Christmas Gift Theme Ideas

December 10, 2003 5:36 AM

Christmas gifts: I'm doing another theme present for my SO this year. Previous efforts have included the five senses (taste: choc, smell: perfume, sound: music, touch: jewellery and so on) and the original elements (wind fire water earth).

Now I need more famous groupings of things. Can anyone help?
posted by bonaldi to Shopping (23 answers total)

Biorhythms come to mind. How about one physical, one emotional and one intellectual gift? IIRC there are three more qualities which combine the first 3, if you want to get more gifts.
posted by biffa at 5:40 AM on December 10, 2003

The Seven Deadly Sins come to mind:

Pride: Amway gifts.
Envy: Postcard from business trip.
Gluttony: Hickory Farms gifts.
Lust: Victoria's Secret.
Anger: Kitchen Utensils.
Greed: Stocks.
Sloth: Treadmill.

That might help spark some ideas.
posted by shepd at 5:46 AM on December 10, 2003

Seasons might be nice. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter.
posted by ODiV at 5:56 AM on December 10, 2003

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse:

War: A Full Metal Jacket DVD
Famine: Dr. Atkin's New Diet Revolution
Pestilence: chlamydia
Death: a pre-paid funeral
posted by Mayor Curley at 5:58 AM on December 10, 2003 [1 favorite]

How about the continents? I don't know what you can get representing Antarctica (a stuffed penguin maybe?), but the rest of them should be easy...
posted by darsh at 6:00 AM on December 10, 2003

Response by poster: god these are all great! Thanks everyone.
posted by bonaldi at 6:02 AM on December 10, 2003

Response by poster: [keeping Mayor Curley in mind if I ever end up with a goth]
posted by bonaldi at 6:03 AM on December 10, 2003

"See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" comes to mind. As does the Three Musketeers: Aramis, Athos, and D'Artagnan.
posted by MrMoonPie at 6:06 AM on December 10, 2003

Have Google Sets predict a grouping for you. ;-)
posted by anathema at 6:17 AM on December 10, 2003

color spectrum may work too:
ROYGBIV
posted by amberglow at 6:17 AM on December 10, 2003

Chakras?
Seven: Thought, Universal identity, oriented to self-knowledge
Six: Light, Archetypal identity, oriented to self-reflection
Five: Sound, Creative identity, oriented to self-expression
Four: Air, Social identity, oriented to self-acceptance
Three: Fire, Ego identity, oriented to self-definition
Two: Water, Emotional identity, oriented to self-gratification
One: Earth, Physical identity, oriented to self-preservation
posted by whatnot at 6:40 AM on December 10, 2003

The four humours?
Started by Hippocrates, but evolved into a sort of a 17th century Meyers-Briggs. Each humour has an associated element, temperament, season and colour:

Blood: air (hot and moist), sanguine (loving, happy, kind), spring, red.
Yellow Bile: fire (hot and dry), choleric (active, passionate, violent), summer, yellow.
Black Bile: earth (cool and dry), melancholic (despondency, sleeplessness), autumn, black.
Phlegm: water (cool and wet), phlegmatic (calm, passive), winter, blue.

You were only considered heathy (eucrasic) if your humours were balanced, fitting the "one-of-each" theme nicely.
posted by bonehead at 7:09 AM on December 10, 2003

Nice one bonehead, I've been trying to think of that word (humours) since this thread went up.
posted by biffa at 7:43 AM on December 10, 2003

How About Every Gift Has Something To Do With Tom Selleck?

1.) Mr. Baseball DVD (The Gift That Keeps On Giving)
2.) Detroit Tigers Cap (Be Cool Like Magnum)
3.) NRA Membership (Take That Rosie!)
4.) A Basic Cable Subscription (To Watch All Of Mr. Sellecks Great Made For TV Movies On TNT "WE KNOW DRAMA!")
5.) A "Three Men & A Little Lady" Movie Poster ( To Pimp Out Your Room & Show Da Honeys How Fly You Are)

I Just Dont Know...
posted by Dreamghost at 7:46 AM on December 10, 2003

Hannibal: cigars
Face: hair product
Murdoch: Zyprexa
B.A. Baracus: gold chains or an unconscious plane ride
An A-Team DVD
posted by teg at 8:13 AM on December 10, 2003

- seven ages of man? you could begin and end with diapers.

- faith, hope and charity? one gift could be a donation to a local soup kitchen, etc.

- hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil? naughty gifts.
posted by heather at 8:55 AM on December 10, 2003

Since you're from Scotland, how about something based on clans? (Abercrombie, Campbell, Fraser, Home, MacDonald, and Rose all lend themselves to the theme.)

The Seven Seas? Notes on a scale (The Sound of Music song -- dough, ray, me, far, sew, law, tea)?

MrMoonPie: I think you meant Porthos as the third Musketeer -- D'Artagnan wasn't one of the three.
posted by joaquim at 9:04 AM on December 10, 2003

A toilet seat, some "smoother, slower-burning" cigarettes, a subscription to the late JFK Jr's magazine, and finger jewelry.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:46 AM on December 10, 2003

Something based on music-either a specific artist or a musical genre. You could also probably do this with painting as well.
posted by konolia at 12:03 PM on December 10, 2003

Finger jewelry fits nicely into just about any theme.
posted by anathema at 3:43 PM on December 10, 2003

Zodiac signs? Or if you're non-Zodiac, something for each month of the year. Or take a riff on the 12 Days of Christmas; "On the 1st day of Christmas, my true love gave to me a partridge in a pear tree, etc, etc."
posted by Lynsey at 4:02 PM on December 10, 2003

Basic necessities kit. Food, shelter,warmth.

Another I liked to do as a kid was a coupon gift book of sorts. Hand made items seem to do better than some of those year long discount books offer.
posted by brent at 7:19 PM on December 10, 2003

The "modern" elements?

Blood, sweat, and tears? Maybe not so good.

How about the letters of the alphabet? That's a long list, though ...

The planets?

John, Paul, George, and Ringo (thanks, konolia)

Oooo! The Muses!
posted by Songdog at 1:16 PM on December 11, 2003