What do you buy for the person who has everything? Most people have a list of things that they acquire throughout the year, of things that they want for the following year. My parents tend to buy things that they want when they want them, which makes it very hard for my sister and me to buy for them when it comes to gift shopping. My dad’s birthday is also five days after Christmas, so I have to do double the gift shopping for him. I love giving gifts, and I want to make sure that all of my gifts have a purpose or that they are something that they really want. I am the gift arranger for my mom, and I make sure that all of her gifts are in order and are under the tree on Christmas morning. Which most of the time requires me to constantly ask my mom what she wants for Christmas, and I normally get the same answer: “I don’t know.”
So what do you get someone who never knows what they want, or has a birthday five days after Christmas?
This is still a question I ask myself every year. I want to make sure that my family has a good Christmas, but it is so hard to buy gifts, and as I have gotten older, I have realized that it only gets harder. When I was younger, my mom would buy gifts for my family, and my name would magically appear on them, but as I have gotten older, I am now responsible for finding gifts for my family and friends, and it can be hard. Especially as a college student because you don’t really have a lot of money to buy gifts for people that you care about, but you still want to give them a gift to show your appreciation for them. It is hard to balance what you want to give them with what you can actually give them. Good thing my parents will help me cover the cost of some of the gifts for people like my sister or extended family. But it is still a very difficult and daunting task that just gets more impossible as the years go on.Â
There is one thing that has helped me over the years, and that is just asking them what they want each year. For my mom, that is the easiest way that I can get an idea of what she wants. Or I will pay attention while we are shopping or hearing conversations that my dad has had where he mentions what he wants to get ideas. There are also some very standard gifts that work every year, like something personalized. My parents love when I give them a gift custom to them, so they can keep it for years to come. For my sister, I get her things that she mentions to me or she will send me a TikTok video about something and I will save it and buy it for her later.Â
Overall, Christmas shopping shouldn’t be stressful, it should be showing the people that you love that you care about them even if it is a small little gesture or gift or a big item off their wishlist that they will absolutely adore.Â