Don’t you find it harder every year, pondering what to give your oldest friends?
Sure, gifts bought in bulk save you time and money, but where’s the fun in that?
Then there are the old reliables, food and fruitcakes, but where’s the romance? Food is consumed, fruitcakes are recycled.
Over the years, learn from friends—you know, the sweet and gentle folks who give you gifts to make your Christmas merry and bright.
Ernestina, editor of a women’s magazine, said it best when she advised, “Give what you like, not what you don’t like.” If you like china, give teacups and teapots. You love collecting cards and stationery sets? Give presents made of paper.
June was a smart cookie who did her Christmas shopping whatever the season. Her rule was, “When you see something that tells you So-and-So will love this, take it and keep it for her ’til December comes around.”
‘Give what you like, not what you don’t like.’
Speaking of December, Marie and Sylvia are only two gift-givers who deliver their gifts to friends no later than Dec. 1. In challenging times like this last quarter of 2022 as traffic worsens by the day and fuel prices are bent on rising to the top of the Christmas tree, follow their advice and spare yourself and your driver/courier from additional stress and strain.
Elisa’s reply to the question, “Don’t you find it harder every year, pondering what to give your oldest friends?” was another question, one asked as if she was scandalized, “At our age, are Christmas presents still necessary?”
Lorna took the cake as far as giving and receiving was concerned. Not one to hide her secrets from Santa, she would remind me every December before her last three or four Christmases on earth, “Don’t give me anything fancy. Just bring me bundles of toilet paper.” Which I would dutifully load in the backseat of my car and thus mystify her neighbors as soon as I pulled up in front of her apartment.
Gift-giving is a very personal thing—personal for both giver and receiver, or what are friends for?
