Slackers’ guide to the Holidays

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By Charles Nunmaker

The Holidays are a time full of grand food, great family and amazing memories; however, for those on the shopping side of the holidays, it can be absolute misery. Almost everybody has seen it while trying to finish their shopping: moms in fisticuffs while their frightened children bawl behind them.

Like Sherman said, “Shopping is hell.” Wait, scratch that. However, for those of us with enough patience to do it, Black Friday is rolling around, and in my experience, Black Friday equals shopping hell. So here is my guide to what the easiest presents to get for your family and friends will be. Let’s just call it, for sake of simplicity, the Slackers’ Guide to Holiday Shopping.

For Mom: Your mother can be one of the hardest gifts to get this holiday season. If you are like me and you want to get her something special, you can never go wrong with a digital picture frame. You can make the picture frame even more special by adding some pictures to it before you give it to her.

If your Mom is not into digital picture frames, you can also never go wrong by getting her a gift card to her favorite place to shop. The best places to get gift cards for your Mom include Macys, Dillards, J.C. Penny, Gap, Sephora, Bath and Body Works and Williams Sonoma. Also, gift cards to any local place to get a manicure, pedicure, massage, spa or haircut are also very good gift card ideas to give.

For Dad: Your father can also be one of those difficult presents to find during the holiday season.  For those of us lucky enough to have a dad who likes to play video games, the perfect games this holiday season are Endwar and Call of Duty: World at War. They are both good war games full of action, and Endwar even lets you use your voice to command troops.

Where video games fail, gift cards and other gifts can succeed. If you have a Dad that loves music, you could also give him a gift card to Guitar Center, or any other music store where you know he would just go crazy.  Some of the best places to get a gift card for you Dad include Cabelas, Bass Pro Shop, Lowe’s and Home Depot.

For Your Sister: Sometimes a gift for your sister can be the easiest gift to get.  If you have a little sister, you have the luxury of being able to just giver her something easy like a Barbie or a Hanna Montana toy, but older sisters can be a little bit more difficult to shop for.

In my experience, a sister will always be happy with getting her favorite movie of the year on DVD, especially if it is a romantic comedy.  If you decide to give your sister a movie though, wrap it with a gift card, such as one to Forever 21.

For Your Brother: You can never go wrong with giving your brother a video game, especially a little brother. In fact, a recent study found that a majority of children across the nation have at least one video game on their Christmas list.

Hot video games titles for the holidays (that are not too violent to give to a younger sibling) include Saun White’s Snowboarding Experience, Guitar Hero 4 and Need For Speed: Undercover. Good video game titles for an older brother include Saints Row 2, Gears of War 2 and James Bond 007: Quantum of Solace.

For a brother around your age, though, a gift card to any electronics or sports store will be a good gift. It is also a good idea to give any brother a jersey of their favorite sports team or favorite football player.

For Friends: If your friends have decided to do a gift exchange this year, make sure you stay within the money limit.  A cheap present idea that always works is to give your friend one of their favorite albums on vinyl. Old vinyl albums can stay below the $20 range while new albums can also stay under the $25 range and can include a digital copy of the music.

For music-loving friends that are not as old school as vinyl, an iTunes gift card can also be a good gift. If exchanging presents doesn’t go well with your friends, it may just be better for your group to just have one big party and avoid gift giving.

All of the above are just some of the infinite amount of ideas of gifts to give this holiday season. Of course, these are just ideas though; it’s up to you to go out and get the presents for everyone.

Gift cards, although extremely impersonal, are always a good idea, and that is why I included them in every section, but for our family members and friends who never have time to use them, they can just end up being another piece of plastic in their wallet; however, one gift card that anyone would be sure to use would be a gift card to a movie theater.

Movie theater gift cards would definitely benefit the recipient around the holidays with so many good movies coming out and the time off from work. I leave you with these ideas, and I hope that your holidays are everything that you expect they will be.

Originally Published: Issue 713 - November 19, 2008

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