to boycott the utterly crap christmas 'gift sets' which are on every shelf of every shop

[GetOrfMoiLand]

Is there a person alive who would want to recieve the following:

A gift box of bubble bath and bath salts

A comedy inflatable sofa with a bottle of budweiser in

A Jack Daniels coaster. ONE. With JD miniature.

Christmas socks

A lone champagne glass with a mini bottle of cava with 3 champagne truffles.

Fuck it. What a waste of time, effort and money.

I am very pleased actually as my family and friends have all agreed not to bother with presents for adults this year, so people will not feel the need to spend a fiver/tenner they can ill afford on crud like this.

[MsSparkle]

Have you really got to buy the teacher a present? My dc are not at school yet.

[diddl]

We give money here & the teachers get one present from the class.

[strandedatseasonsgreetings]

I don't think you have to but I think dd's teachers are brill so happy to.

mamatomany - - luckily they haven't asked when they are coming over just yet!

[cupcakesandbunting]

YANBU.

My mum insists on buying me this sort of shit every year. A mini bubble bath and shower gel artfully placed inside a novelty wire duck. What the tits am I supposed to do with the duck afterwards?

I say to her "look, mum. I don't need any bath stuff. I buy my own. Can I have this book/cd/other useful item instead?" "Yes of course"

Come xmas morning "oh, a rose made of a flannel topped with bath pearls, thanks!"

[AbsofCroissant]

Well, one year, being the lovely family member that I am, I spent ages creating my own gift sets for family members, including miniature bottles of Moet and what not.

only to be given one of those crappy 3 for 2 arsing next gift sets as apparently there was a £5 limit and no one had thought to tell me.

[nickeldonkeyonadustyroad]

I wouldn't buy the gift sets, but i sometimes look at what the gift sets contain and buy one or two items.

like your JD thing - i'd look for a set of JD coasters and a bottle of JD (a miniature on its own costs a lot less)

or with the Lynx thing - buy the anti-persp and a shower gel separately and wrap them with a flannel, or a pair of socks!

Yo ucan make them look a lot nicer than the gift sets, anyway, with some creative packaging.

[ApocalypseCheese]

Well the school dd and ds go to support water aid, so this year I am buying two water pumps and two goats, keeping in with the christmas is for giving thing and avoiding ambushing the teachers with replicated tat.

[spler]

YANBU! OP
And who hates that dumb Boots advert with the 3 women who 'weren't doing present this year' but...Oh ho! Boots have 3 for 2 on giant boxes of plastic moulding with a few cheap smellies.
They all look delighted but have you noticed they don't even look at what it is? They already know it's basically bubbles/lotion/body puff.

My husband worked somewhere for 10 years & when he left someone who didn't share my view on giftsets took the collection they'd had and got him a boxed set of a black leather belt and wallet - it was 50 quid (and no receipt). Seriously, who gets to their 40s and doesn't have a wallet or a belt. T'is just lazy.

[ApocalypseCheese]

In fact scrap the goats, I might do a sponsored child thngy, it's something the whole class can get involved in and shows thought imo, better than spending 60 bloody quid on flowers, wine and chocolates for various staff members with the majority flowing down my neck at the next school meeting which is what happened last year.

[AbsofCroissant]

One year at work, one of the Secret Santa presents (for our lovely PA) was a "design your own muff" magnet set. It was not about desinging your own handwarmer, just to clarify ...

The guy who gave it mysteriously had his contract ended a couple of weeks later.

[Myleetlepony]

Body scrub. I get these gift sets, each one had body scrub in. I don't do a lot of body scrubbing, so I have a collection of varied body scrubs.

[cupcakesandbunting]

Also, kind of related...

My mother latches on to an "interest" she thinks I may have i.e I baked a load of pretty cupcakes for a charity tea party in the spring so for my birthday I got loads of thing to do with cupcakes. Cupcake keyring, cupcake doorstop, cupcake cookbook, cupcake fridge magnets.

Grrrrrrrrr.

[strandedatseasonsgreetings]

cupcakesandbunting - I note your MN name.

[SoMuchToBits]

cupcakes - perhaps tis year you will receive bunting-related presents from your Mum?

[TondelayoSchwarzkopf]

I hate the packaged 3 for 2 tat too though it is good for step-nieces / nephews as at least you'll know the FCUK smellies will get used or re-gifted.

3 for 2 is a total rip off anyway - all priced to factor in the 'free' gift. Much better to buy the bog standard well known brands (would much rather have some Simple or Nivea than those weird novelty brands that only exist at gifting periods)

For my first work Secret Santa when I was a young girl, I spent ages thinking about what my giftee (a middle aged man - worst person in world to buy for) would like and went to John Lewis and chose some classic whiskey tumblers. Only to turn up on the day and everyone had bought each other chocolate willies, underpants with mistletoe at the crotch, chocolate pooing reindeers etc What a mistake.

[feelingfairlyfestive]

I bet he was the only one truly happy with his gift.
:)

[alemci]

my mum is quite good and buys us a present such as a dvd player for the family and maybe a small personal present. my dad always gives money usually £100l

I think the boots gift sets are ok and at least if they are toiletries they get used up over the year. i must admit though my DH aunt gave me a horrible set from probably LIDL with really grotty toiletries.

If it is sanctuary or body shop that is fine but not the cheap grot ones.

[jetgirl]

We did a one week secret santa in our dept one year. The limit was £10 and we had to do something nice for our giftee each day. It was really fun; 1 day I put a cup, teabag and plate of homemade mince pies on my colleague's desk ready for break time, another day I planned a lesson and left it ready for her to teach. I also wrote a little poem each day to accompany the gift. A lot more thought went into that week than the stupid gift sets which are just presents for the sake of it.

So basically I agree, gift sets are a waste of money I normally avoid secret santa as I don't want to buy a gift just I can receive one, often from a colleague I barely know!

[SoMuchToBits]

I wouldn't really agree with "toiletries get used up over the year". I choose ones which I like (because I love the smell) and just wouldn't use other ones. Mind you, I do have the sort of weird skin chemistry which makes most perfumes smell like disinfectant on me (even though they smell lovely on other people)!

[TondelayoSchwarzkopf]

ah thanks feeling

[FreudianSlimmery]

I don't like most gift sets except toiletries - what's wrong with them?! I use all the stuff eventually... Though I do admit to having far too much hand cream thanks to such sets.

Would definitely much rather have that than an ornament - at least I can use bubble bath!

Some years, as DH works for Boots, I have gone a bit mad in the sales and bought loads of reduced sets, and it has meant I havent had to buy any bath stuff for a whole year. Especially not hand cream :o

[ShanahansRevenge]

THe rule in our family is that once you have kids you neither givee nor recieve presents from anyone other than your own partner...if you so desire.....we buy for one anothers children

yanbu in my opinion

[theywillgrowup]

havent read much but

YANBU at all couldnt agree more,utter unimaginitive carp,no wonder there always on 3 for 2 cant give the things away

always see those type of silly things at carboots

will read with laughter the thread later

lol

[BornToFolk]

MIL loves those gift sets. She's still raving about the lovely box that her M&S smellies came in last year, so she's getting another box this year!

I quite like the gift sets too. I wait until they are heavily reduced after Xmas, then buy and stash them for my use. You can get some quite good bargains like that [tightarse emoticon]

[tyler80]

I once left a temp job and was given a 'natural collection' gift set as a leaving gift. I took it to boots and exchanged it for razors and a set of tweezers