People From Around The World Share Amazing Gifts They're Giving This Christmas


People From Around The World Share Amazing Gifts They're Giving This Christmas


It's almost Christmas! And if you're anything like us, you're starting to panic. Don't worry, there's still a bit more time to squeeze in some holiday shopping. Stumped for ideas? Here's an epic list of amazing, thoughtful Christmas gifts that people are giving to their loved ones.

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51. The way to a man's heart.

I dug through all my dad's family recipes that have been sitting in a big ziplock freezer bag. Some of them were my grandmother's, handwritten on old memo pads or scraps of paper, some were his grandmothers, some were my mother's who passed away. Picked the ones we use the most or were most interesting, scanned them, and created a recipe book on shutterfly complete with the scanned images and pictures of his family. Wish I could have done all the recipes but there were so many. One day I'll organize them and make a big one.

Anyways I think he'll love it and it took me a good amount of time.

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50. In the Saint Nick of time.

I got my wife an expensive purse she thinks she missed out on. A local store has had it in stock for a long time and she fawns over it every time we walk by, but recently she went ballistic when she found out it sold because that color and style is discontinued. I’m the one that bought it.

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49. The gift of a long flight.

My mom's coming from the west coast to visit me in Vermont for the first time. What she doesn’t know is that I’m meeting her at the airport and we’re going to Ireland, which is her bucket list destination.

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48. Five-fingered gifting.

At Thanksgiving, my mom was complaining about how little dexterity she has with her oven mitts on, so I got her some grill gloves with individual fingers. And they're machine washable.

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47. Here come the tears.

Lately, I have been planning to pay for my neighbor's son's college tuition. To put in words, they aren't financially well. The boy had been studying on scholarships and loans. The boy is a good kid but missed his scholarship due to some health issues, so he had to drop this year. I would be breaking this to him this Christmas. Can't wait to see his face.

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46. Knock her right out.

My wife is an insomniac and doesn't get to sleep until 3am some nights. She will lie there for hours and just can't nod off. I've got her a weighted blanket which is said to help people with anxiety and also insomnia. Everyone I've spoken to who has one has said how wonderful they are, so my fingers are firmly crossed she loves it.

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45. If it's the thought that counts, then this is 100.

My grandpa passed away last year around Christmas and it's been really hard on my whole family because we were all very close to him. My sister always watches old videos of him because she loves to hear his voice, so I got her personalized teddy bear dressed like him (flannel, glasses, mustache) with a recording inside that plays a voicemail that he had left her that says “keep this thought with you; your grandfather, Michael, adores you.” It plays whenever you hug it and I cant wait until she sees it!!

woman-in-gray-cardigan-giving-white-gift-box-1261373-300x200.jpgPhoto by Daria Shevtsova from Pexels

44. The gifts that gives once a year.

My sister's present is going to probably make my mom cry. About two Christmas's ago my mom and dad's tree topper broke. This topper they've had since their first christmas together. My sister has looked through old photos of our old tree and found the same topper that she's going to give to them this year.

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43. Sweet treats for mom.

My mom is German but has lived in the states for as long as I've been alive. Her favorite breakfast is coffee and some sort of danish. It's a German thing. I found an authentic German bakery in a different city and got loads of German baked goods for her.

Now if I could just find a place that sells authentic German chocolate I could give her the happiest Christmas she's had in years.

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42. Bringing a memory back to life.

My father was in WWII Bomber Command, flying in a Lancaster. He was a rear gunner.

We have a photo of our father with his squadron on the tarmac (I assume at Fiskerton) under one of those mighty machines. The photo is terrible: dark, hardly able to make out any of the figures, let alone our father. Its value was in the nose art, which you can see - not clearly but you can make it out.

I took the photo to a restorer who has absolutely made this come alive. You can see all those young faces, gestures, uniforms, for the first time.

I've had copies printed and framed and giving one each to my brother and sister (Dad unfortunately passed in 2014). I think my siblings are going to be pretty amazed to see his squadron for the first time.

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41. Have a feel-good Christmas.

My sister is going to cosmetology school and getting ready for school and looking cute every day is doing really wonderful things for her mental health. I got her black fancy coffee mugs that will match her outfits and a floor length black silk bathrobe so she can feel pretty and put together even when she gets home. I also got her a pretty mirror for when she opens her own salon. I’ve loved watching her change from a sad girl with a minimum wage job, into this open, happy, growing girl who is making moves for her future. I’m so proud of her and I just want to support her momentum as best I can!!

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40. Tiny dancer for the win.

I go to antique and thrift stores a lot with my two roommates. One day about a month and a half ago she spotted a Bols ballerina bottle— for those who don’t know, Bols did a line of booze where the bottles had a ballerina and music box inside of it. It’s pretty neat, google it. Anyways she really wanted it and fell in love with it but it was 80 bucks— too expensive for her.

I ended up going on eBay and found one in even better condition, and I’m excited to see her reaction.

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39. This should get a rise out of him.

I bought my boyfriend a breadmaker. I bought like a top of the line one that adds ingredients at the right time and everything. On our first date he mentioned that he would love to own a breadmaker (hes a really simple man, loves really homey cozy things like fresh bread, cooking meals that you would find a family diner). This is our 5th christmas together and hes gonna love it so much I cant wait to see him that happy.

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38. It better be good.

My dad is obsessed with Stephen King, and every year I buy him a book but this year he basically has all of them. So I sat down and wrote him a horror novel myself (I’m a writer) but he has no idea and I sent it off and got it printed with a hard cover and everything. I’m so excited.

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37. Parenting 101.

My young son LOVES lift-the-flap books. Obsessively loves them. We’ve already checked out every single one at every library in our city. So i handmade him one with him as the main superhero and his dad as his “superhero in training”. Just gathered a ton of really funny pictures of them and made a whole story with tons of lift-the-flap surprises, including his dog sidekick. I can’t wait until he sees it!

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36. Thoughtful and practical.

My sister is away teaching English in another country. Her pet Cockatiel sadly passed away this year. I got her a small geometric Cockatiel charm and gold chain necklace. I bought it in August and is my favorite gift this year.

Also my mom wanted 20 cheap storage bins to stack her shoes in and I wrapped each one individually with random doodads in every single one.

christmas-4645449_1920-300x200.jpgImage by Susanne Jutzeler, suju-foto from Pixabay

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35. The gift of Christmas future.

My dad is an active 91 yr old. This year he's getting an Oculus Quest VR headset. It never fails to make me smile to think that he grew up when radio was a big thing. He's seen all the various versions of TV and now (in 11 days) he's going to take the jump into VR. He's expecting a box of DVD's and books ...which I am getting him but no where near the normal amount. He's not suspecting a thing.

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34. Keeping it in the family.

I got my dad a framed picture of him and his cousin Janie. She passed away earlier this year at 89 and was basically the matriarch of the family. She helped raise him and his siblings after his mom died and his father couldn't take care of them for a while. She was the one of the most giving and selfless people I've ever known and he doesn't really have any pictures of that side of his family so I'm hoping this is something that will make him smile whenever he looks at it.

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33. Like a bunny hug.

Designed and custom printed my best friend a sweatshirt (she's obsessed with sweatshirts right now) with art of her favourite characters from her favourite book. She's talked about wanting something from her book basically every day this month, and lamented that they don't make merchandise, but I can't say anything about it yet.

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32. Now that's awesome.

My fiancé’s grandma makes these really labor intensive stockings whenever someone enters the family (birth/marriage), and she just finished mine after a year of working on it. No one in the nearly 40 years that she has been making these has ever made her one, so she’s the only one in the family who doesn’t have one. She has no clue that while she’s been making mine, I’ve been making one for her for Christmas this year!

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31. A heartwarming Christmas surprise.

My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer around Thanksgiving. Because of her chemo treatments, she’s too weak to travel, and all of us kids live in different cities now. (Four siblings, some married, some with our own babies).

What she doesn’t know is that we’re all going to fly down and show up at her house so we can all spend Christmas Day together, grandbabies and all! I’m so excited, and it’s going to be hard to keep it a surprise!

On top of us all coming, we’re also going to recreate a photo from our childhood. She made us all matching plaid outfits and posed us for a picture - twenty years ago!

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30. Words mean a lot.

I got my mum two charms of me and my brother shes always saying she doesnt have any pictures of us and I've had the backs of them engraved with "you mean the" "world to us".

As for my dad, a trait I got from him is never having my hands empty, I've always got something in them, normally a pen to fiddle with, something he also does and so I brought a high end Cross pen and got it engraved. The name of the collection the pen came from also happens to be our last name so the stars aligned on that one.

woman-wearing-white-dress-sitting-near-christmas-tree-1143000-300x188.jpgPhoto by Min An from Pexels

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29. Wrapped around her little finger.

Engagement Ring! We have been together forever but everything else just took priority money wise. We had a little girl and bought a house. Marriage just never happened. In the last year she has made a point of saying the ring and wedding doesn't matter but I know she's just trying to be practical.

So I saved all year and got her a great ring. I can't wait til Christmas Eve.

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28. Something for her to keep all her stuff in.

My girlfriend never treats herself at all and doesn’t enjoy shopping for clothes and accessories. She only has one small purse that’s going on 6-7 years old.

I was in Italy last month and while I was in Florence I stopped in Benheart, a super highly recommended shop, and got her a new one that’s a similar style/colour.

She doesn’t like when people spend money on her so she’ll flip her lid a little, in a good way.

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27. Memorable present of the past.

My grandpa has dementia. Prior to that time, he was really into geneaology (it's something his own father was into as well). I got him a family tree sculpture that has small photo frames, and I've gone through old family photos and had the best ones professionally printed, and I've put them into this sculpture. It goes as far back as to the first photos that his father took with their first camera. So not only are there photos of the whole family, but you get to see how technology has improved over time too. He may not remember what he said five minutes ago, but he loves to talk about the past and I really hope he loves this gift.

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26. Pet portraits for all.

My boyfriend's mom has an older labradoodle. He loves the dog dearly, the dog loves him right back, and she's at his house every other weekend. My friend's dad does amazing charcoal drawings, so I had him draw a portrait of the dog, and I got a custom picture frame for it as well. The drawing was done back in October, and I have been dying to tell my boyfriend about it ever since. Only 11 more days until he can see it!!

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25. Artistic appreciation.

My best friend had kind of a rough year— ending of an abusive and highly codependent relationship, then I moved away for grad school after we lived together for four years, and I think she feels uprooted in a lot of ways. So I found this print on society6 of this woman laying down in the ocean and trees and rocks are sprouting from her body— she is her own island, and is creating her own roots for herself. It’s coming framed and stuff, and she’s an artist, so I hope she loves it!

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24. Let's keep the love alive.

My husband bought a throw blanket about a year before we met. Now, 15 years later, it's done and we just threw it out. He was visibly sad about it... He loved that blanket - it went through many hangovers, sicknesses, baby rockings with him. I found one exactly like it on Black Friday!! He's going to love it!!

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23. Nothing wrong with bath bombs.

This might not be an interesting gift, but I got my girlfriend an iPad pro and an apple pen. She's an amazing talented artist and I've heard many good things about the apple pen. I really hope she likes it since there are a lot of cool features!

Also, I put two decoy gifts under the tree. One being a box of cat food, and another being a box of bath bombs. I hid the real gifts and will give them to her when she opens the "other gifts."

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22. Christmas goes high tech.

My daughter has really gotten into drawing. She's been drawing nonstop for like a year and has a particular attraction to digital art. This whole time she's been drawing on a free phone app or using the mouse on the computer. Not once complaining about her lack of appropriate tools. For Christmas we've gotten her a good mid range digital sketch pad (the kind where she can draw directly on the screen) and all the accessories she needs for it.

And a gift she made that I can't help but brag on is she drew a streaming mascot for her dad's streaming channel complete with different emotes. (All done on her free phone app) We'll present them to him in the form of coasters to use on his desk as well as a copy of the jpegs.

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21. Under the sea.

I got my mom a Disney World exclusive Dooney and Bourke purse that is themed after The Little Mermaid. She has always been a frugal and practical woman, but I had never seen her jaw drop for an accesory like that before. We rarely get to do vacations, and she said that it was too expensive. I still catch her looking up knock offs when she thinks no one is paying attention, so I know she wants one. I can't wait to see the look on her face, and I dread the inevitable lecture about financial responsibility.

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20. Party like it's 2019.

My husband is deployed this Christmas. I wasn't sure what to give him at first. Most of the items I thought to give him he couldn't use there and would just have to pay to have them shipped back home. In the evenings after work he and the other guys get together and play cards. So I sent him a party in a box. A box filled with a batch of each of two of his favorite home baked cookies and several different card games (cards against humanity, etc.). That way they can all get together and have a small holiday party with home baked goods.

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19. The gift of peace and quiet.

My girlfriend is moving half way across the world to live with me in February. We agreed no Christmas gifts to save money.

I have been secretly renovating the second bedroom into a workspace for her. She loves my dogs but they're a bit much for her and she mentioned she wanted a dog free zone in the house when she needs a break.

I'm setting it up with a couples work station, an accent wallpaper wall, fresh paint, a rug, cozy reading corner, and lots of framed artwork of old cars and stuff she loves.

She is uprooting her whole life to live with me, and I'm so excited to show her her new space!

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18. This one's in code.

Just started dating this girl that checks off every one of my boxes and, for the first time ever, hasn't raised any of what I thought were the standard accompanying red flags. She goes by a certain nickname in her scene. Found her a lovely silver ring with the nickname's symbol on it. I'm also going to write her a letter about how I love that she's got her own alias already, but between the 2 of us, I have a new nickname for her that's a promotion from what everyone else knows her as. I'm broke and a romantic and the two don't always go so well together, but I think she'll dig it.

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17. Manipulating time for the ultimate present.

Due to work and finances this year, my wife is spending Christmas with her family in Alaska without me for the first time...so she thinks! I’ve secretly worked it out with my work and her family and I’m flying there two hours after her and will actually get there before her (she has a connection, I do not) and will be picking her up even though I dropped her off!

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16. Putting the shirt on his back.

My boyfriend owns his own business as a private contractor and is still in the beginning stages of his work. Sometimes he feels discouraged and tired. He only had one shirt with his company name on it. So, I went online and custom created some more shirts for him. It’s nothing people would think is awesome, really. But I know how much it would mean to him and I’m so excited to see his reaction.

Also, as the jokester I am.. I ordered an additional shirt with a house on fire, a fire breathing dragon, a wizard, and people running away with the saying “we can fix that” underneath the chaos.

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15. They've got the best candy.

My husband moved from England to the US to marry me about a year and a half ago. I’m sure he has missed home this whole time, but he’s only recently really started talking about it. I can’t bring England to him...but I found British Food Depot, an American company that imports tons of British goods. So, I found a way to gift him comfort food and candy that he hasn’t been able to find here. Jaffa cakes, chocolate oranges, marmite, malteesers, digestives, curly wurlies, Galaxy bars... I can’t wait to see his face when he opens the huge box of British candy.

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14. Another carpenter.

My boyfriend loves woodworking, but we live in an apartment. So he found a community shop. The tools are old and bent but he gets it to work and loves it. He really likes turning stuff like bowls, plates etc. The lathes at the shop broke last month and he's been sad about it. This shop is entirely donated, so they don't have the funds to fix them and the owner of the only operational one decided to take his back since other shop goers kept breaking it (he said he would let him use it at his house but he lives 1.5 hours away). I bought him a silent midi lathe and will move stuff around so he can have a mini shop in our apartment and can turn as many bowls as he wants.

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13. This is special.

I wanted to share what my older brother did last year. He went to my parents basement and searched for all our old home movies - on cassette, mini cassette and even reel. He spent months digitizing the entire thing and put it in a USB thumb drive and gave it to all of us. We spent the entire holiday huddled around the TV, laughing, crying, teasing, reminiscing, it was glorious. It’s one of my prize possessions, and can’t believe I get to share my childhood with my family one day because of him.

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12. The gift of data retrieval.

My husband is on the nerdier side and an avid reader. He kept this log of all the hundreds of books he's read since college, but it was an excel document on a shared drive, which was lost during a change of employer last month. He was SO bummed and moped about it for a few days, couldn't access it or find it anywhere, was so mad at himself. I just knew the right person to ask and they were somehow able to dig it up! I bought a moleskin hardback book log journal that I wrapped up, and inside is the printed document.

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11. Too charming for words.

I just got engaged on Halloween and my fiance loves the Disney Movie "Up". I found a carved wood covered "Our Adventure Book" scrapbook from the movie on Amazon that comes with all kinds of decorative stickers, pens, markers etc for her to decorate the pages. I just had the photo of us printed from when I proposed. She's had a Snow White costume her aunt made her twenty years ago that still fits, so I told her I would be the Prince from Snow White on Halloween so she could wear her costume. I proposed as the Prince and asked her to be my queen. The photo of us in costume will be the first page of "Our Adventure Book" that I will make and decorate as the start of our lives together. Really hoping she likes it and knows that I put a lot of thought into this one, wish me luck!

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10. Take that, new Grandma!

My husband and I live in a small apartment with our dog and two cats. It's not the ideal place to start a family. My mom ALWAYS asks when she is getting grandkids. It's pretty annoying actually. I've still got lots of time to have kids. She makes comments if she sees me drinking, like, "Guess she's not pregnant." Thanks for making me feel like a crappy daughter, mom.

We'll, not anymore! This Christmas my husband and I get to show her her first grandchild's sonogram. Hope you like babysitting, mom! To be clear my husband and I are very excited even though the pregnancy took us by surprise. I cannot wait to tell everyone.

paper-bags-near-wall-749353-300x200.jpgJen Batler

9. Christmas on your birthday.

My husband’s birthday is just after the holidays and I’ve planned a surprise party the weekend of.

I’ll be “abducting” him while we’re doing errands (will just keep driving by our grocery store, which is near our destination) to take him to a virtual reality arcade, where his brothers from out of town will meet us. He has frequently talked about (and watched YouTube videos of) how fun it would be to play Star Trek Bridge Crew, and we’ll have exactly the right number of people to have our own crew.

...Then lots of pizza, beer, and board games in the evening (bros will be staying with us for the weekend).

I’m SO psyched about this because I know he doesn’t see it coming at all and it’s going to be the perfect day for him! It’s all I can do to not spoil the surprise!

brown-bear-plush-toy-1661286-300x169.jpgJen Batler

8. That'll be a grand surprise.

I have a baby grand piano being delivered on the 23rd for my wife. She has wanted one since we have been married (7 years) and I have said “someday” for a while. She has been taking lessons again (since childhood) for 1.5 years and is getting good.

I “hid” funds for a couple months to pay for it and had to take a day off work to go look at one 100 miles away.

Also, she is picking up her Mom and brother from the airport the day of delivery so it’ll be in our living room as a surprise when she gets back. She’s going to a party tonight so I’m going to wrap some decoy presents and place them under the tree.

She’s 7 months pregnant with our first child so I wanted to blow it out this year.

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7. Give the gift of music.

My 35 year old brother just recently went to his first concert (Parachute) and his mind was blown by live music - he has NOT stopped talking about it since. He also has this strong affinity for the song "Fire Escape" by Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, and makes everyone he encounters listen to it. Pretty sure the song is a couple of years old now and he still brings it up all the time.

I got him tickets to see him live next year. He's not going to see it coming and always says I give him the best gifts. I'm super excited to see his reaction.

Oh, I also got him a Pop! Funko of Dawson Leery with the intention of fueling our feud of Dawson vs. Pacey that stems back to our childhood (I found it 5 months ago and have been hanging onto it). We always have a blowout fight about the topic (I'm a Pacey girl, for the record).

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6. Worth a thousand words.

I bought a cool looking photo album for my best friend, sounds boring so far. But then I went through our pictures on her old fb her new fb, my fb, and a couple from mutual friends where we were tagged together in photos.

I filled up the album with all the pictures, which I got printed from Walmart on their cyber Monday deal for 9 cents each, from our entire friendship up until she moved states. Wrote cute captions for each picture.

As I was going through them and captioning then I discovered I had accidentally skipped several pages while putting the photos in. I rearranged them so there were some gaps and googled some quotes that fit the theme of the pictures on those pages and drew pictures on the paper with the quotes.

I have been struggling so bad to not show her it as I went through making it and have failed and sent her pics of some spoilers. She’s seen the empty album and I sent her pictures of the front page and of a crumpled up quote filled paper that I messed up on.

I am so excited to give it to her and I really hope she likes it!!

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5. Backing her up with tech.

A laptop! My mom has never had a computer of her own, she's always done everything on her phone for her whole life. Lately, she's been talking about maybe finally getting herself a laptop so she won't have to worry about running out of storage space again or having her phone get stolen. Right now everything she has is on that phone, so if she gets a laptop she can back everything up, and start browsing sites she likes. She's even mentioned maybe starting a website for her own small side business now that she's got her degree.

She's been wanting to get one for months, but things always come up and she'd always rather spend money buying extra Christmas presents or doing things with me and my siblings than to get something just for herself.

I've been living with her for a couple of years, even though I'm an adult now. I'm finally moving out again next year but given that she refused to accept rent from me, I figured the least I can do is get her a cool gift to make up for it!

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4. Lots of thought for the 'rents.

Two things, one for each of my parents:

Gift for Mom - long story short, my brother passed away in 2015 and we were left with his dog, Hunter. Hunter had to be put down sadly September 1st and it was absolutely devastating for all of us so I got my mom a hand painted rock of one of our favorite pictures of Hunter off a woman a friend of mine knows.

Gift for Dad - My dad is a 69 year old Vietnam veteran and he has this picture hanging up of him and his cousin who ironically ran into each other over there, this was when he was 20 years old. So, I took the picture, sent it in to FOREVER STUDIOS in Florida and had them restore the picture and enhance it. It looks awesome if anyone is looking to do this I highly recommend them.

I think they will love their gifts. Happy holidays everyone!

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3. The real present is nerding out.

I bought my buddy a GameCube ASCII Controller. It's literally a regular GC controller with a full PC keyboard just stuck in the middle, with the two sets of buttons and handles on each end. Just imagine cutting a GameCube controller in half and gluing the two ends to a PC keyboard and you basically have it.

Was originally designed to work with a single game: Phantasy Star Online, one of the few GC games with online connectivity, and possibly Nintendo's earliest attempt at online console gaming.

Had it shipped all the way from Japan. My friends and I are big gamers, and my friend is a huge geek for obscure games and gaming artifacts sort of forgotten by history. We watched a YouTube video on it recently, and that's what prompted me to buy it for him.

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2. Sentimental secret Santa.

My dad died 4 years ago. Right after the funeral, I snagged all his plaid button down shirts (10 of them!) and have spent the last few weeks turning them into a quilt for my mother. I had hoped to do it sooner, but a lot of life happened in the interim and it was just too painful for me to work on it for a while. But I’m finishing up the binding this week and it will be ready by Christmas. I’m so excited (and terrified) to give it to her.

I’ve made more quilts than I can remember, but this one is super special to me and I can’t wait to give it. I’ve cried into the fabric as I cut the pieces, as I sewed them together, and as I’ve closed the binding and written the label. The back is wood grain flannel because he loved to make things with his hands. And the binding is a custom-printed orange and blue stripe because he loved him some Auburn Tigers football!

To add, I also made pillows out of some of the shirts for all the grandkids. I offered mom one, but she said she’d wait for the quilt. She knows it’s coming, just not when, and she’s never seen it. I told her why I wanted the shirts when I took them.

I’m seriously considering telling her ahead of time that this is her Christmas gift and asking if she’d like to see it ahead of time. It’s a big family Christmas with all the grandkids and kids and spouses in attendance. Everyone will be in tears, but I don’t want her to be blindsided.

photo-of-woman-sitting-near-the-christmas-tree-936700-300x200.jpgPhoto by NastyaSensei from Pexels

1. Super generous surprise.

My brother's been saving to take a course abroad next year. It's a huge deal for him and a game changer career wise (I don't fully understand why or the details but he's been saving for a year, sold his car and stuff so it's a huge deal for him). He's supposed to have the money to pay everything before December 30th.

We live in Brazil and he's going to the UK for a year and a half. Exchange rate is 1 GBP to 5.47 BRL. That alone is quite the challenge.

He'll be taking his masters there for a year and a half. This has been a goal of his for a while and, according to him, will help him get a good job in a larger company in one of the capitals. We live in a small town, not a lot of options for someone in his line of work.

When he goes to pay, he'll find out it's already paid.

Best part is he gets to believe, for a week, all he's got from me is a pair of socks.

As to why he's been saving for a whole year, we're in Brazil.

christmas-3861502_1920-300x190.jpgImage by Capri23auto from Pixabay