The Perils of Present Buying

I should probably preface this whole discussion by saying that I love buying presents for people, whatever the time of year or occasion. I try to put a lot of thought into it all, and find interesting or different things that I hope people will really like. Hopefully I'm successful more often than not.

I've checked my list and this year I'm buying or making presents for 34 people at Christmas! Seems like a ridiculous amount given that I don't have a big family but about half of those are work related. We're a small but very friendly team and I don't like to leave people out, so I tend to have a few mammoth baking sessions in December and shower people with delicious festive food rather than bankrupting myself by buying presents for everyone.

It could be v. expensive if I let it. Some things I've done this year to try and get around it are to stock up on nice things in sales - post Christmas/Jan sales are excellent for this, if you're the organised type and have a handy cupboard to stash things in -, buy bits and bobs throughout the year, recycle things (more on this later), take full advantage of discounts/special offers whenever I can find them and, of course, to make things. I also do online surveys which (eventually, in the case of Toluna) pay out in vouchers, so I'll often save these up from autumn onwards and get various things from Amazon etc with them. It's never an awful lot of money but everything helps.

I'm also a bit OCD about getting my presents bought by the start of December as I cannot bear the shops close to Christmas, so I've had presents on the brain recently. I had a really interesting conversation with a friend about it the other day which got me thinking. Do you honestly think it matters where you've bought a present from, or how much it costs?

I'm hoping to make more things this year but am slightly limited by a lack of crafty ability, as well as the fact that certain people that I know won't appreciate anything without a brand name on it. I don't have many of these people to buy for and I try not to get cross about it but it is a bit rubbish when you've put ages into making something and they open it and go "oh, that's nice" and you can tell they're thinking "cheapskate, why didn't she just buy me a proper present?" If I've had that reaction once, I'll try to pick something different for them next time.

The thing that caused most controversy in our conversation (apart from me admitting to getting some presents from charity shops) was when I said that I recycle presents. I still don't see anything wrong with this. It may be hypocritical given what I've just written in the above paragraph, although in my defence it doesn't happen often and it's only the generic gifts (or the pink ones - why do people still get me pink things?! I am notorious for loathing it) that I recycle. If people have given me something that I don't like or won't use, what's the point leaving it in a cupboard to take up space? I'd far rather pass it onto someone else who I know will like and use it, or give it to a charity shop.

This particularly applies to gifts that people have put no thought whatsoever into. For example, I think it's quite lazy to just go to Boots/M&S/wherever and get a toiletries gift set, unless you know that what you're getting is something that the person really likes. I adore Lush stuff and people that know me know this, so I'll always be chuffed to get something from there, but I will not be overly thrilled to open an old lady smelling set from Boots that someone has clearly picked up just because it's on a 3 for 2 offer. I know it's a bit rude of me to think that, but obviously I would never say it to their face that I didn't like it. My friend trotted out the old "it's the thought that counts" argument - I see that point to a certain extent but really, where's the thought in getting a generic gift for someone? I really don't care about cost. I'd be far more happy with a bag of sweets that cost about 50p than I would be with some dull smellies that cost £10. It's just nice to think that whoever gave me the present thought about it before they bought it.

Here's hoping that I haven't bought any of you a present that you've opened and thought "WTF??!!" at...

ps - despite the slight rant about old lady toiletries, I really am very easily pleased by presents. Honestly, I am.