Originally Posted by
lph
.... feeling old and very cranky here...
In my world, if you're over 8 years old, you wait until someone asks before you tell them what you want for Christmas.
If by chance, they don't ask, and you feel the need to contact them to tell them what you want anyway, you include some pleasantries, and ask them what they want for Christmas too.
If you never ask what someone wants for Christmas, you don't get to gripe about how hard it is to buy presents for them.
If you do ask, you don't get to gripe then either, especially not about how impossible it is to find that single object they wanted. It was a wish, not an order.
In fact you don't EVER get to gripe about how impossible it is to buy presents for someone, because it pretty much negates the entire point of gift-giving.
This world sounds good to me.
I like the challenge of buying gifts. I try to strike a balance between getting something a person asked for and searching for things that I think the person would like or find useful. That way there's a chance of surprising them (and I hope the surprise is a pleasant one). I try to choose unasked-for gifts based on what I know about a person, their likes and dislikes and the things they do for fun. I like when people give me things I didn't ask for because they saw it and thought I would like it.
My issue is with gift cards. I'm happy to give them when I know the person will really enjoy shopping with it, such as my nieces who love to shop for clothes. I'm happy to give them to contribute to an expensive item that someone is saving up for, or to give gift cards for restaurants or movie theaters to people who will enjoy using them. But I don't like it when they're the "I have no idea and I don't want to try to think of an idea" alternative.
- Gray 2010 carbon WSD road bike, Rivet Independence saddle
- Red hardtail 26" aluminum mountain bike, Bontrager Evoke WSD saddle
- Royal blue 2018 aluminum gravel bike, Rivet Pearl saddle
Gone but not forgotten:
- Silver 2003 aluminum road bike
- Two awesome worn out Juliana saddles