I’ve been thinking a lot about Christmas shopping
lately. Although I really enjoy giving
gifts, I hate shopping for them – I worry too much about finding the perfect
present. Since one of my goals over the
next few weeks is to stress as little as possible, I’ve come up with a list of
gift ideas and shopping rules to help me get through this in the least
stressful way possible. I thought they could
be useful to all infertile people, so without further ado, here they are!
Gift Guide
Liquor. Craft beer
for my brother, wine for the white elephant exchange, bourbon for my father in
law… who doesn’t love the gift of booze?
Liquor stores are great places for one stop shopping, most of them are
small businesses, and the sales associates are actually helpful. Even better: There probably won’t be any kids
there.
Spa Gift Certificates.
Give a friend a gift certificate for a manicure, and she’s probably
going to invite you to come along when she redeems it. A stress-free gift that might later turn into
a stress relieving activity? Win-win!
Baked Goods and Crafts.
This one is highly personal: if you find baking or crafting to be a
stress reliever (and have someone to clean up after you), make your presents
this year. If it stresses you out, don’t
even try. This probably isn’t the time
to attempt anything new or fancy, but everyone loves a tin of home-made candy
or cookies. And if you like the idea of
giving something handmade but not the handmaking part, Etsy has never let me
down.
Books for Kids. If
you have kids to buy for, don’t go to the toy story or the children’s
department – it’s going to make you sad and you know it. Just remember your favorite books from that
age, go online, and order them. No
worrying about sizes or tastes, no “accidentally” wandering into the newborn
section, no stress.
Antiques. I am
lucky to have a number of reasonably priced vintage stores near me, and for
some reason I’m really into giving antiques as gifts this year. The stores are fun to poke around in,
anything old automatically seems thoughtful, and there usually aren’t kids
there. Etsy also has a fantastic vintage section that’s lots of fun to browse.
Christmas Shopping Rules
Don’t worry about money.
Obviously I’m not going to blow my budget, but if I’m waiting in line at
Target with a $20 gift and suddenly remember that I could use a coupon on the
exact same gift if I got it at Bed Bath and Beyond, I’m going to force myself
to just pay the extra money. The $4 I’ll
save is not worth the stress (and time) of having to make an extra stop.
No flash sales.
Does anyone else get a thousand e-mails a day from Ideeli, Rue La La,
Gilt, One King’s Lane, etc? Does
everyone else regret almost every single purchase they make through these
sites? I get impulsive when I’m
stressed, and these sites feed off of impulsiveness.
No malls. Crowded
places full of babies… no thanks. I’m
sure I’ll inevitably end up at a mall eventually, but I’m going to try to get in
and out as quickly as possible. No browsing!
Be decisive. If I
see something I think someone will like, I’m buying it. None of this “Ohh, I’ll remember where this
was and come back!” Because either (a) I’ll
forget where it was or (b) I’ll remember where it was and it’ll be gone when I
get back. Best case scenario, it’s there
when I come back but I’ve still wasted the time it took to go back and get
it. Time I could have spent soaking in a
nice warm bath.
What did I miss?
No comments:
Post a Comment