How to Win Christmas

​I need to you to know that this blog will not be book-related, nor will it be some sappy open letter to my 7 blog readers about how Christmas is about more than gifts.
This blog is about how to win Christmas by giving your loved ones better gifts than anyone else gives them, which is really what it is all about!  You have to win!  
Oh, we're just having fun.

Here is a listicle of items that everyone will really like!  Everyone!

1.  Gold
2. Frankincense
3. Myrrh
(just kidding, although definitely popular baby gifts some years ago).

1.  Find a Facebook picture you can tell they like (i.e. one they've pulled from their memories a time or two, or one that features their pets or children or the sunrise on their wedding morning) and blow it up on a canvas.  Who wouldn't love that?
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2.  Buy them something FANCY that they wouldn't buy themselves.  Not Russell Stover chocolates - FANCY ARTISAN chocolates or Godiva at the very least.  FANCY whiskey.  FANCY cigars.  This is why I have a $25 bottle of hairspray on my Christmas list.  It is FANCY hairspray.

3.  Add a sweet note to a gift that explains why it is meaningful.  For example, I wrote Veronica a note when I gave her an American Girl doll some years ago when I super didn't have the money for it.  I told her she deserved it because she was such a good girl for her mommy all year long.  She saved it.  She saved it, and she was 8 or 9 years old.  I think she took better care of the note than the doll.
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4.  Personalized stuff, but not lame personalized stuff.  When Jeff moved into his house in Mackinaw (before we became official, got engaged, got married, and moved into a new house), I bought him a really cool sign that said "Scheirer" made from deer antlers.  He liked it! Hunters tend to like antler themed stuff.  My sister might like something that said "Vicky" made of vampire fangs.  

5.  Books, obviously.  Be careful.  My former mother in law bought me a book that was about how to keep my home clean.  Thanks.
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6.  Books that combine more than one thing the recipient enjoys.  Look at this picture my friend Olivia gave me.  A tarot card about coffee with a cat on it.  It's like Olivia has been watching me for my whole life and that's awesome in the creepiest way.

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7.  Gift cards.  The trick with gift cards is that it should be to somewhere awesome.  While I would never snub a Chili's gift card and the chips and salsa and margarita stomachache that accompanies it, I get really excited when we receive a gift card to a fine dining restaurant or a really amazing steakhouse.  Those dining experiences are more memorable and provide us with an excuse to go somewhere a little nicer on our date nights. 

8.  Autographed stuff.  Once, I was able to get Mary Engelbreit to sign some stuff for my mom.  She happened to be signing stuff in St. Louis or Chicago at a mall I was visiting and I seized the opportunity to win Christmas.

9.  Anything that says, "I took time thinking of what you might like."  For example, one of my favorite wedding presents was a set of coasters that our friends Joy and Brad picked out for us.  Bed Bath and Beyond has this motherload display of all sorts of neat coasters and I can just imagine those two picking the ones they know we'd like.  They were successful - not even one of them was lame.

10.  Liquor.  I like the joke I saw floating around social media at one point - "How can I possibly be hard to buy for if you know where a liquor store is located?"  I'll just say I've never given a gift of a bottle of alcohol that wasn't well received.  

There you go, now you are equipped with some ideas to be the ultimate gift-giver and really win Christmas this year!  Ho ho ho!  

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