Advice for "bulk" holiday gift purchases?

[smiles33]

My mom asked me to handle buying gifts for everyone this year (my brother's family of 4, DH and my 2 kids, the in-laws on both sides, etc.) and just wrote me a very generous check to cover it all. She finds gift-giving very stressful (which I do, too, honestly!). DH handles gift-buying for our family because he enjoys it and hates the idea of giving gift cards or money (red envelopes stuffed with cash are a welcome gift in our shared Chinese culture but he's 5th gen Chinese American and I'm the 1st gen born here!).

Is there some in-between way to tackle this for my mom? The easiest (least thoughtful?) method is to get some toys for the 4 kids, gift cards to restaurants for DH and me and DB and DSIL (we love to eat out!), and Harry and David fruit baskets for the in-laws. The more labor-intensive method is to pick out individual gifts for each person.

I do have a 20% off entire purchase Target coupon which runs now until 12/7, so I was thinking if I'm going to try to do individual gifts, I'd love to buy them from Target. But there aren't a lot of options for the older in-laws (in their 70s) who aren't into tech toys and whom I don't know well enough to buy clothes/housewares for.

Any ideas or guidance would be so appreciated!

[jgenie]

I dislike having to be the shopper for other people. I avoid stores during December as much as possible by ordering online. For the in laws I would do consumables. Harry and David works for me. For the kids, I would order some fun card games and attach gift cards to those. Restaurant cards for meals out for the adults would be fine in my book.


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[ged]

Oh boy. I do want to be in that situation, bc if you mom is like my mom, there is the added pressure of properly "representing" her through the gifts. My mom may be bothered if all "she gave" the in-laws were some $$ pears and chocolates that they won't appreciate or eat anyways. Hopefully she's more chill, and will be fine with "gifting" a H&D basket, as most people would...

[smiles33]

I dislike having to be the shopper for other people. I avoid stores during December as much as possible by ordering online. For the in laws I would do consumables. Harry and David works for me. For the kids, I would order some fun card games and attach gift cards to those. Restaurant cards for meals out for the adults would be fine in my book.


Oh yeah, I'm right there with you! That's why I'm sticking to online shopping.


Oh boy. I do want to be in that situation, bc if you mom is like my mom, there is the added pressure of properly "representing" her through the gifts. My mom may be bothered if all "she gave" the in-laws were some $$ pears and chocolates that they won't appreciate or eat anyways. Hopefully she's more chill, and will be fine with "gifting" a H&D basket, as most people would...

My mom is pretty chill. She knows I'm busy and that I don't like shopping either, so she's glad just to get the task off her plate. Yes, H&D is overpriced, but they have free shipping and I just have to enter the address and my CC. I couldn't think of other appropriate consumables for my relatives, as chocolate isn't good for the diabetics in our family and Edible Arrangements (with their fruit "bouquet" that goes bad fast) put too much pressure to eat the item quickly. Any other consumable gift ideas that I can buy on-line and get shipped?

[SnuggleBuggles]

Just go to Nordstrom and pick their gift section. Don’t look anywhere else- just content yourself with accepting whatever’s there. ;) I haven’t actually done that, mind you, but I do get inspiration there. I have bought all females in my like a Barefoot Dream sweater over the past 2 years. It’s made things easy!


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[magnoliaparadise]

I would buy toys at Target and just give a gift receipt and then a bunch of gift cards (restaurant? Amazon if they use it?) for the older relatives. I just think any more than that is too much work!

[HannaAddict]

Oh yeah, I'm right there with you! That's why I'm sticking to online shopping.



My mom is pretty chill. She knows I'm busy and that I don't like shopping either, so she's glad just to get the task off her plate. Yes, H&D is overpriced, but they have free shipping and I just have to enter the address and my CC. I couldn't think of other appropriate consumables for my relatives, as chocolate isn't good for the diabetics in our family and Edible Arrangements (with their fruit "bouquet" that goes bad fast) put too much pressure to eat the item quickly. Any other consumable gift ideas that I can buy on-line and get shipped?

If they eat bacon, bacon by mail by month was a big hit with older relatives. They said the product was excellent and slightly different types shipped. Not sure what company I used. I read reviews online. It wasn’t cheap but well received. Toys and books or books and snuggly nice blankets for kids depending on ages.


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