Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with gift and party

Thank you too much!

Bardolph — Tue, 26 May 2009 18:42:38 -0800

A friend made a really sweet, but kind of awkwardly generous, gesture. How to respond gracefully, while still giving her an out? (Just as a preface, I have a hangup about receiving gifts and favors-- particularly big ones. They make me feel miserable and guilty, as though it's my fault that the person went to all this expense/trouble, and I get freaked out thinking about just how grateful I'll have to be to make it up to them. So if this seems kind of like a retarded overthinking of what should be a relatively straightforward social situation-- well, guilty as charged.)

So I had a baby last month, and various friends were excited and supportive, including the church choir where I sing. About two weeks after the birth, someone I know from choir approached me and said she'd like to throw a party for the choir at her house in the baby's honor. This was a pretty overwhelmingly generous offer, as the group is large (~25 people), and the woman in question doesn't even know me all that well (we've hung out a bit in the context of other church groups, but never one-on-one, and no conversations beyond small-talk). She's not a wealthy retired socialite or anything, either-- we're talking a super-busy shift-working mom of two, so throwing a party for a huge group of people would likely be a big deal for her in terms of the investment of time and money.

At the time, I thanked her profusely, and probably a bit anxiously, and she closed by asking me to let her know some dates that'd work. Four weeks later, I still haven't been able to bring myself to contact her, largely because I've been unable to figure out answers to the following:

How can I give her a list of dates without sounding weird and presumptuous (like, "Ahem...the following are some good dates for you to schedule my party")?
On the off chance that she might since have rethought her initial impulse, is there any way to avoid Abilening by politely giving her an out? I'm especially concerned about this given that lots of people have already met the baby (brought her to rehearsal a couple times) so a debut party at this point might seem a little anti-climactic.
If the party does happen, is it appropriate for me to offer to pay for anything and/or help with prep, or would that be rude?
Said party won't end up devolving into some kind of shower, will it? Because the choir already got us a group gift, and OMG uncomfortable.
Although we haven't broken the news to anyone here yet, we're actually planning on moving out of the area in a few months. Does our secret lame-duck status change matters at all?
And lastly, regardless of whether this happens, what might be some nice ways to let her know how much I appreciate the really sweet thought?

What's that you say? Why yes, I am kind of a social idiot. Advice from anyone versed in intermediate-level-and-above interpersonal interaction would be much appreciated!!

Party favors for "Death & Taxes"?

Jaqi — Mon, 26 May 2008 12:50:27 -0800

I need ideas for creative (and cheap) party favors for a "Death & Taxes" party I'm hosting early in June! Early in June, my sweetie and I are having 40 of our closest friends and relatives over to our place for a themed party, and we'd like to leave everyone with a token of our appreciation for their travels and attendance.

Relevant notes:
- We'll be having a fun competition at the party, so we could have one set of prizes for the winners (there will be two teams of 20 each) and another set for the "losers", but we want everyone to get something

- The group will consist of folks of all ages, so the gifts need to be "good" for a wide variety of people

- We're cheap, so the more thrifty / frugal, the better!

- The party's going to be themed as "Death & Taxes," but if you have fabulous party favor ideas that you just know'll knock their socks off, don't hold back.

Seeking employee-appreciation gifts that don't suck

vytae — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 10:57:08 -0800

Please help me figure out a great gift to give our employees at the company party! A coworker and I are in charge of planning my small company's "employee appreciation" party, which is coming up in about 6 weeks. We want to give out some kind of gift that people will actually like and use, but which is also relatively inexpensive. The bosses won't give us a hard budget, but we're hoping to present ideas to them in the range of $5-20 per person. Then they can pick how much they want to spend.

We like the idea of giving out something with the company logo printed on it, but we're finding that most logo-onto-swag printing companies have minimum runs that very much exceed our numbers (we've got approximately 20 people). We were thinking printed nalgene bottles and frisbees might make a fun, summery gift pack, but we don't need 100 of them! Do you know anywhere that will do small runs of custom printing on items like this?

Bonus points will be awarded for ideas with a summer theme, but it's certainly not necessary. Our employees vary widely in age and leisure interests, so no help there. Would gift cards to a generally useful store like Target be good or bad? My co-planner and I are crafty sorts, so if there's something fun we could put together that people wouldn't roll their eyes at, I'd love to hear about it.

Tacky Gift Party

stewiethegreat — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 13:44:04 -0800

Gift ideas for a Tacky Gift Party I'm going to a tacky gift party in Pasadena at the end of the month, and I'm looking for ideas. There will be voting on "best gift" and the requirement is that it has to be unintentional tackiness - like the bartender Barbie, for example. "Learn how to serve drinks to Ken's friends!"

They're supposed to be relatively inexpensive gifts, under $40.

Any ideas?

Baby Shower etiquette for men/dummies

iTristan — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 14:43:10 -0800

If my wife hosts a baby shower, fairly large (30+ people) for her friend (with all the expense, labour and effort that requires) would she still be expected to give a present to her friend on top of this?

Year of the Dog!!

gaspode — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 12:44:09 -0800

Chinese New Year filter: My husband and I have been invited to a Chinese New Year party. It's being thrown by the sister of a very good friend of ours, but we don't know the sister well at all. Are there appropriate/traditional gift(s) we could bring?

Help with Dirty Santa gift?

flipmiester99 — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 08:00:27 -0800

DirtySantaFilter: I need a awesome dirtysanta/White Elephant gift that costs $15 max. I have a office/work holiday party to attend to this weekend and have been informed that we will be playing dirty santa/white elephant. Please lend me your suggestions for a cool/unique/awesome gift to bring to the party. The max amount of $$ to spend on the gift is $15.