So, what are your best ideas for gifts?

[Onlooker]

I think we need a thread on this subject, especially for those of us who wander aimlessly through store after store, swearing at crowds, condemning materialism, and cursed to leave the story empty-handed, only to return again.

I have only one good idea for a gift, and that's because someone gave it to me last year: An Oxo smooth edge can opener.

http://www.cooking.com/products/shprodde.asp?SKU=198946

(Maybe you can find it cheaper somewhere.)

It's absolutely the best can opener I ever used. It actually opens the can so you can put the lid back on, and it requires no muscle to use.

[pnutchuck]

1. Vote For Kerry buttons

Although, juicers are good too. Kenwood has a new one out that has a spicket for serving right in the caraffe.

[datasuspect]

2. my presence n/t

[SmokingJacket]

3. grow your own organic mushroom kits.

Not that kind, silly!

http://search.ebay.com/mushroom-kit_Home-Garden_W0QQcatrefZC12QQfromZR18QQsacategoryZ11700QQsosortorderZ1QQsosortpropertyZ1

I always wanted one of these....

[tjdee]

4. Oxo makes such great products....

I got three of them free once, cause I bought something else, and the Oxo products were better than what I paid for! I like the way they feel in my hands...sturdy or something, I don't know.


But as to gifts! I said a few posts back that the best gift I ever gave someone was a "book" of stories about him, each one written by a different friend of ours. That was for his birthday though...and it was difficult getting people to come up with stories and getting them to me in time...but he really liked it. He almost cried.

[Onlooker]

5. That's a great idea for a gift /nt

[InvisibleTouch]

6. Think of personalized stuff.

Is there anything you can make, bake, or put together, out of things you already have? Something that would be more personally meaningful to the recipient than a commercially-purchased gift? A picture album, a music collection, cookies? Or a promise of physical assistance with something? For example, I have a great big hard drive sitting around, that I cannot install myself; my brother is a computer guy, and I'd much rather have the gift of having it installed, than getting some item that I have to find space for, juggle for a few years, and then probably unload at a garage sale for 25 cents. Do you have a skill that you can share with a friend or relative? A gift doesn't always have to be an object.

If you are buying objects, of course, and stuff that people need, be sure to check out the "blue businesses" in the Economic Activism forum. You can vote with your dollars, and it does make a difference.