Holiday wish list

A few months ago on my old blog (currently offline) I mentioned that I pretty much have everything I want and encouraged people who wanted to buy me a birthday present to donate money to one of my preferred charities instead. It didn’t really work out; No one donated. 🙁

Undeterred, I’m giving it another go and trying to figure out what went wrong. Maybe people felt that a donation isn’t present-like enough, or my list was too long (offering too many possibilities), or people didn’t want to give their credit card details out to a charity (odd, since many would trust an online store).

Bearing in mind the factors above, I’m asking anyone considering getting me a gift this holiday season to buy me something from Oxfam Unwrapped.

oxfam_unwrapped.jpg

From the website:

Are you sick of giving socks, bath salts, or token gifts? Is this festive season going to give you gifting grief? Yes, trying to choose gifts for some people can be quite an ordeal – and that’s why we’ve developed Oxfam Unwrapped. It’s a unique collection of gift ideas that help you give something special to your friends or family and give something extra special to people who haven’t got much at all.

Basically, they use your money to provide items to those who need it and they send a card (explaining the gift) to the friend of family member that you are buying on behalf of. It’s present-like, it’s got the interface of an online store, and it’s the only thing on my wish list for the holidays. So, please consider it; I honestly can not think of any gift that would make me happier.

Note: Thanks to my name is not deenie for posting a link to Oxfam Unwrapped on her blog (that’s how I found out about it). Hopefully it’s the answer to my wish list conundrum.

A few months ago on my old blog (currently offline) I mentioned that I pretty much have everything I want and encouraged people who wanted to buy me a birthday present to donate money to one of my preferred charities instead. It didn’t really work out; No one donated. 🙁

Undeterred, I’m giving it another go and trying to figure out what went wrong. Maybe people felt that a donation isn’t present-like enough, or my list was too long (offering too many possibilities), or people didn’t want to give their credit card details out to a charity (odd, since many would trust an online store).

Bearing in mind the factors above, I’m asking anyone considering getting me a gift this holiday season to buy me something from Oxfam Unwrapped.

oxfam_unwrapped.jpg

From the website:

Are you sick of giving socks, bath salts, or token gifts? Is this festive season going to give you gifting grief? Yes, trying to choose gifts for some people can be quite an ordeal – and that’s why we’ve developed Oxfam Unwrapped. It’s a unique collection of gift ideas that help you give something special to your friends or family and give something extra special to people who haven’t got much at all.

Basically, they use your money to provide items to those who need it and they send a card (explaining the gift) to the friend of family member that you are buying on behalf of. It’s present-like, it’s got the interface of an online store, and it’s the only thing on my wish list for the holidays. So, please consider it; I honestly can not think of any gift that would make me happier.

Note: Thanks to my name is not deenie for posting a link to Oxfam Unwrapped on her blog (that’s how I found out about it). Hopefully it’s the answer to my wish list conundrum.

6 thoughts on “Holiday wish list”

  1. Good stuff! 😀

    … but… any luck getting other people to buy things from Oxfam Unwrapped? That’s really what I’m hoping for… I’m optimistic!

  2. Well, until recently I was ashamed of myself and my fossil-fuel burning, money wasting, ecologically unsound self, but that’s all changed over the last 12-18 months. People can change. They just need to realise the error of their ways or better ways of doing certain tasks, and people informing them of new options is one way of doing it. Spread the word! Move to a geographically sensible location! Walk, cycle or PT to work and everywhere else! Don’t enforce a Northern hemisphere-style garden on our Antipodean land. Don’t buy crap you don’t need! Don’t drag your friends into the unconsensual materialism mindless orgy that is Christmas by buying them crap they don’t need! Unless you’re a perfect mind-reader, buy gift vouchers or make them something…or redirect your time or money to those who need it more! Jas & I did a couple of Meals on Wheels runs over the holiday period just past. It was a really fun way to explore our “home” suburb and opened our eyes to the diversity of people’s situations in a supposedly familiar place. Stuff like that. Okay I’m getting all excited & preachy, sorry, stopping to breathe…

  3. Rant away, it’s nice to know that someone else feels similar! 😀

    Especially about the crap you don’t need. I try to give gifts that are experiences rather than dust-collectors. I’d rather buy people movie or theatre tickets, vouchers for restaurants or activities, maybe some food or drinks.

    Why is it socially unacceptable to give someone something second-hand as a gift; what about a video game you’ve enjoyed and feel that they would too? Why buy a new copy? Isn’t it better to reuse rather than waste unnecessarily. Why isn’t it socially unacceptable to buy someone something (new) that they won’t use! People buy trinkets to be polite!

    Society seems to be pushing for more and more privatisation of resources; at a very personal level. Use your car instead of public transport. Get your own pool rather than use the public pool. Get a home gym rather than a membership. Get your own home theatre rather than go to the cinema. This duplication of resources is just… irresponsible!

  4. Hmm…second hand gifts..yes, yes…my best mate aka Woffles and I do that a lot…so instead of wasting money on one piece’o’crap’a’matic’dust’collector, she’d buy me a fistful of second hand albums (cassette back in the day, now CD) from the second hand shop. My last gift to her was my little point-and-shoot Canon Advantix/APS camera as I had moved onto digital, because I knew she didn’t have a camera of her own.

    I also make presents for people:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/gossamer_monster/76921163/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/gossamer_monster/131351908/

    I was appalled at all the crap I had to sell at our garage sale before we moved interstate. I’d guess more than 50% of it was inappropriate presents. Case in point, I have visibly at-times-horrendous eczema, so giving me random toiletry/perfume packs (Body Shop generic baskets) etc says to me “I know nothing about you, nor do I care to notice or give it any thought”, not “Happy “, and yet I STILL RECEIVED THEM quite often. From people who counted themselves as my friends. Harumph.

    The application of knowledge, time and/or effort to give appropriate gifts they can use is far better than throwing “the right amount” of money at the problem and hoping a trinket will do. As far as I’m concerned.

    Glad you concur 🙂

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