The Christmas list thing...

This Christmas List thing...

Christmas lists are kind of the bane of my existence right now.  I hate them for several reasons, listed here:

-They are so impersonal. It's like making a list of things for people to buy you.  I know that that's literally what they are, but seriously.  I hate that it takes all the surprise out of Christmas morning, like, "Oh, look how I got everything on my list..." Not exciting.

-You have to coordinate withe everyone else who has the list, and constantly communicate about who is getting what for whom, and etcetera, etcetera! (King and I anyone?)  Along with that, you generally have to make multiple lists for different sides of the family, or different groups of people that you are having exchanges with.  Case in point, my mom bought something on black Friday at 10 am that my husband had already bought at 6 am, and when she found out, she had to stand in line for 45 minutes just to return it.  That makes you feel all Christmassy inside for sure.

-As adults who work and make a living, we are fortunate enough to be able to buy the things that we like and need for ourselves, making it pretty hard to make a list.   The things that usually make our list are Blue-rays and such, but if we all have DVD's on our lists, why can't we all just go buy the ones that we want?


What happened to the days of buying a gift for someone because you are inspired by something you see, or you know a person enough to find something that they love?  My mom is amazing at this. She just listens and knows us well enough that every Christmas we are so surprised by the gifts that we forgot that we wanted. We could mention something  we like in July, or she'll notice something we don't have while making a meal and BAM!  you get it for Christmas.  She is kind of my hero that way. (Well, in a lot of ways...)

I know that lists help us avoid the whole returning process.  My mom used to return everything my dad bought her until he wised up and started buying gift cards, which are also a cop-out.  At the other extreme, my husband will just shove the gifts, still in their boxes, in the back of the closet, where I will find them in July. I like lists that just give general suggestions or ideas, like sweaters, or books about bugs, or whatever.  That still leaves room for your own creativity and ideas.  Guidelines are fine, a shopping list, not.  A guideline list for kids that you don't see a lot can be helpful too.  If you don't spend much time with them, then you probably don't know what they're interested in, or already have. But there has got to be a better way.  Anyone have any tips on what your family does?  I just know I'm over it, and everyone is getting underwear from me this year :D