In Praise of Theme Gifts

A friend of mine put together a wonderful theme gift for her adult daughter this Christmas: a soup-making kit with a nice soup pot, a soup recipe book and some soup ingredients, all bundled in a sturdy, reusable shopping bag with -- best of all -- a gift certificate for one-on-one soup-making lessons with Mom.

Without spending a lot of money, she has created a gift that is practical, personal, clever, experiential, memorable and fun...the kind of gift her daughter will talk about when people ask her, "so what did you get...?"

Building a fun theme gift isn't that hard, really -- you just have to find a good theme and build on it. For example:

• For the new motorcycle owner: nice leather gloves... along with a do-rag, fake pierced earring and rub-on tattoos.
  
  
• For someone about to take an adventurous vacation: a travel book, a little flag from their destination and a CD of indigenous music. Use a map of their trip route as gift wrap. If they are going to a place where they don't speak the language, make a few funny flashcards ("I don't speak ______," "Where is the bathroom?" "Beer, please." etc.).
  
  
• For the poker player: a shirt from a casino, cards, poker chips and ridiculous dark glasses, packaged together in an emptied Lucky Charms cereal box.
  
  
• For your relative's new baby: a custom tee for the next family reunion, plus baby sunscreen, toddler-size sunglasses and a tiny swimsuit -- all tucked in a colorful beach pail.
  
  
• For the gardening enthusiast: a green thumb (cut the thumb off a glove, color it with a green marker, and label it somehow), a gardening tool, a gardening book or packets of seeds, and maybe a bottle of Advil. Plop the goodies in a terra cotta pot or watering can and wrap it in plain paper stamped with green thumbprints.
  
  
• For the (adult) birthday girl, try a princess theme: a tiara, a feather boa, chocolates and a bottle of bubble bath or Champagne.
  

See where I am going with this? With a theme that fits your giftee (plus a little creativity), you can build upon a mild-mannered gift to create something quite memorable.

Three words of advice on theme gifts:

1. Let at least one piece of the gift be something of value (e.g., nice leather gloves in the first example above).
   
   
2. Avoid themed "add-ons" that are too expensive (bad for you) or too big or junky (bad for the recipient). Our goal is to avoid giving gifts that end up in the landfill, right?
   
   
3. Don't automatically package your theme gift in a basket (unless your giftee really loves baskets). Let the gift container serve a purpose or fit the theme too!

Have you given or received a great theme gift lately? Add your stories to the SB Gift Girl gift list for future posts! Please share your info via comment below or send an e-mail to sbgiftgirl@gmail.com.

Happy gifting!
~

Timing is Everything

Attention, holiday shoppers! There is a lot of adorable Christmas paraphernalia on retailer shelves and catalog pages this year, with no shortage of Santa toys, Santa statuettes, Santa tea towels, Santa boxer shorts, snowman candles, reindeer platters, gingerbread pajamas, candy cane tee shirts, mistletoe napkin rings, elf snow globes or dancing pine trees...the list is endless.

If you find really great Christmas-themed gifts that you know your giftees will love (be honest, now!), my best recommendation is to give them ASAP, so they can enjoy it throughout this holiday season.

If you wait until December 25 to give someone a Christmas-themed gift, it will be used and appreciated for exactly one day, and then either recycled, sent to the landfill, or boxed up for 11 months. Even seemingly neutral holiday themes (including skiers, snowflakes, pine trees, peppermints or any red/green color combo) do not carry over well as attire or decor in January and beyond. Trust me.

Here are four golden opportunities for advance gift-giving of (appropriate, lovable, tasteful) Christmas-theme presents:

1. St. Nicholas Day is December 6. In many parts of the world, people share small gifts with each other in honor of this saint (known as a generous protector of children and the model for current day Santa Claus). Share your knowledge of this holiday and dazzle your giftee.

2. If you want to get creative, you can call December 14 the first day of Christmas and give a gift then. Interesting fact: the 12 days of Christmas on the Christian calendar actually are the 12 days after Christmas until the beginning of Epiphany (January 6)...but if your gift is a good one, the recipient probably won't call you on this technicality.

3. Holiday parties with friends or co-workers can be an OK time to give Christmas-themed gifts (as long as you are certain that the recipients celebrate Christmas, and the gift is one they will want to keep and use from year to year).

4. Secret Santa gift exchanges often lend themselves to more humorous, less personal gift-giving, so the funny light-up Santa hat, festive cubicle decor or popular CD of holiday music can be quite acceptable (again, be sure of what he/she celebrates in December).

Please be a smart shopper! If you find a lovely holiday-themed gift that your friend or loved one will appreciate and keep -- hooray. But a lot of the holiday-themed junk on the market is truly junk, so it is up to you to be a prudent shopper. Future posts on this blog will help you find alternatives to the caroling chipmunk toilet paper dispensers or glow-in-the-dark nutcrackers, I promise....


~