Most successful present you gave?

A recently-published very experimental farming cum foraging book for a local farmer friend of mine. I knew she'd like it when I saw it had just been published. She certainly did - and tells me she's picking up all sorts of ideas from it to try out.

She walked off with a very satisfied look on her face and comment that it would be her "bedtime reading".

i did not get any presents and i am so pleased my family listened for once, i am 62 and i did not need anything, chocolates is a no go as i recently became diabetic and smelly stuff, i stocked up with the black friday sale, been using the same perfume for 40 years, this was a great and successful christmas for me.

I gave my DD money to put towards a 'big buy' she wants but bought some wee stocking fillers to open on Christmas Day
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One of these was a gift box of small size toiletries from a fairly expensive range. I usually avoid buying anything like this as she has very definite tastes but I took a chance and she was delighted.

Later when we were cooking lunch she used a small ceramic saucer I had bought her from a craft fair years ago. it was especially for grating garlic and ginger and came with it's own little matching brush. She said that this was another fab present I had given her. It was just so nice to hear that as I feel she is not the easiest person to buy for, so getting it right when it is my own choice is really pleasing.

2 hours of my gardening time is the best gift for her just now.

We have my dd2 & SIL an annual Art Pass membership. They are delighted with it and were planning days out almost immediately.

Dd1 loved a book I found her, about how the Brambly Hedge books came to be created. She wants to move there!

Mine was one I haven’t given yet.
It is a promise of a cash sum towards a house deposit to my GD and her BF.
They are starting to look early in the New Year.

I cheat. I ask everyone to submit wish lists in october, that are them shared round the family. Sometimes one or other of us will go off-piste because we see something we know someone will enjoy, but generally, one doesn't ever get everything on the list, but it does mean that what we do receive is 'just what we wanted'

LOL M0nica - your family don't follow the practice my mother had of making sure she got what she wanted.

With me - it would be the case she'd spot something she wanted and hover near it going "I like that....I do like that....I like THAT!" - ie cue for nipping back and buying it and she'd apparently forgotten come the time just how much she'd been hovering near it commenting.

My father got the "I've just spotted a nice coat I like - and I bought it from your money - that was £300 you've just spent" treatment.

Mine was a series of five books my 16year old grand daughter wanted i actually got a message from her saying thank you and that she was so excited to read them!!! 😊
My other 16year old GD wanted a 'setting spray' its a cosmetic item , She was pleased with that too. NB I had been advised by mum that's what she wanted. 😊

M0nica

I cheat. I ask everyone to submit wish lists in october, that are them shared round the family. Sometimes one or other of us will go off-piste because we see something we know someone will enjoy, but generally, one doesn't ever get everything on the list, but it does mean that what we do receive is 'just what we wanted'

We’ve done something along this line since the children have been grown and then included GC as they arrived. It’s all got a bit unwieldy, with sixteen of us, so now the AC might ask for a particular book/music/clothing item and the GC/cousins have a system of vouchers on the go. They know the voucher thing is just symbolic, as they agree to the same value each year, but it’s an acknowledgement of their relationship with each other.

Dh and I mostly ask for joint vouchers or an experience. We had garden vouchers a couple of years ago - the kids were quite po-faced when I bought two tonnes of ‘dirt’ (top soil) with some of it. I did also get nice garden tools.

For our GC, we lose track of what they have so I get them a jumper or a book and then give cash to the parents. The GC in America like to have British clothing to wear so I choose UK hoodies etc.

A cheap beannie from TK Max for DD1's partner.

He has a very large head - it fits properly!

Mine were rather eccentric. Instead of giving the 2 DGDs an advent calendar each, I collected a whole load of bits that I hoped they would like, made a few things, and put them in a bag each so they could pick one small present every day. They absolutely loved it, and for girls aged 13 and 15, that’s no mean feat!

We put together for a vr headset for our granddaughter. She's 14 and has bern asking for one the last couple of Christmas's. We got a great deal in the back Friday sales, she wept with joy 😊

One of our best was her name in lights (about £12) for our dancing granddaughter.

Had no idea for son in law, who had said he didn’t really want or need anything. I bought him a nice woolly scarf which turned out to be spot on, since he’d very recently lost his only one, and it was seriously 🥶 where we were staying!

I bought a very good friend of mine a small ready decorated Christmas tree from Bloom and Wild for her hallway. She loved it, not least because blue is her favourite colour!

My (adult) son is always buying hot drinks for homeless people in London and giving them his loose change. I bought him a "virtual gift" from the homeless charity Crisis which was a warm clothing pack given in his name as one of his presents. It was £20. When he opened it and read it, he welled up. (When I saw his reaction I welled up too!).

Dd1 needed a new winter coat, which I wasn’t going to buy unless I knew exactly what to get. She sent a link to a Regatta one, heavily reduced in their sale. We weren’t sure what size, so ordered 2, one fitted, the other returned at once.

It’s super-warm, so she was very glad of it during a sunny but very cold few days!

ferry23

My (adult) son is always buying hot drinks for homeless people in London and giving them his loose change. I bought him a "virtual gift" from the homeless charity Crisis which was a warm clothing pack given in his name as one of his presents. It was £20. When he opened it and read it, he welled up. (When I saw his reaction I welled up too!).

How lovely, ferry23!

I bought my husband a very expensive knife for Christmas, he has used it today for prepping vegetables for soup. Never heard anyone go into raptures over a knife before. I have been banned from touching it .