Day 241

I like giving gifts, particularly when the offering is more “organic in nature.”  What I mean by that is, to me, there is nothing more satisfying than stumbling across something that would be perfect, useful and loved by the recipient, particularly when they are hard to buy for.  In the last couple of years, I found a series of audio books that my father actually likes. (Throne of Kings, Martin).   In the 40 plus years I have known him, this is the first gift I believe he enjoys and I am not just buying him something—ANYTHING, to check that gift giving box.

I don’t think I am the only one that feels a duty to buy gifts on major holidays and birthdays and as a result has spent money on ridiculous items in an obligatory frenzy.  I know I am not alone because every thrift store in America (probably the world really) is full of cast off items like these:

• Billy Big Mouth Bass Singing Fish Plaque – if somehow you haven’t seen one of these, count yourself lucky.
• Millions of holiday themed, socks sweaters and ties- seriously people, stop buying these as gifts.
• Individual mugs- I once went to a retiring teacher’s garage sale and she had over 400 holiday and teacher themed mugs for sale and that is the truth.
• Various absurd small appliances of the year- included in this group are The George Foreman Grill,  Home Facial Sauna, and hot dog maker.
• Electric wine bottle opener- Really how lazy do you have to be?  Although, after giving it a bit more thought, I will admit to sometimes choosing a bottle of wine out of our wine rack because it has a screw off top rather than have to take a cork out…
• Golf or fishing themed stuff- particularly if it serves no useful function other than to sit on a desk with the very clever phrase “A bad day fishing is better than a good day at work.”  I know, brilliant, right?
• Cheap multi-purpose tools prepackaged and sold in the aisles of department stores everywhere-items like a flashlight, lint shaver, nose hair clipper combo, useful to almost no one.

So, I have taken a different  angle during our Simple Year.  I’ve been collecting “nearly new” items for the kids all year.  I had to round it out with a couple of eBay purchases, but I still tried to keep it minimal. This year if I stumbled across a perfect previously owned item for someone, I got it for them.  If not, I didn’t buy them anything.  Instead, We just sent charitable donations on their behalf.  We tried to pick charities that were meaningful to the recipient.  I actually was able to complete all of my “holiday shopping” this way in less than an hour. Based on that time saving alone, I would recommend it.

I am going to close this post with a link to a product that showed up as a sponsored post on my friends Facebook feed, the Hutzler 571 Bannana Slicer. So while I sincerely hope that they don’t actually sell many of these items, I was amused while reading some of the nearly 700 comments on the bottom of the page.  Just when I think the world has gone completely bananas in its desire for useless items, my faith in the human race is renewed by mankind’s collective sense of humor.

Maybe by sponsoring links the company is hoping to corner the market on gag gifts this year?