LB's Christmas Shopping Guide

Gift-buying and gift-getting are as ethereal as this picture, a reflection of the Top Drawer thrift store window on Burnet Road.

Christmas. When I was a kid I was all about shaking packages and sneaking looks. I was excited and I wanted to know what I was going to get. Gifts have always disappointed me a little when the wrapping was off, however. But at least there were lots of things I wanted back then.

Now that I'm at a place where I really want almost nothing, however, things are easier. I express my thanks and move on. I can barely come up with a list of what I might want for Christmas, but it would go something like this: (1) new tennis shoes; (2) a bathing suit; (3) a black cashmere V-neck sweater; (4) money to put my 8MM/Super 8 movies on DVD. No one could get me these things. I'd need to get them myself. Now I could go online and shop for all of this right now, but the reason I haven't done so is simply that shopping is such a pain. So, but for that, I'd have everything I want or need, I think. Oh, sure, I have my eye on computing gear and a new digital camera. But I'm just not ready to buy.

Buying things for other people is fun and I hate to give up doing it but I wish I could avoid the agony of trying to buy things that will thrill people. After all, most people I'd be buying for have everything they need and most of what they want. And, yes, there are charities out there and yes we contribute but that's different. There are people who need clothes and furniture and food. There are homes where the kids don't have every conceivable toy. For that you don't need LB's Christmas Shopping Guide because those people usually give a pretty detailed shopping list. It's just a matter of locating what they need or want.

So I take the low road and send money a lot of the time.

But there are a few family members and a couple of friends that I feel should get a real present. For the extended family I print a simple no frills month-by-month calendar with the holidays plus family birthdays and anniversaries. My aunts appreciate this, the cousins perhaps less so (I offer the info online,too). I don't know how many realize it is their 'gift' and not just something they get every year.

For my sister and her clan in Colorado I feel they should get something tangible. I provide money occasionally, but I feel I should buy things, too. A few years ago I decided that I'd just buy small, fun, sometimes silly things and mail them in a little santa sack for each person. Sort of like stocking stuffers. My oldest niece mailed the sacks back with their handmade tags intact. So they've gone back and forth a couple of years now. I felt I should fill them again. I can't remember all the things I sent before. So that was a problem. But I filled them. That's done. I entrusted them to UPS to deliver to my oldest niece to distribute.

My favorite little things that I sent this year? Little 512MB USB flash drives with password software. A small rubber chicken and egg. (When you squeeze it, a translucent egg with yolk pops out.) A stretchy rubber ape. For the kids (yeah, I gave those last two things to adults), I liked the combo whistle, compass, thermometer, magnifying glass things I got at REI. Also the medium-sized (three AAA batteries) LED flashlights. (I'm big on giving flashlights. Last year it was those wind-up no battery ones that I gave a few people.) The kids got Pez and Pez dispensers, of course. And little pull back school buses and rubber frogs and stuff. Classics. Like the Swiss Army Knives with corkscrews that I included for my nephews-in-law. (You know the guys who married my nieces.)

Other ideas for stocking stuffers: refrigerator magnets (I found some that had a calculator), note pads (some are magnetic for the frig or have a clip for the visor), pens, luggage tags, LED light keychains, keychains with pill fobs, luggage locks approved for TSA opening, mini bottles of favorite spirits, accessories for eyeglass wearers (I found a no fog glasses wipe and repair kits are handy, too). And you can find funny post-it notes for everyone. Little bars of fancy soap are nice.

Now all I have to do to finish my Christmas shopping is buy something for the old folks. They are 86, 90 and 96 and it's not easy to find stuff although our dads can usually be taken care of with books. On tape only for FFP's Dad because he can't see to read. My mother-in-law is more difficult. Hate to resort to a calendar again. Or pictures of us. Or fancy soap. Gadgets are risky. Although I have considered one of those electronic 'picture frames.' Nah.

There are three friends who should probably get a gift from me. But I'm not going to get something just to be getting. I'm going to try to find something they will really like. Yeah, I say that every year.

Yeah, well maybe the title was misleading. Maybe I'm the last person who should write a shopping guide.