UPDATE: Pictures!

We're doing this in our family, and I think its such a good idea, I'm sharing it. We are getting a dog the day after Christmas. Instead of surprising our kids (aged 7 and 5) on Christmas, my husband told them about the dog a few days ago, and said that it was a surprise for me, the mom (hubby and I planned this). My kids are SO excited to surprise me with it - and plan on having me open a present christmas day (a dog toy or something), and then telling me we're getting a puppy. I can hear them giggling and planning and deciding what to do - and how excited they are for me to find out. I will have no problem feigning surprise Christmas morning, because I am just so excited to see their faces when they surprise me.

I don't know why people dont do this more often.

1. It reinforces the gift giving aspect of Christmas. My kids are more excited to give me a gift than to open any of their presents.

2. If gives them a chance to prepare, to plan, to be a part of the family preparation process, while also still incorporating the surprise element.

3. It simply put, creates, a long 'thread of joy'. I work upstairs and overheard my husband tell them (we planned this), and have now heard them whisper and plan and giggle, and discuss with my husband various things - go back and forth with names etc.

4. I also like that it creates this fun bonding moment between the 3 of them. We're a tight-knit family, but this is sort of an extra special thing for the three of them to plan together.

5. Everyone gets to be excited about the puppy, even though it is still a 'surprise'.

6. Logistically much better for us, and the dog. A puppy coming out of a box or from another room, to hysterically excited screaming children, can't not be stressful for the poor thing. This way we get to integrate the pup properly.. again, while still having the fun of a surprise.

Maybe I'll let everyone know how it goes Christmas morning, but so far I must say I dont know why people go for the 'animal in a box' as opposed to doing something like this!

EDIT: Yes, I will post pictures of the pup after we get him on the 26th :)

EDIT 2: He is here! He is a Eurasier breed. Name, we think will be Batman - or Vanta. Not sure yet. He is wonderful and the intro to the house and the kids went great.

Hi! My girlfriend recently made this gift for a long time friend who is getting married. She is pretty crafty but never worked with resin before and is a little distraught about how this came out. She’s considering not even giving it to her friend (who is also very crafty) and either making something new or just giving money. Does anyone have any thoughts? The quote is from her friend’s wedding song!

Edit: for people saying it’s cheap. We are also giving a big cash gift.

Hi! So looking for advice because it’s my first time doing an angel tree. I randomly grabbed a tag off the tree on my way out the gym, excited to go hunting for toys, cute stuff, etc. I was surprised to read what it actually said! I totally understand the wish for clothes but it’s the sizes that are throwing me off so much. For a 10 year old, women’s size 8/M doesn’t seem right (and to say 30L, I’m 5’4 and that’s long on me).

TLDR; Is it wrong that I’m skeptical these wishes might not be for the child? Or am I being silly and this really is a plausible size for a 10 year old girl?

EDIT: I did not mean to body shame in any way! I just don’t have kids and am never around them (but also see vanity sizing in every women's dept now) so wanted a quick sanity check. Thanks to y'all I now know this is totally normal, but I was going to fulfill the tag regardless along with fun extras. If anyone is now able to confirm pants labelled as M = 8 that would be super helpful. Thanks to those who responded with grace! <3

Last year my brother brought a surprise girlfriend home for Christmas. She was nice and my parents, other siblings, and I felt horrible as we didn’t have any gifts or anything for her. Now it’s a year later and sufficient raging on my brother for springing a whole person on us has happened we actually know her. She’s amazing. I noticed she has a hummingbird tattoo and complimented it, she said humming birds are her favorite animal. While out Christmas shopping I saw a beautiful hummingbird ornament (actually with her, I had to hide it in my jacket, get my mom to distract her, then double back to actually buy it like a 007 elf but it was the last one a little store that doesn’t have any back stock). When she opened it she started crying saying it was so sweet. She hasn’t been able to go home recently (long story I’m not going to get in to) so I think she was feeling a little homesick already and it made her cry.

Today at work everyone asked how Christmas was and what was the best part; I couldn’t say “making my brother’s girlfriend cry,” and I didn’t want to get into the whole backstory with my coworkers but the hug she gave me was the best part of my Christmas.

I painted this Miss Dior myself, and am going to gift to my best friend that likes cutie things. I initially was planning just to buy the items and give like that, but when I was driving to the store the idea enlightened me, and I remembered once seeing a post of someone painting a Miss Dior body oil/perfume, so I decided to paint and make this.

They are still drying, so this is not the final look, I also need to spray them with sealer, so the paint won't come off from the first use.

At first I was hesitant to open the perfume, cuz it was sealed, but eventually I couldn't step back from my idea. I hope I didn't ruin it 😭

Edit: Everyone!!! Its not half empty, it is a body oil. One half is the parfume/pink and other 1/3 is the oil, which is transparent, they do not get mixed. So it looks like this on the picture, in real life u can see the entire liquid ! 😭💕

UBDATE!!!! I gave it to her like couple of hours ago, just came home from the dinner 😭 She was crying 😭 I was crying. 😭 She loved it!! Quoting her words "WTF [my name] WHAT IS IT!!!! ARE YOU CRAZYYY!!!" and etc. Hahaha, I got her a huge bouquet of flowers as well. And some face masks, eye jelly patches, handcream and also I painted a happy birthday wish card for her. (It was like flowers (tulips) inside of the Birthday Card). In short! She loved it! I am glad I made it for her, love her so much. And so blessed to have her in my life. My lovely best friend 💕 I hope we stay friends forever, I truly hope and believe 🩷💚

P.s. I showed her this reddit post after giving the gift, and she was laughing at every comment that were asking me to be their friend, lol. Sorry to those that I agreed to be friends 👀 I guess I cant anymore, she is jealous! Jk 😂✨️

Thanks everyone for your warm words and compliments, I really appreciate every single one♡ I answered so far to everyone and will try to do afterwards as well 🥹 since I really appreciate your compliments ✨️ I am not a professional artist, and its just my hobby, so its very heartwarming to see that people actully find it pretty 🥹💕 Thanks 💕🫂🎀✨️

For context, I'm a 42 year old female. My dad is very sick and elderly. He sits in his recliner all day and doesn't walk anymore. He uses an ostomy bag so he really only gets up to have a bowel movement or to go to bed. My mom has become his full time caregiver. I thought it would be really cool to get them a Bird Buddy video bird feeder so that dad can watch the birds from his chair using his tablet. The cool thing about the Bird Buddy is, you get notifications when there is activity, it identifies the bird type and you can share your feeder view with up to 10 people. I was SO excited to get this for them. I even paid Amazon to wrap it and I encouraged them to open the gift as soon they received it so they didn't have to wait until Christmas day. They received it last night and this morning my mother texted me and said they want to return it. She said dad doesn't want the bird feeder attracting squirrels and causing the dogs to bark. I suggested they hang it out front. Nope, it will still attract squirrels and tear the feeder up.

I initiated the return through Amazon and sent my mom the QR code so she can return it to Kohls.

I've been crying over this stupid gift because I was generally excited for them to get it. I've given my mom a gift shrub for their yard years ago and dad made me go with her to return it so this isn't the first time they have done this to me.

I think the Bird Buddy is an amazing gift idea and maybe a good idea for someone on here.

This last year my bf was trying to work on being more financially secure. This included making cuts on unnecessary spending. Obviously Christmas was coming and i usually let him set the budget because I will spend an infinite amount on gifts if i could.

The topic came up and he mumbles out “… ok this may be lame but”

And suggested we give each other Christmas cards…

…. With a whole day we plan out for the other as a gift.

I thought it was such a cute and sweet idea. We take day trips semi frequently and having one whole day planned out for the other worked because it

1. doesn’t cost money immediately while holiday spending is high

2. can set the budget of the date and save ahead of time

3. no rush to do the date on a specific date. But we did plan to do our dates before march.

While this was for Xmas, it would be nice for valentines day or something that you can gift each other a plan for a day of the year that isnt going to be overcrowded and expensive.

Thought this was a good addition to the “gift an experience” suggestion i see frequently

Edit: heres what we gifted each other!

He’s outdoorsy and so I found a spot to go Kayaking to go watch the animals! I picked out a hotel nearby to wake up and get there early. Then i found a good well reviewed thai restaurant (his fav) nearby. For dinner.

I make clothes so my BF planned a day to travel around the city nearby with locations that match the arsthetic of the clothes i make. (Sundress by the water, more street wear stuff in the downtown) and take photographs for me!

Im really excited for them :)

Got invited to a white elephant party with some newer friends. I saw the candle while shopping, thought it was funny, then by coincidence, the next shop I went to had even more butter-related stuff so I fully committed to the theme.

I later found out this group leans more toward nicer/practical gifts (cocktail sets, stanley mugs, etc.) Should I abandon the butter gift and get something else? I don’t want to bring the thing no one wants!

We have stood up for our neighbors repeatedly with our landlord. He is racist. He is nice to us and our rent is cheap and the unit is nice, but bottom line is: he is racist. There are the usual noise/parking issues/tensions that occur in any multi-level, but they are open to conversations and compromise, they were the first to congratulate us when we had our son and demanded to HELP WITH LAUNDRY. When I tell you I SWOONED. But they are just amazing people, and are unfortunately being treated even more horribly than usual due to their religion/ethnicity/region from where they’ve immigrated. I would love to be able to show them some support during a particularly vulnerable time. Any recommendations and criticisms are welcome (including putting me in my place if I am overstepping and being ‘that’ white girl). Thank you!

Edit: WOW! I had no idea this would get so many responses, and I was honestly bracing myself to be told I was maybe overstepping. I am so grateful for all of the replies and suggestions! Reading all of your replies has been incredibly encouraging and uplifting. Thank you! 🙏

Just wanted to share this small gift idea :)

I'm(23) a student on a budget so I had to get creative this year. My brother (26) has recently started cooking. So I made him a recipe book.

I wrote 7 recipes of my own, got my dad to write 3 of his, my mam the same and my granny who couldn't write so I wrote hers down, 3 also. Every recipe had a note on it, some silly, some heart warming. One was "You can try to make this vegan but it won't work" one from my granny was "This is very healthy, early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise".

I also wrote a blurb at the back something like "A recipe book for all your journeys across TikTok or your travels" "With recipes from XYZ and space to add recipes of your own, your friends and someday a family's of your own". But it was really long, I won't write the whole thing.

Anyways, he's a big, tough guy but when he read the blurb, he started to cry and it was so heart warming. I feel like this was a win and I'm happy.

Happy Holidays !

Edit: Thank you all so much for the wonderful comments, I’ve read each and every one of them and appreciate them all !

I tried to make everything as authentically as I could. The last photo is a note that will be included

A few months ago, I came down with an illness that was very scary and misdiagnosed by my first doctor. After the first doctor’s medication didn’t work, I went to a second doctor who went above in beyond in figuring out what was wrong with me, ultimately correctly diagnosed me, got me on the right medication, and now I am back to normal health. I want to show my appreciation by giving him and his staff a gift but I don’t know him or what he likes. What is a good gift in this situation? Around $100-150 value.

she has everything, attends William and Mary and is very much a "fight the man, power to the people, social justice, reform kind of girl. She is a very good girl, doesn't drink, smoke or swear and attends church. Yes, I know, but she really is a good girl. No piercings or tattoos. I want to encourage her to embrace fighting for social justice, if that is her jam. I am not sure if she likes boys or girls, she never says anything about anything. I am technically a step-grandmother, so she doesn't spend time with me personally. Yes, I know how that sounds. She is very shy and quiet. She volunteers at a cat rescue and has fostered in the past. She has some type of a lizard but I don't know anything about it. she doesn't wear makeup. She is not androgenous but not particularly feminine or butch. She is a lovely girl just very shy and sensitive. She is vegan. I bought her some high-end dark chocolate bars. She lives in a dorm and has everything for that. I really like this girl I just don't know her very well. Thank you for your help.

EDIT: guys, y'all are amazing. You touched this old lady's heart. I over a hundred responses. Y'all are amazing. Thank you. I am reading them right now. Reddit Rocks.

SECOND EDIT *** First off I want to apologize. A couple people have pointed out that I inferred that tattoos and piercings are bad. Thank you for calling me on my cr@p. I was dead wrong. I am pasting and copying my apology to the two people that complained. I am so sorry guys. Really.

*********Oh no. Did I offend you? I am sorry. I apologize. Some of our kids have tattoos and piercings. It is fine with us. I should not have described her in a manner that made anyone else feel less than. I truly apologize. Thank you for calling me on my stuff. Please accept my apologies. Truly not being sarcastic or snotty

*** The other thing I wanted to share with you guys. Thank you. Thank you for all the wonderful links, sweet and kind words and suggestions. I bought stuff not only for our girl but for a lot of our other girls. I bought a bunch of save the earth stickers and am going to stick them in the boys' packages along with some of the no means no stickers. You all have touched my heart. I am so grateful. I found some awesome books, pins stickers and a bracelet that tracks turtles. I spent way too much money. LOL. I have saved this post for future reference. I am grateful. Thank you. ......Nana out.

This is someone who really has anything they want and can afford whatever. They also work in event planning and have direct access to the flower markets from her time as a florist so flowers seem unsatisfying. Her adult daughter is a chiropractor and has a massage therapist on staff so that is also out as an idea.

My brother and SIL kept my 3 year old for almost a week while I had a new baby, and kept my newborn for 3 days while I was in the ER/ICU with preeclampsia. She got up every two hours with my newborn. How on earth do I say thank you?

ETA: We do not have godparents in my religion and the baby is already named so those suggestions are also out!

ETA 2: she’s very much NOT a sentimental person. (Should have included this.) She’s definitely someone who chucked her kids artwork the second they brought it home and never used to display family photos either- but is a loving and giving person. Definitely an acts of service personality. But I’m not sure how she receives love honestly.

ETA 3: While she is my sister in law, we are not peers. She’s old enough to be my mom and her kids are adults! Big age gap!

I love the idea of this because this is a hidden gift that only me and my girlfriend will know the meaning. I imagine a guest seeing this thinking this is a cool piece of art, and then I will tell them to squint their eyes and I feel like they will being amazed when they see the hidden us. I hope she likes it, I'm so excited.

I’ve been working on these micro-crochet fruit bracelets, and my sister saw them while helping me pack a few items. She said they were really cute, so I ended up making one for her too.

I’m considering giving it to her as a small gift — does it feel gift-worthy?

Hello! As the title says, I have 4 sisters aged 15-19. They’re all very girly and trendy.

Unfortunately, I am unemployed at the moment and couldn’t afford expensive gifts and wanted to spend the same amount for each sister.

Is this a really sad collection of gifts for each of them? Felt like a lot more when adding to the cart and in front of me just looks sad and weak. How can I make the gifts more special without making them too much more expensive?

I hope someone in this situation, a young person or someone struggling financially can see this post without judgement and take a step back with Christmas gifts this year to gift plants, wine under $10, etc., instead of gift cards for the whole family, nieces, in laws, etc.

Maybe you can just give 1 gift per family instead of each person individually, and give a smaller gift this year. Can even make suggestions in the comments.

No judgment just hoping to spread some awareness, if a car needs replacing, medical expense, etc creeps up hopefully this advice will help you in the long run. I know all that cute stuff in target is hard to resist.

I plan on sending flowers one day, and an Edible Arrangement another day. What else would be fun/thoughtful while I'm away? Need to show appreciation to my wife for being on duty 24/7 these next 2 weeks.

EDIT: Thank you to all for your responses. The tl;dr I'm learning here is time=love, massage, sitter, food, NOT a gift.

This holiday season, I decided to sponsor a family through my children's school. I am doing 'Operation Santa' for a family of five; Mom, 9yo Boy, 6yo Girl, 3yo Girl, and 2yo Boy.

I've already gotten them a tree with trimmings, all the big gifts, an outfit for each kid, and 90% of the stockings. I spent around $350 for each child. I still need to purchase the holiday meals and extra treats, and am arranging for non-physical extras ($500 gift card for groceries/gas/pharmacy, some fun money, and a photo session/prints with a wonderful family photographer locally here.) But, here's the rub: Mom didn't ask for anything!

What is a physical gift I can get for Mom, ideally under $100? Anything the feels a little extra luxurious? She is a single mom, with four kids, two being special needs. I just want to give her the opportunity to unwrap something special too!

Thanks for any suggestions!

Edit: TL;DR - I am already giving Mom cold hard cash, a $500 card to our local co-op for groceries/gas/sundries/pharmacy, AND a photo session WITH prints.

I also know NOTHING about Mom; not clothing sizes, hair type, or skin sensitivities. This is being done completely anonymously; I've never met the woman (to my knowledge, I don't know the last name(s) of the family chosen by the school faculty,) and frankly, I prefer it that way. I don't want my kids inadvertently treating any schoolmates differently because they know their financial/relationship/whatever situations at home.

Please suggest anything else!

Signed, A Canadian mom just trying to 'pay it forward.'

Edit 2: I decided to get Mom a high quality, versatile leather purse. It will be filled with the gift certificate for the photo session, a couple smaller frames, lightly scented Spongelle body buffers, a gold-filled bangle, some luxury chocolates, and a matching leather wallet. Because I believe that wallets/purses shouldn't be gifted empty, it will be complete with the gift card for grocery/gas/pharmacy, random spending cash and a personal note.

Thanks everyone, except those slinging attacks. Happy holidays, y'all!

We did an Angel Tree at the school I work at this year and it's so disappointing to see how cheap and selfish some people can be. My school is not cheap by any means. Many parents probably spent less than $50 on their babies. Now my coworker and I are filling in the gaps for several babies even though we've each fulfilled babies already. My coworker organized the entire tree so she feels obligated to make things right. She has already spent $1000+ to make up for these parents who send their kids in new brand name clothes everyday and drive expensive cars.

What bothers me most is nobody forced them to take the tags and other people would have been happy to spoil these kids.

Edit/update: for more perspective

multiple kids asked for winter jackets/clothes and got $10-20 of toys

There were needs/wants on every card

An email was sent out to parents jus in case there hasn't been any gifts turned in yet

I'm not trying to say anyone is entitled to anybody else's money, but it wasn't required to buy gifts

Obviously anyone should be grateful to receive a gift

Final Edit: I talked to both couples, they were touched and one even had similar ideas saved to their Pinterest board. They both want to use them at their weddings, and display them in their homes after the fact❤️ thanks to the peeps that pushed me to just ask!

EDIT:
Their gift, if I gifted it to them would not be for their actual big day. I would not spring that on them to make something I made fit around their perfect day. That’s just rude. It would be a keepsake to keep in their home, while this size of ours is 16x20 because it’s intended to be a welcome sign for our wedding, theirs could be made smaller if I decided to make one, and it’d be geared toward their vibes. However, I did not realize gifting home decor was such a “No, No”. So I will more than likely not do this to them, because I would hate for them to hate it and not want to tell me etc. thanks for the feedback y’all!

I recently made this faux stained glass for our wedding next year, I still need to add our names and frost the middle. Yes I’m new at it, it’s my first time. But we have two sets of friends getting married the weekend before us, and then the weekend after us. I had such a fun time making it I’m thinking about making one for each of them as well. Do you think it’s something they’d like? If you got gifted this at your wedding would you like it? Thanks