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I'm writing this post while on a plane to Texas, while the in flight movie The Social Network plays quietly overhead. How totally geeky right? In fact I'm typing this post with the help of my Christmas gift. Like most geeks I'm almost impossible to buy for. But my husband did good this year and bought me a ZAGGmate keyboard for my beloved iPad. Truth be told he does good every year, which is no small feat, since I'm terribly picky. But don't feel bad for him, he's impossible to buy for as well. Add our 10- year-old geeklet to the mix and you've got quite a gift-giving puzzle on your hands every holiday season.
Since I come from a family full of geeks, this pain used to seem never-ending. I found a solution to this drama years ago though, when I told everyone, and I mean everyone, that we weren't buying them anything and they weren't to buy us anything either. (The only exception to this was grandparents rights to buy their darling granddaughter a gift.) In lieu of gifts for extended family and friends, we donate to charities, or go out to dinner together. This has worked out beautifully, with a number of our friends adopting this policy with their own families. When you are hard to buy for, and you are already fighting clutter in your home, and everyone is on a budget, putting a moratorium on obligatory gifts can be a welcome relief.
With these measures in place we've built meaningful memories with family and friends that are more centered on time spent together than, which new geeky gadgets and video games we've received.
While our daughter is still young enough to make a list, and be satisfied with what she receives, my husband and I often need or ask for things that must be carefully researched, inspected, and approved before they can be considered as gift-giving options. To accommodate this my husband and I have begun to incorporate this auditioning of gifts into our holiday rituals. Shopping during the holidays is so much more fun when you are only shopping for three people. We make a day of it, planning which stores we'll be hitting, doing preliminary Internet research, and topping off the day with a meal at a favorite restaurant.
I think this year we finally mastered the process. Using accumulated points from Amex at amazon.com we subsidized our holiday budget quite nicely. My daughter got some new items straight off of her "list," and was gifted with recycled gadgets such as Mommy's old iPod touch - fully loaded with *Twilight *movies and Glee, of course. I received the aforementioned keyboard, wireless headphones for gaming and Skype, and assorted kitchen gadgets. My husband got a choice selection of thoughtful items from ThinkGeek.com and a subscription to artisan beers from microbreweries around the country. And of course, we all re-upped our WoW subscriptions. The family that games together ....
With money saved on extraneous gifts we'll be able to donate to a few worthy charities and visit family out-of- state. Two gifts far more valuable then any gadget. Although, this keyboard is REALLY cool.
Hope you had a happy holiday! If you employed any unique money-, time- or environment-saving measures this holiday season, please share them in the comments below.
