ;)

I make most of my gifts, and I'm creeping up on the finish line. I've made piles of necklaces, bracelets, and earrings for my various sisters, sisters-in-law, and nieces, and I'm presenting them in handmade jewelry boxes. I've made jars of onion jam, which I'll give with logs of chevre and packets of homemade flaxseeds crackers. I'm gearing up to make goody baskets for some of the family: homemade candies (the caramel corn is always the biggest hit), breads, biscotti, and teacakes. A traditional gifts for my mothert is a big basket of hors d'oeuvres and savory pastries she can keep in the freezer for parties.

I'm buying a couple of CDs (including a blues album by a friend) and several books, but not much else.

My family has been scaling back Christmas, bit by bit, every year and it suits us.

I did buy a manufactureed gift for The Fella's mom, because it was absolutely perfect. She collects a) birdfeeders and b) things shaped like hot-air balloons; I found a birdfeeder shaped like a hot-air balloon. I win Christmas.

Hah...you really do! Your gifts sound wonderful. Do you have any photos of the things you've made? Do you make the jewelry boxes as well?

/me wishes she were on Elsa's gift-list.

I am making sour cream banana bread for lots of people this year.

I've got a few things bought for the mister but need to get more (what to get for the geek/fisherman when he buys his own supplies?!). I know there's a gardening book he wants, but he has yet to give me the title/ISBN (it's probably the only thing I'll buy online). I have a couple things in mind for mum, but need to get them. I'm very glad that they're the only people I have to buy stuff. I buy (or make) ornaments for a few more people but that's already done.

The MissPoppy thread was deleted? Why?

Is it A Pattern Garden? Because I picked it up the other day, and it's really good.

deborah, what thread? I don't see any deleted threads in the edit mode. So your husband is a fisherman too? Every fishing-related thing I've ever gotten for my husband gets returned to the store...heh. So I stick to other stuff. His only true interests are birdwatching and fishing. He's kind of a luddite/dork.

Do you have any photos of the things you've made? Do you make the jewelry boxes as well?

I collect nice lidded boxes throughout the year and cover them in handsome paper, then line the bottom with padding covered with fancy scraps from my fabric stash. Simple, but they look pretty snazzy.

This year, I made biggish ones for my three oldest nieces (9 to 16). I'll pack the jewelry inside in pillow packs, them fill in the gaps with tiny packets of Japanese candy and gum, maybe some Pocky. The adults will get smaller boxes, or maybe just pillowpacks.

This year, I think I'll take some photos before everything's given away, especially of the jewelry so I can remember what I've made for whom.

Perhaps it's obviously, ico: I love homemade gifts, and I often feel unaccountably sad for people who don't. It's such a simple pleasure, and it's a shame to miss out on it. All that notwithstanding, I do have a few purchased gifts. If I saw something small that perfectly suited a family member, I snapped it up.

Hooray for Miko! (as someone that works for a locally-owned company that has to compete with giant river named companies).

My shopping is mostly done, I just have to pick up something Red Soxed themed for my Brother (I'm think world series victory t-shirt) and I need to get a present for my boss. After that all done (except my wife's birthday present).

iconomy: danf said this:

Stocking stuffers - magnets from that website that got listed and (rightly) deleted here yesterday.

And I know I made a comment in it but it's not in my profile. The link went to MissPoppy. I don't remember who made the post.

Most, if not all, of the stuff being sold was of the LOLXTIAN sort and I think that might have been the reasoning behind the deletion.

I am so getting one of these for the partner.

Nope, not started. My partner got the secret santa present I had to buy and I have done absolutely no shopping. Yet. Must get started, because I will be working all the way up to and including Christmas eve and, based on some bizarre and ancient tradition that nobody seems keen to stop observing, the drinking in our office starts at 8.30 am on the last day of work. People are seen disappearing into various offices and meeting rooms with closed doors all day long. Some time later, they will emerge in an alcoholic fug and move to another room. Results are predictable.

Gah. I just found the post here. Sorry iconomy.