Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with christmasgift

Redneck Christmas

whodatninja — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:11:58 -0800

Help me fet a last minute, work appropriate, theme-relevant gift! My work is doing Secret Santa tomorrow. The problem is, I am new at my workplace and I drew my new boss.

The catch is, there is a theme. The theme is redneck (I know.) I have no idea what to do with this. The spending limit is $15, and he already has a fair number of gag-gifty things because of a themed party he has every year for his Texan wife (he is not from the US).

What can I get that is work appropriate, theme appropriate and can be bought in person, tonight? I also really hate the idea of buying, and giving something, hilarious though it might be, that will undoubtedly be thrown out/never used, or something that is too offensive (depsite our theme).

Thought-provoking magazines for kids?

Taft — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:26:40 -0800

Magazines for the inquisitive kid? I distinctly remember having a subscription to Muse Magazine in grade school and how it positively influenced the person I am today. I remembered this magazine when I was looking for gifts for a close friend's family. Her kids are aged around 8-12 and I want to get each of them a subscription to some thought-provoking magazines like Muse.

So my question: What are some publications you fondly remember reading as a kid that have made you into a more curious and intelligent person? Thanks.

Cocktails for the evil capitalists

ohio — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:46:18 -0800

My dad is a grouchy old man, and as much as I shouldn't be encouraging him I would like to make him an old-fashioned cocktail kit for Christmas. Something James Bond or an evil capitalist from 1928 would appreciate. I know I'll put some nice whiskey and some bitters in there- what else? I want to put together a kit of mostly ingredients rather than tools, although I can throw in a shaker and a jigger or two. My questions are:

What did they put in cocktails 60 years ago (or really any number of years ago)? I am thinking orange bitters and Peychaud's bitters, real grenadine if I can find it, bourbon cherries . . . ?? What are your favorite "I can't believe people don't still use this" ingredients?

How do I find those things in Chicago or over the internet?

Can I get old style glass bottles of soda water somewhere in Chicago?

Yes or No? Maybe Maybe!

Psychnic — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 05:56:51 -0800

I'm desperately seeking advice, for a friend. As a gift... Help me make a book of answers! I will be visiting a friend this Christmas, and I bought her a present. It's a small blank paper book and I started writing and drawing answers in it. Like a magic eight ball, opening the book of answers tells you what to do - or maybe not.

Problem is: There are 80 pages, and I have run out of answers. I need yours!

Here are some 'answers' I've come up with:
*Just do it!
*Follow your heart
*It can wait until tomorrow
*Alea Iacta Est
*With a little help from my friends

References to her interests - field hockey, arts, industrial design [her studies], quotes from people, movies or songs - are particularly welcome. Hidden meanings, clever observations, puzzling remarks, and double entendres would be wonderful!

Where to get woodworking tools in NYC?

DeWalt_Russ — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:08:51 -0800

Emergency gift filter! Where can I find a top-notch woodworking supply store in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, Long Island or northern Jersey that's open this Sunday (Dec. 21)? So I screwed up royally by driving out of town to buy an amplifier today, thinking that I would have enough time to return to Brooklyn and drive my girlfriend to Tools for Working Wood, the supply store out on 33rd Street by the BQE. Then the snowstorm hit.

Now I have a pricey amp for my own dumb self and a very sad girlfriend with no special gift for her father. Tools for Working Wood is only open M-F from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. She flies out to California at 7 p.m. Sunday.

What are my options? What other places in the area could you go to get some great woodworking tools? I will go out of my way to make this better.

How can I make my Christmas gift look authentic?

arnicae — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:24:47 -0800

I'm trying to figure out how to make a stamp look "canceled" for a Christmas gift. My great-uncle collects stamps and loves Disney-ana, but he only collects stamps that are canceled. I've got some good Disney stamps for him this year and intended to send him to them ahead of time (so that they would be canceled and add-able to his collection) but Christmas has snuck up on me.

I am mailing him several today in hopes they'll arrive before Christmas, but I want to have a back-up plan in case I arrive before the mail does. Is there any good way mimic a postmark? (He doesn't have great eyesight, so it doesn't have to look great, just good/decent)

(In case I need to add this, the canceled stamp will never go through the mail in any way, so I don't think I'm falling afoul of any federal regulations- it will just go into a relative's stamp collection)

Thanks!

What's cool in England this year?

K.P. — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 05:07:23 -0800

Christmasgiftfilter: I am in England. I'm looking for suggestions for little gifts to take to the American family. Or generic gift suggestion lists. I'll be leaving England in under a week and doing Christmas with the American family. I need gift suggestions for those adult relatives (and a few kids) that one only sees at Christmas--some "neat thing from England" that one wouldn't have already seen at the mall or World Market.
Previously I have brought them fancy Christmas tree ornaments, souvenirs from the local football team shop, locally made gourmet chocolates, and mounted photographs of local landmarks.
I'm hoping to come up with something along those lines that I can fit a dozen or so of into my luggage. I'm in a smallish city and not able to get to London in time to shop there. Relatives on the list are mostly baby-boomers and 3 teen/preteen children.

Alternately, if you know of any good gift-suggestion-lists that are better than Amazon's, pointers to them are appreciated as well.

High Culture + Low Culture = fun weekend

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 07:00:54 -0800

For Christmas I'm going to give my partner a planned weekend full cultural hijinks in a big city: Saturday it's all "high culture" activities and Sunday it's all "low culture" activities. How can I translate this intangible gift idea into something small and tangible to put under the tree? To elaborate, Saturday will involve a candle-lit dinner, wine-tasting, art museum and tickets to the opera (which he loves.) Sunday will be roller disco, drive-in movie and chicken + waffles for dinner, followed by a trip to a tiki bar (which he also loves.)

Since it would be lame to just say on Xmas morning "so this is your present, we're going to do x, y, z," I want to be able to give him one or two tangible objects that correlate to "Highbrow" versus "Lowbrow" culture, attached to a list of the things we'll be doing on each respective day. Any ideas? I'd like it to be broad enough to encompass the idea of the whole day, rather than just (for example) giving him an opera cd for the High Culture present.

Also-- if you have any ideas for inexpensive but really fun activities that fit into the "very highbrow" or "very lowbrow" category, let me know and I'll consider changing the activities list.

(Yes, I know some art can be lowbrow and some chicken/waffles transcendent, but I'm going for the blanket statement.) Thanks in advance!

What book to get him?

naju — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 17:22:06 -0800

Christmas gift: what non-fiction political or economic book should I get for my liberal intellectual brother? He's into reading about politics, economics, and social sciences, and usually has his nose in some book or other. I don't know much about what he's into, but he tends to prefer stuff on the intellectual/academic side of things (as opposed to, say, Keith Olbermann, if he has a book out.) The name Amartya Sen was mentioned before. If it helps, he campaigned for Obama. I briefly considered getting The Post-American World since Obama was reading that on the campaign trail, but Zakaria seems a bit questionable... I considered getting him something on the current economic crisis (Paul Krugman?) but figured it might be a downer of a Christmas present. He also might like an interesting book on the Chicago school of economics. Sorry if this is too detailed or not detailed enough! Any suggestions for that perfect book? Or should I just play it safe and get him Wall-E?

All this talk about wallets....

mjcon — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 08:16:15 -0800

Christmas Gift Filter: I am looking for a leather wristlet for my sister and can't find exactly what I want. I am looking for a leather wristlet that is large enough to hold keys, a cell phone and all wallet-related materials (drivers license, cards, cash...) for a Christmas gift for my 20 year old sister. She likes this but is more interested in leather than cloth (she's pretty hard on her stuff and is looking for something more durable). I like that the one linked has all of the wallet slots inside but also has enough space for keys and a phone. I haven't been able to find it in leather and am really not sure where to look....Shopping isn't really my strong suit. As a last resort, I would probably commission someone on etsy to make it for me, but would rather buy it already made so that I can see what it looks like first. For the absolute right thing, I am probably ok with spending about $100 but would obviously love to pay less.

five... five dollar... five dollar pashminas!

kerning — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:57:42 -0800

Where can I get cheap pashmina scarves in DC? My best friend used to live in NY, and when I visited her, I would always stop off at a street stand and buy a couple of cheap pashminas for 5 bucks. Unfortunately, she moved away and I no longer have any justifiable reason to go to NY, and I want to buy some pashminas for my mom for Christmas.

Is there any street stand in DC where I can buy a pashmina for 5-7 dollars? I tried going the ebay route, but was disappointed by what I received (they just weren't the same as the NY scarves!), so I would prefer to do it in person. Bonus points if there's a stand near the Golden Triangle area.

Where are the awesome flat, non-fragile gifts?

shesbookish — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 16:24:27 -0800

What should I get my kind, but difficult to shop for in-laws for Christmas? More details inside. My in-laws are visiting us in early December and we'll be exchanging gifts at that time. The number one requirement is that the gift be something that can travel back with them. We've done gift cards a few years in a row now, but they do the same for us and it's getting kind of bland. I would like to do something different, but I can't think of other options.

My in-laws are well off and don't really need anything. My father-in-law is a former naval officer and likes to be handy around the house. My mother-in-law loves super healthy things and is a bit of a world traveler.

Any suggestions for suitcase friendly gifts?

"I need more pieces, please!"

Soliloquy — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 12:13:56 -0800

Is there any way I can get my hands on some cool Scalino marble run pieces before Christmas? For Christmas last year I bought my darling little cousin a Scalino marble run complete with "ski jump" piece. He adores it, and I'd like to add another accessory or two this year. The site I bought it from now only lists three Scalino items without pictures (extra marbles, and what I think is a basic set, and probably a waterfall type piece) and my email to their customer service address asking about availability and clarification on what the "Modelkasten Kaskade" piece did received no reply. I checked out Scalino's web site but my Deutsch ist nicht so gut. Ebay came up blank too.

The little guy would probably prefer a y-shaped switch I remember seeing last year, or the xylophone piece shown in the picture, to a waterfall. Heck, I was looking forward to seeing what he would build with all the cool pieces I added on over the years. So if anyone knows of other sources or can assist me in contacting the company, I'd appreciate it. I'm in New York City if there's anything local.

My little cousin will spend many happy hours sending marbles whizzing around the track in your honor.

How to transform my husband for <$1000?

justonegirl — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 17:10:23 -0800

I want to give my husband the gift of a complete physical transformation for Christmas, on a pretty tight budget. Ideas and resources would be much appreciated. My husband is in need of a serious health intervention and, with Christmas coming up, I'd like to fashion a gift for him that would achieve the most impact. Something to help him overcome a lack of motivation/time management and to build some momentum that will help create lifelong habits.

About him: he'll be 30 in a month, 6'1", about 265 lbs, pretty muscular but with quite a bit of fat padding too. He was an athlete in high school (football, baseball, basketball, lacrosse) but suffered a knee blowout and has some bionic parts in there. He is currently experiencing chronic back pain (stress-related/muscular, not disc problems) and is somewhat limited due to his knee injury (walking is fine, running is problematic, for instance). He also gets winded quickly. His eating habits are poor and he has a strong affinity for beer. And, like many of us, he often gets very psyched to improve his health but then falls off the wagon quickly. Also of note, he has put on about 45-50 lbs. in the six years we've been together, he previously had a pretty lean, muscular build.

What we have available: an elliptical machine, a recumbent bike, an arcade-quality DDR setup, plenty of the popular diet books (South Beach, Body for Life, Fat Smash, Best Life Diet), some fitness DVDs (Tae Bo, a Pilates/exercise band one), and a flexible schedule (we both are self-employed and work from home). He is also planning on purchasing a Smith machine soon.

What we lack: consistency, accountability, motivation, time management, planning, complete schedule freedom (we have a toddler, although there's a nanny here about 30 hours a week).

I've pretty much ruled out a gym membership because we've failed miserably at actually getting to the gym in the past. Things I've considered so far include hiring a personal trainer to come to the house for a few sessions, and employing one of those personal chef services, but I'm looking to spend less than $1000 total (I'd prefer under $700) and want to make sure I'm getting the most bang for my buck. What's the best use of my money in terms of building up the routines and habits he needs, but also overcoming his inherent motivation problems and excuse-making when it comes to his health?

(Disclaimer: he is completely aware of and in agreement with the assessment that his health habits are poor, he's not sensitive about the subject, he won't take the gift the wrong way, I'm not being judgmental, I too have my own set of health issues to deal with, etc...)

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Cartoons for Christmas? Where do I find them?

paulrockNJ — Mon, 06 Dec 2004 19:13:40 -0800

I need help finding a Christmas gift. My girlfriend mentioned recently that she was a big fan of a particular type of cartoon and I'm having trouble finding out 1) what they are exactly, and 2) whether or not they're available for purchase.

The cartoons had a very 1950's feel to them, and the subject matter always dealt with a prediction of the future. Like a cartoony take on what life would be like in the year 2000 from the perspective of the 1950's. They usually played with the classic Looney Toons cartoons on Saturday mornings when I was a kid.

Not much to go on, I know. Any leads?