What would happen if you left all the gift buying to your OH?

[SlightlySuperiorPeasant]

I'm the gift-buyer in our family, not for any particular reason but I've sort of slid into that role. DH is one of 5 siblings, 3 of the others are married and there are 4 nephews and nieces on his side if the family (and counting). Last year I bought for everyone except FIL and BIL and asked DH to sort out presents for them. They got socks and a hat, hastily grabbed from Asda on Christmas Eve

This year I told him I was leaving birthday presents and cards to him. I reminded him frequently when birthdays were coming up and sorted out presents and cards for the DNs. FIL got a card. MIL got a card. BIL2 got nothing. SIL1 got a Facebook message. SIL2 got nothing. SIL3 was promised some money. BIL1 got nothing. I'm doing Christmas...

What would happen in your house if you're the main gift buyer but you left it to your OH to do the presents?

[Shodan]

It's not so much a question of infanitlising (at least not in this house) so much as a case of divvying up the duties according to talent.

I like buying presents/wrapping etc and am good at it. DH, not so much. However, he likes spreadsheets and organising receipts etc and is good at it, so he takes charge of all financial stuff, for which I am eternally grateful.

Fair dos, I think.

[SlightlySuperiorPeasant]

I love Hamleys

[plutocrap]

Everyone would get champagne. Probably even the children and babies. Or titanium cufflinks.

[AuntieStella]

Everyone would get a really good present, but he'd probably spend about 3x what I would. And I wonder if plutocrap's DH is related to mine as all adults would receive alcohol (probably expensive red rather than champagne).

[WidowWadman]

shodan - how can you do the buying without the budgeting?

[rhondajean]

My DH is great at presents, and very generous.

I absolutely love buying presents though, so I do the shopping for everyone else and he gets to spend his time, effort and money on me

[skyebluezombie]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/Christmas/1583065-LAST-CHANCE-Closes-today-MN-Christmas-appeal-2012-Nominations-and-Donations-thread

has everybody seen the above thread? just trying to spread some christmas love :)

[CMOTDibbler]

It would be the same as it is now. Neither of us have the time or inclination to go searching about for the 'perfect' gift, so everyone gets asked for ideas, or preferably an Amazon wishlist.
Wrapping is done christmas eve in whatever paper was bought from a charity stall that year.

[Shodan]

Widow- we agree on a rough amount of how much to spend on each of the dcs, the rest of my family (and DH) is up to my discretion. However my family are not well off and so we all stick to similar amounts for each other.

I am lucky enough not to need to budget very strictly, but I spent years growing up in a poorer family, then years struggling with very little money, then more years as a single parent, so I have an inbuilt ouch factor which tells me when it's time to stop buying.

[uoYekorByMredluomS]

Hmm everyone would get something he has seen on an infomercial. Ie a bloody useless steam cleaner or some such.

[joanofarchitrave]

He would do it absolutely fine, as he did during the 39 years he lived before we met. However, I once saw dh heading into town to do his Christmas shopping. I have never seen such a cloud of absolute misery hanging over anyone's head, and looked as though he was heading to his execution. I quite like Christmas shopping. So I do most of it.

[Takver]

In this household everyone would get much better presents if DH did all the buying - he's infinitely better at it than me . He even makes ultra-arty cards & present labels to go along with them. Sadly he has yet to realise that buying presents for my Dad is part of his job description

In my defence I do supply the household with pretty ribbony shite for decoration when wrapping as I'm a sucker for that sort of thing.

[Vagaceratops]

I buy for my side of the family, DH buys for his so I know what would happen.

It gets to about the 23rd December and he suddenly gets into a flap that he hasnt organised anything. Much panic ensues because he hasnt even given time to think about what his family members might like. Then we have the moaning and the wailing about how much delivery costs.

The children would get one present (no stockings). It would be what they want though because he would ask them.

[3bunnies]

He would start around 2pm on Christmas Eve, buy everything full price and come back with things he thinks people will 'really love'. Fortunately the children spur him into action a little bit earlier, he buys for me, FIL, BIL. He hates being given a list of requests so ends up with random full priced stuff . He even hates it if I try to discuss it early and every year 'we must spend less on presents'.

[Chocaholics]

I buy for my family, DH for his but he spends ages making sure he has got the right present for everyone so know he would probably get my family better presents than me. He already knows and has been researching presents for his mum and dad and will have probably got everything bought by end of November. Me on the other hand buy every thing a few days before Xmas and hope I spot something for people. In fact may just leave into him this year....

[LemonBreeland]

DH would spend way too much money. Not sure he would know what to buy for my Mum though.

He does do a fair bit of the Christmas shopping anyway though.

[bedmonster]

I actually went xmas shopping with my DP the first year we were together. I watched him go to 3 shops - Boots for smellies, Woolies for toys and HMV for CDs. He shopped for 30 mins in total with a huge long list scribbled on the back of an envelope. He asked for bags for each single item he bought.
He then took them all home, selotaped them shut and stuck a post it on each saying To blah From blah.
I was enviable and disgusted in equal measure.
We have never shopped together since.

[OhTheConfusion]

I dread to imagine

DH and I now take it turn about to book us a few nights away as our christmas gift to each other... luckily it is my year to book. Last year we ended up in a slightly dated and very damp 'country hotel' 30 miles frome home for £££. He would have known this if he had taken the time to research it!

This year we are going to London, nice hotel, first class train and a trip to the theatre for the same amount .

This tradition started due to a good few years of terrible gifts all bought on the 23rd or 24th of December at full price with little thought and no planning :( DH also has a terribe habbit of buying me cards with teddy bears on them... I really don't like teddy's.

[MumofWombat]

Round about the 20th Dec, he would go shopping and do it all in one hit. Some things would be brilliant, and others, well not so good.
The wrapping would be shocking (but I accept that I'm a bit anal about this, I like things coordinated and the corners looking nice etc).
He loves that I love Christmas, I'm almost totally organised with presents, just need to get a few more stocking fillers and DH's. I've even written the cards for overseas (which as I emigrated 2.5 years ago, is actually the majority of them). He has been involved in the discussions of what to get his family, it's not totally left to me.

[LauraShigihara]

The children would love it because he would buy them something completely over budget. They would be suprised that Father Christmas forgot to fill their stockings though.

Everyone else would get a decent present and he would wrap them all nicely, so I reckon he would do a good job. I've never really thought about it, but, yeah, I don't think he'd mess up.

He would forget the extras like cards though. But that doesn't really matter.

[ArbitraryUsername]

He wouldn't buy anything and then he'd complain bitterly that 'presents hasn't been bought'. He'd huffand puff about how the presents 'needed to be bought' too, but he wouldnt actually do it himself; he'd just try to passive aggressively get me to do it. He always uses the passive voice for this and it drives me insane. Eventually, he'd order something off amazon 3 weeks late (and after several phone calls from the PILs) and have it delivered to them. This is exactly what happened with MIL'd birthday recently, because I'd decided that I have more than enough to do already.

The other scenario is that I'd buy the presents and he'd complain that they were the wrong thing/I'd spent too much/anything else that he could think of. The presents would turn out to be great (because the receiver loved then) and he'd completely forget how much of an arse he'd been about it all. I have a lot of experience with this scenario. Hence, I've decided to opt for the first scenario from now on for his side of the family.

[trixymalixy]

It would be far more stressful for everyone. I would get stressed that Xmas was approaching and nothing had been bought, DH would be getting stressed thinking about it and at me asking him what he had bought. Two days before Xmas DH would order stuff inline with exorbitant next day delivery costs. It would be very stressful when none of it arrived on time and DH would be at the shops 5 mins before closing time on Xmas eve.

[ShowOfBloodyStumps]

DH would be fine. He would leave it slightly late and be a bit stressed about it all (but I think many, many people would be the same) and he would ask nicely for help with wrapping (he doesn't enjoy wrapping but does do it). Presents would be lovely. He's v good at choosing gifts. As it is, we like to shop together and wrapping is a nice night in with snacks/dvds and a nice meal afterwards. It's a joint effort throughout. We shop simply though and adults like brothers/sisters in both families don't buy for each other. So just children, parents, GPs and friends to buy for.

My brother is the best I know at Christmas shopping. His gifts are well thought out, researched, personal, touching and appropriate. He wraps things according to a theme and spends a lot of time over the whole thing.