The Five Forbidden Gifts Rule
For Christmas, Ashley got me a sweet Pac-Man jacket. But best of all, she got me something I’ve been coveting for over 8 years now: A Utilikilt! This is why I love this woman…she knows me all too well.
You see, I have these rules for buying me gifts (of which Ashley is the only person who’s exempt). My family would always tell me how hard I am to shop for. They’d ask me for lists, but that kinda ruins the spirit of it all, I think. If I tell you what to buy me, how am I going to be pleasantly surprised by the sentiment. To me, a gift is a reflection of how well you know and care about the person. And for some reason, my family kept giving me junk.
I know… It sounds ungrateful. But when someone gives me a terrible gift, I feel bad that they wasted money on something I either don’t like or can’t use. Not only that, it sucks to learn just how much someone doesn’t know or listen to you. Then once I receive the gift, I’m then burdened with the task of getting rid of it. My loved ones lose money and I’m stuck with a chore…everyone loses. I honestly would prefer no gift than receive a burden.
So I came up with the idea of The Five Forbidden Gifts rule. There are only five types of things that I absolutely don’t want anyone to buy for me ever. Everything else is fair ball. I don’t even mind if you get me something I already have; that still tells me that you understand my tastes. And if someone gets me a movie or something that it turns out that I don’t like, I chalk it up to hey, at least you tried. And I appreciate that.
Anyway, here are the Five Forbidden Gifts:
- Clothing
- Furniture
- Decorations
- Cooking Supplies
- Cat Toys
Clothing is something I think we all have difficulty with. Something is either not at all our style, or it’s the wrong size! One year my mom got an ugly shirt from a relative and when she said she might exchange it, she discovered from the receipt that it was bought from a store catered to fat women. There’s an insult I could do without… If the only clothing that you believe will fit your recipient comes from a fat person store…don’t buy them clothes.
By furniture, I don’t really mean like a couch or something… Even something like book shelves or end tables can be a pain. Aesthetic tastes aside, one thing I’ve noticed that people don’t consider is if the recipient even has room for what they’re trying to give them. One year I got a wine rack. it was cool, but in the few times that I have wine on hand, I keep only one bottle at a time…not enough to warrant an entire rack. Second, in my small apartment, I have absolutely no room for a wine rack. Up on Craigslist it goes…
Decorations can get ugly. And while you don’t have to worry as much about having room for them as you do with furniture, they do tend to pile up. I have enough Christmas ornaments to fill a full sized tree. Again, my apartment is only big enough that I can use a pint-sized tree. Of which I can’t use anyway because my cat will destroy it. People know this, yet buy me ornaments anyway…
I also don’t have much room for cooking supplies. I do enjoy cooking, but people seem to think I’m Alton Brown or something. Also, I have half a dozen sushi preparing and serving sets. It’s awesome that people know I love sushi, but I have no idea what brings them to think I can make the stuff, let alone serve it in my home. Whenever I eat sushi, I hit a sushi bar. Also, there are things that I do wish I had (like a blender) but I can’t because I don’t have room for one. Thus, only I myself buy my kitchen supplies when I see that there is a need and a place to put it.
Lastly, cat toys. My cat never plays with toys that people can buy. Her favorite toys in the universe are gift bags, milk jug rings, a laser pointer (which I already own), and my shadow.
Other than that, the sky’s the limit! Merry Christmas!
