Mar 1, 2011

For those who have parents-to-be in their gift list, you will find some wonderful gift options open that you can select from.  You can purchase an individual gift, give them a couple’s gift, or give them something for their newborn.

When you’re attempting to decide what gift to give, you should know how far along they are.  Personally, I generally tend not to give presents for the baby until the mother-to-be is in the fifth or sixth month of being pregnant.  Until then there’s too much that can go wrong. So, before this time I am inclined to give to the pair together, or individually. What I give is dependent on how well I know the parents to be and what their interests are.

Who you will be giving the gift to also influences the gift.  A great gift to a mom-to-be prior to the baby is a treat such as a trip to a health spa, for the couple, movie gift card they both can use, a restaurant gift certificate and other outside excursions which will be tough to attend when the baby arrives.  I love the opportunity to provide the mother and father with something which lets them simply have a great time before the big day.

If you decide to provide a gift for the newborn, try to stay with neutral colors when the baby’s sex isn’t known yet.  You can decide on a never-ending way to obtain generic baby products at this time.  That you can do everything from an easy gift of cute clothing products or designer footwear, as much as the gift of the crib or any other furniture item.

Clothes for the most part are given at baby showers so we have excluded this. Besides they are a very personal item. Being a parent, here are a few gifts we received, or wanted prior to the birth of our children:

1.  Diapers, diapers and more diapers.  Seriously, babies use a lot of diapers and even when the mother and father are thinking about using cloth, disposables will still need to be utilized in certain situations.  Ask what their preference is, paper or cloth.  Also, keep in mind that babies are just really small for any very, very short time.  Buy diapers which may be used once the baby is over the age of a baby.  Diaper baby wipes will also be needed and appreciated as gifts. Keep in mind if the couple live in a tiny apartment or a house with storage space. If space is an issue, don’t get this.

2.  A gift basket with all the essential products an infant needs when they are newborns.  Good examples include: butt cream, teething gel, tethers, pacifiers, nail clippers, baby shampoo and the body clean, and then any other small products you’ll find within the baby aisle at any nearby store that you simply think the mother and father would enjoy getting.

3.  Furniture for the nursery could be costly. However, if you and everyone in the family get together and split the price, you are able to surprise the mother and father-to-be around with a really nice sized gift certificate for your local furniture store. If you know what type of furniture they’re looking for, such as a crib, or changing table, for example, you might also purchase it and set it up it for them also.

4.  A high quality vehicle chair is essential for parents.  However, heading out and investing around $200 dollars on the chair can be difficult for youthful parents to do. Thus this makes it an excellent option.

5. A Playpen is a great option too and not too expensive a gift. It is very useful when the baby doesn’t walk yet. You use it all the time!

6. Another great gift is a jumper which you hang from the door frame and lets the baby jump up and down. They love this!

7. Baby bottles are another great gift along with the microwavable bottle washer. This is essential and not too expensive.

8. A white laundry hamper is something you can’t go wrong with and is definitely needed.

Hopefully this has given you ideas when you are shopping for the parents-to-be in your list.

Jan 15, 2011

The foremost and biggest of the six worst presents ever is to give an item that attempts to provide a subtle hint for how you feel a person needs to change, usually to live up to your standards! Some good examples of these kinds of gifts are things such as books for losing weight fast, a book to help someone who’s losing their memory, or perhaps a book on choosing the best man or woman. For that recipient, all they experience is discomfort and depression – the opposite effect of what you intended.

The 2nd worst present ever given is giving something which shows how little, if any, thought you gave to your gift or person it was intended for. This occurs more frequently than people prefer to admit to, and for this reason it’s # 2 on our list. Some good examples of those gifts could be giving an earring to a person who does not have pierced ears, an ‘I have confidence in Xenu” T-shirt for any Christian, or perhaps a box of chocolates for a diabetic. If you don’t do a little research into the person you will be giving a gift to, then don’t even bother.

The 3rd worst present is the very large coffee table books. The usual train of thought when giving these books would be that the large wrapped item will make the individual a lot happier – but upon opening the book, more often than not the individual is not happy. It might be that they don’t have the space if they live in an apartment or don’t have a coffee table to display it on and it becomes a burden. Books could be a great gift, but don’t forget that in cases like this, regular sized as well as pocket sized books are preferable to extremely huge unless you know the person really well and their living conditions.

The 4th worst present is giving a present to the person which she/he cannot exchange. Everybody wants the recipient to like our gifts, but we cannot guarantee that especially if it is something totally out of sync with the person, or that doesn’t fit. So please, don’t provide a gift from a niche shop out of state that she/he will never be able to exchange. Your gift will probably be recycled.

The fifth worst present ever to give is a recycled present. Maybe we didn’t have time to research and go out and get them a present. 90% of the time, this will be unusable for the person that receives it. After all, didn’t we recycle it? It probably was not useful or attractive to begin with.  If not, we would have kept it. The issue is the immense guilt you are feeling afterwards for doing this. Remember, even products that appear-as in a recycled gift- carry a burden. In this case guilt.

Finally, the sixth worst present ever may be the one in which you purchase the item, really wanting it for yourself; however, you give it to someone else. You figure the recipient won’t need it and will offer back. Please know this: this kind of plan will invariably backfire on you, and it is horrible to begin with! If you would like the product, purchase it for you personally – or else you will be winding up purchasing two when you might have only purchased it once.

Remember the golden rule: Do onto others as you would like them to do unto you! Happy gifting!

Nov 1, 2010

Some very popular gifts that are sure to please anybody on your gift lists are movies, music or books.

Movies can be found everywhere from Blockbuster video rental stores, to Target, Office Max or Office Depot, to Wal-Mart and Walgreen Pharmacies.  You’ll also find movies in supermarkets and convenience stores.  Most of the bigger merchants, like Wal-Mart, have bins of “bargain” listed movies and if you do not mind digging through them you’ll find some great movies at very cheap prices.  If you don’t mind getting “formerly seen” movies you can get some current hits for as little as $8.00 to $10.00.   Although we do not recommend that you give previewed movies as gifts. You should really get new movie or people on your gift list. If you are diligent about searching and experience good timing you will be able get some good new unopened movies from eBay for a small fraction of the price in shops.

If you are unsure of what types of movies the person likes, you can always get a gift certificate.  You can acquire gift certificate for either sales or rentals.  A very nice inexpensive gift basket could consist of a gift certificate for movie rental, a box of microwave popcorn along with a couple of chocolate bars.

Another option is to buy some movie boxed gift sets.  A number of these sets, such as the Lethal Weapon series, comprise the Directors commentaries as well as special scenes which were cut out of the actual movie, interviews with the stars, bloopers along with other interesting information about the behind the scenes of the movie itself.  If you have a John Wayne or Tom Cruise fan in your list, you will find a number of different boxed sets containing all their movies or just put one together.

A lot of the TV shows release entire seasons inside a set format.  Does your partner love watching Hawaii 5-0, CSI NY or The Good Wife? Or the Discovery Channel or even the Learning Channel? Well most likely the shows are available on DVD or Blue Ray and will be the perfect gift.

Exactly the same could be said about music as gifts.  You will find music stores in which the selection is enormous. You only have   to know the person’s taste in performers. But even if you don’t know you can still give them music. Since the launch of the iPod, you can now buy an iTunes gift certificate and they can use it to purchase their favorite tunes for their iPod. You are thus  able to come up with a very nice gift without lots of effort.

As far as books as gifts, you will find an incredible quantity of book stores available, ranging from the small corner book stores to the mega chains. The genres are limitless and include romance, detective books, horror books, westerns, sci-fi, biographies, cook books, training books, children’s books, etc.  You are also not restricted to hard or soft cover books.  You will find audio books on DVD’s and CD’s.  Nowadays you can also find give gift cards to people that have a Kindle, or a Nook, or an iPad so they can read their books electronically. You can buy books on Amazon or even Google nowadays. Book shop and/or books offer you an unlimited array of choices for those on our list that are book lovers. It is truly a one-stop holiday gift shop.