Okay, one last holiday gift-related post and then I think it’s time to move on to another topic, such as: How To Keep a Festive Spirit During the Holidays When You’re Trying to Work, Raise a Child, Keep the House From Collapsing Under the Weight of Its Own Filth, and Find Thoughtful Gifts for Loved Ones ALL AT THE SAME TIME OH MY GOD.

(I’m hoping you might have some pointers for me on that one. Other than “flop into a fetal position and cry” because I’ve totally tried that and it just stuffs up my nose.)

Today’s gift links are a mixed bag, just some general ideas for those who may be hard to buy for. As always, your mileage may vary, and your own suggestions are more than welcome!

For the HUSBAND (brother, dad, etc):

I mentioned this elsewhere, and I think it can’t be beat as far as a really useful, nice gift for a guy with a decent pricetag: this St. John’s Heavyweight Chamois Shirt. It’s soft, yet rugged—just like Whatshisname.

For the GRANDPARENTS:


Your kid’s grandparents (or your own) will melt into little puddles of goo over Shutterfly’s awesome photo books. You just upload your family photos (there’s a handy plugin you can download to make this go faster), choose a layout, drop in your images and customize the accompanying text. The quality is fantastic, and the prices are reasonable.

For the MOTHER-IN-LAW:


My own mother-in-law usually makes it really easy on us to shop for her, but I know this can be a notoriously difficult category. So how about this pretty throw blanket from Land’s End? It’s classy, it’s luxurious, and it’s practical. WIN.

For the CO-WORKER (office Secret Santa recipient, etc)

My husband deployed a few of these at his own office and still crows about the results. The Annoy-a-tron generates a short (but very annoying, hence the name) beep every few minutes. Any unsuspecting target will have a hard time ‘timing’ the location of the sound because the beeps will vary in intervals ranging from 2 to 8 minutes. This should be a great gift for any coworker devious enough to have some ideas for how they might use such a device.

For the person who already has EVERYTHING:

Instead of yet another thing to clutter up their gold-plated mansion, send your well-heeled friend an experience instead. Such as skydiving, scuba lessons, baking classes, or a home makeup lesson (I am not even making that last one up). This website has a lot of of interesting ideas, ranging from affordable to You’ve-Got-To-Be-Kidding-Me expensive.

So tell me: who’s your hard-to-buy-for gift recipient this year, and what are you getting them?

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