Lost My Gift-Giving Mojo

After completely forgetting about my annual October holiday shopping trip, I'm kind of in big trouble from the gift-giving standpoint.  I generally avoid all malls like the plague until Christmas -- and that "like the plague" bit is becoming slightly more literal.  A doctor once told me (when I was annoying sick during the holiday season) that malls -- being enclosed environments with lots of people circulating -- are places where germs just love to be transmitted.  And given that people feel an obligation to go shopping this time of year, some folks are likely to hit the malls when they're not exactly 100% healthy.  With all that H1N1 business (and me not having been vaccinated), the malls are really on my "Avoid" list, so I'm pretty much left doing all of my holiday shopping on the internet.

Which normally isn't a bad thing -- I generally do everything on the internet after the October mall shopping trip as it is.  But the difference between a mall and the internet is that mall shopping can be somewhat passive.  You just walk into a store and all the merchandise is right there for you to look at.  Not so much on the web, where it helps if you already have an idea of what you're looking to buy -- "scanning shelves" on the web is too huge of an undertaking.  That initial mall trip serves as a good "scouting mission" to give me ideas of things to buy for people on my list (and, as it happens, ideas of things I'd like to put on my Amazon wish list) and without it, I'm pretty much flying blind.

Having made a list of NAMES, I've managed to put check-marks next to 2 or 3 of them, and maybe an idea for 1 or 2 others, but that's it.  I'm kinda screwed.  There are a lot of names there (including some I'm not even certain I'm exchanging gifts with) and I've got No Damn Ideas at all for most of them.  I sit there looking at a name, repeating it over and over in my head and hoping inspiration will strike ... but nothing.


Yesterday, I caught the Ellen DeGeneres show, and she was doing one of those audience holiday gift giveaway things.  Gave each member of the audience $1500 worth of stuff, and I thought, "Great!  I'll get some ideas there."  Not so much.  More than half of it was gift cards -- which is, y'know, great publicity for Target, Staples, and Cost Plus, but not really helpful for me in terms of Gifts To Buy -- and then she gave audience members both a Wii and a XBox.  The audience was thrilled, of course; but, again, in terms of giving me ideas, not all that helpful.


I've looked at tons of holiday gift-giving guides, and none have really given me much inspiration.  I'm starting to think it should be freakin' mandatory for everyone to make an easily-accessible holiday wish list (with many items in different price ranges), so all their friends, family and co-workers can buy them something they want and be done with it.  All of this stress is driving me crazy.  Bah Humbug and all that.