Christmas is upon us, or whatever tradition you may follow (or if you don’t follow any at all!)
This time of year, people give gifts to others and receive some in return.
What did you give to someone this holiday season, and what have you received in turn?
My family and I will be moving on to the unwrapping later this morning, but for me, this year I’ve given out donations on behalf of my family members and will give my sister a Supernatural-inspired (the TV show) cookbook.
I’ve given 20$ each to
It’s been a most profitable Christmas
I got four 4K Blu-rays, Bladerunner, The Shining, The Lost World and Joker.
Two bottles of booze, one Whisky and one Cognac/Brandy.
A t-shirt with the JP logo in Japanese and t-shirt.
Handcreme and German shower gel (Dusch Das with the scent of Noir)
1.5 Kg of Raisins ( still don’t quite understand why)
The Danish version of Cards against humanity.
And last but not least a gift card for H&M.
Christmas for me this year is alone. As depressing as it sounds this is the way. I’ll be having a small gathering next week with my parents and siblings, but that’s it. Tomorrow I’ll be doing something with a friends and New Years Eve I’ll probably make dinner and have 3 friends over who have been good little social distancers.
As for today, I’ll surely be playing a lot of video games.
Sort of a holiday and New Years resolution. I decided to sign up to become a blood donor. Got some material things which are great too.
I received a new mouse pad, some PC cleaning supplies, some cute socks, honey, tobacco, tongs and several other small stuff which I’m all happy with.
I gave some incense to my mom, a good lighter to my dad, wool socks for my sister, candy for my niece and a couple of angel figurines to my grandmothers.
I gotta say, it was a really good Christmas, had some sushi on Eve and some steak today which were all delicious. It’s been great.
I tried to become a blood donor years ago but they couldn’t find a vein in either of my arms. When I had to go to hospital earlier this year, they ended up having to take the blood from my right hand. Hoping when I get older the veins in my arms will become easier to access. It’s great that you’ve decided to become one.
Anyway, on topic. What I ended up giving people:
Imgur Secret Santa: Captain America socks, World’s Smallest Toolbox, The Killing Joke book, Star Trek DS9: The Never Ending Sacrifice book, Richard Osman’s House of Games book, Infinity Guantlet: A Love Letter Game.
Dad: AC/DC’s new album, Thornton’s chocolate Santa. I usually got Dad at least 4 different DVDs for Christmas but he insisited I only bought him the new album. I’m going to buy him the Star Trek: Picard DVD as soon as it comes out in January though.
Dad’s partner: 3 boxes of Thornton’s.
Friend #1: £50 donation to Edinburgh’s Dog and Cat Home.
Friend #2: DVD of The Wizard of Oz and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
Friend #3: Bottle of Edinburgh Gin.
Uncle: Alice in Wonderland postcards and a DVD of The Lighthouse.
Cousin: PS4 copy of the Final Fantasy VII Remake.
What I got:
Imgur Secret Santa: 8 fancy tea bags, a few chocolates, James Bond piano music sheets, Sapiens: A Graphic History book, Love Letter game.
£20 Amazon gift card
£20 in cash (from a friend who I agreed not to exchange presents with, but then hides this in her card, so I feel slightly annoyed since I didn’t get her anything.)
Joe 90 Blu-Ray
Fireball XL5 DVD
2 new t-shirts
Some Kind of Hero book
Essential Status Quo CD
Rock and Roll compilation CD
The Wonderful 101 Remastered Switch game
This year was a good, fine Christmas.
)Ah, there’s also a mystery gift from my sister that isn’t arriving until Monday. No clue what it is.
First, around 5 days ago I got the dlcs for Hitman 2 for PS4. I’ve been waiting for a discount since the original price in the local PS store was too much compared to that of the game itself.
Just today, I also got all the old games for PC. And I’m gonna be picking up H3 Deluxe when it comes out as well. Overall, I’m really glad to be excited about playing games again since I took a few breaks this and last year, so I haven’t played at all since the last week(-end? not sure) of August and before that since around April and before that since the previous summer, I think. That’s also the reason I decided to come back to the forum and I might not stay long after the H3 release because I have a difficult semester coming but who knows
This is kinda of a follow up to my earlier post.
So I won’t be going to my parents to celebrate a late Christmas. With that being said my Dad and Sister came down to collect their gifts. I’ll rip the bandaid off quick, I didn’t really get anything for Christmas. I’m not upset by it. I did give a lot this Christmas which at its core is what matters.
My cousins who are really young for context sake I’m 20 and they are not even double digits. I got them stuff they wanted.
I gave my Grandmother who I look after a new Keurig Coffee maker since she needed a new one. I ended up giving that to her early.
My Twin Sister all she wanted was a blanket without the felt on the inside. While it was a task to get I did fine one like that.
My Father got a Xbox Series X, it would of been in preorder purgatory, but I paid it off for him, he got it early when I picked up mine.
My Brother, I’ve been keeping his phone on for him.
My extended family got cards with gift cards in them for places like Hardware Stores and Target. It’s simple and they can use it on what ever.
That’s really it.
I got my wife a pair of Italian leather gloves. They are gun holster tan in colour and man! are they sharp looking. They are super soft too. She gets an expensive addition to her jewellery collection each year, but this year I could have skipped it bc she loved the gloves so much. I got her some other stuff too but nothing note worthy.
For my father (who is the hardest person to shop for on the planet; he doesn’t like anything and if he does like something he already has it and/or I can not afford it) I got a piece of furniture for his new house in Florida. He picked it out. I finally broke down and let him tell me what he wanted bc between birthdays and Christmas I’m 2 for 36 with surprises. He gets a golf course gift certificate each year on father day bc I can’t handle being 0/3 every year 
. Maybe I am even even only 1/36 bc one year I told my sister that I finally thought I had a good gift for Dad and I know she let it slip that I was excited, so he could have been pretending to like it. Anyway he likes it so that’s good.
I got my sister a weighted blanket that she had been talking about and my wife picked out some other stuff for her but I didn’t pay attention to what it was.
Mom didn’t want anything this year, which is out of character for her. I knew she needed a new printer/scanner though so that’s what she got.
I got some good stuff in return (especially from the wife who did a fantastic job picking gifts this year) but the best part of the holidays is the giving part.
I knew I made a thread like this once before!.. Figure I’ll bring it back
So! This holiday was very nice.
I gave each of my family members (and myself) a huge cold-drink cup for Starbucks. Different colours
I got my Sister a gift card for her nintendo switch. She really hasn’t used it much since I got it for her last year, but she wants to, if she gets in the mood.
I know she wanted to buy Hades on the shop recently since I reccomended it to her based on her love of the Greek Pantheon. Hope she enjoys it.
Got my Mom a memoir from Molly Shannon (ex SNL member) and a mini glass starbucks cup ornament.
My Dad got a book called Agent Sonya, from author Ben Macintyre. Its a true account of a master spy from the Soviet Union who helped with the creation of the atomic bomb.
As for myself, well, honestly I think the parents went a little too far with some gifts this year, but I’m extremely grateful for them anyway.
I got the shirt!! They have no idea why I’m so jazzed about it, but it IS cute either way!
They also got me a Guardians Holiday Special shirt! That’s a surprise and so awesome!
The internet shoved me into an IKEA BLAHAJ wormhole this year. I caved and added it to my christmas list. They’re really cute and super soft.
Got the small one from my parents and the massive one from my sister!
Got the Miles Morales Spider-Man game which is great! Heard this one has christmasy vibes so it’s perfect.
(The case kinda got banged up apparently in transit, they didn’t realize it. I can live with it though, tape and the reversable cover can mostly fix it.)
Also… they really went overboard with this, they wouldn’t say how or why they got this, but I got the Office Lego set. I’m so stunned. 15 minifigures with this.
Got a bunch of chocolates, some shirts, underwear, socks as other small gifts and snacks. Love this pair too
We were supposed to go to a family dinner tonight, but unfortunately someone over there who was staying with them for the season has got covid!! 
So unfortunately we can’t/won’t go. Too risky. Though we will deliver a care package of potatoes (we have them all) and in return get some turkey (they have it all) a bit later. That’s really unfortunate, watch out for Covid, people!!
Happy holidays, I hope this doesn’t look too braggy. Just got pretty excited about a lot of this. Hope everyone has a nice holiday and spends it with people they love and care about.
Yea I liked this thread. Always fun to know what you chose to get for someone who’s special to you and why.
This year my Mother is out of town. She left in Nov for one of those trip of a lifetime things and will return in March (or maybe April or maybe not at all she claims) so we just agreed to put off gifts till she returns. A while ago we started getting Dad clothing on some holidays. He’s still impossible to shop for (see above from 2020) but this was an idea to just break up the boringness of “here’s more golf stuff,” and he’s enjoyed it bc he hates shopping and (crucially) the single ladies think he looks nicer when we pick out his clothes. We got him a pair of pants that will work on the golf course and in a business casual type/trendy restaurant. We also got him some button down shirts to go with it. He’s in Florida and lives on a golf course so this style is 90% of what he wears. I could tell he didn’t like one of the shirts but when we offered to swap it he said no. This means next time we visit I’ll just steal it from the back of his closet and he will never notice. So really I got a needy person a super nice shirt too, it’s just currently on loan for a month before it goes to Chicago Catholic Charities to be handed out. My sister made it easy this year. She wanted some fancy pillow that will hold her neck in a specific way while she sleeps. It looks pretty sweet and the colour she wanted was in. She also wanted a gift card for a nice restaurant (also easy). My wife and I agreed to not have an extravagant gift exchange this year. Our idea was to skip Christmas altogether and just exchange a small gift on Chanukah night 3, but she’s a liar and a cheat and I know it, so I got her a gift card to one of her favourite places on earth (it’s a fancy massage place that has wine and saunas and they put weird revitalising stuff on their faces and spend the whole day in there together; think a Turkish Bath House with gangsters in it from the movies only it’s full of all skinny girls instead of all fat guys 
). Thank god I did bc she went overboard and got this bag I have been looking at. I desperately needed a new purse. Mine was falling apart to the point where a couple of my friends said something (privately, but still). The only ones I wanted were super expensive and I was behaving like a dumb man. I wouldn’t pull the trigger for the one I wanted and I wouldn’t buy anything else I could afford bc I didn’t like it, so I was looking like I had stolen a homeless dudes purse. All in all we had a great Chanukah and Christmas.
That’s a nice thread 
I celebrated holy night with my family.
For my brother I bought the Bird of Prey from Star Trek from BlueBrixx. He already has the Enterprise, so he wanted this one for his collection, too.
For my mother my brother and I bought her a gift card for a pedicure and some headphones. She loves listening to audio books and would like to do that while cleaning or cooking but without having other noises around, so she wished for headphones.
And for Papa we bought a Revell VW camping bus. He loves building these cars, he has a whole room for himself in the house where he builds all that stuff. Here is an example of his work:
Can’t wait to see that new bus we bought him when it’s finished 
And Papa wished for a new calender, something with cars. But all we found were ugly so my brother and I decided to do a calender by ourselves. We put pictures in from our family. No old pictures but from the last years, from my parents on holidays together, from me and my brother… every month is filled with different pictures and I also draw some little doodles around them. Papa cried when we gave it to him and he looked at the different pages 
He was very touched and we too. We didn’t expected such a reaction.
And from my family I got two more boxes from Sailor Moon, the last missing ones. Now my collection is complete and I have all episodes 
And I got a new camera and microphone from Razer for my computer. I may or may not be planning to start streaming in the next year 
It’s some wish I have in mind for a very long time but I have much respect for that and I am also kinda afraid to stream. But maybe now with the new equipment I will give it a try. Will see 
And apart from all the gifts we had a nice time together with tasty food and we played Rummikub. I won three rounds 
After spending the first day of christmas at home, I will drive to my hometown again for the second day. There is a huuuuuge surprise coming and I hope the day will be as good as the holy night. We had such a wonderful time and no matter what the future will bring, this christmas will live in my memories forever 
You can live on a golf course? 
I can’t tell if you’re making fun of the way that sounded or not
In case you weren’t kidding…
He lives in a gated community built around their own private golf course, restaurant, pool and workout facility. There is no requirement to be old and retired, but 95% of them are over 55 and very few of the ones over 65 are still working.
Your Christmas SOUNDS AWESOME! I really like the calendar 
idea.
No no, I wasn’t kidding! I’m sorry if it sounded like that 
In my head there just pooped up a picture of a huge golf court with houses standing on it, as if the golf court is their garden I heard of these florida communities, but don’t know how they look like. And gated means it’s not for public and only for the people who live there? And no one else has access?
Pretty much. But people from the outside might have permission to come in.
Gated means it’s essentially walled off and the only way in is via a “gate” (or two). It might have a security guard in a small building (with maybe an iron gate, or one of those striped boards that swings up and down to let cars drive through) to check who’s coming in. They might phone (for example) ‘Mr. Williams’ and say “There’s a Dr. Rieper here, says he has an appointment to see you, sir.” 
Maybe friends or relatives to the occupants might have access but still required to check-in with security. Or people in professions making house-calls. Like a therapist or tech support person to look at why their client’s passwords aren’t working (when they left CAPS LOCK on).
