Universal gift ideas

[hoppyfarmer]

Hi ladies,
For the last few Christmases I've managed to buy or put together a gift that's suited most if not all of the adults we buy for at Christmas. I've done movie night popcorn tubs with choc, sweets, popcorn, jar of hotdogs, DVD and couple of beers. Also done a night in bag with candles, napkins, bottle of wine a dinner recipe and the dry ingredients for the recipe. Last year I bought a job lot of bird feeders that stick to the window and did cellophane cones of bird food to go with it.
I'm expecting a baby at the end of November by caesarean and am likely to be in hospital a little while so am trying to get ahead. Can anyone think of a gift that suits a lot of people please? Kids are easier to buy for. Not a huge budget either.
Thank you

Can I just ask you you buy these adults gifts?

It's seems quite odd to me that you'd buy 'one size fits all gifts'.

What you've done in the past are nice enough but they're the kind of gifts I'd just be 'meh' about

I really don't mean to sound like Scrooge but this is my biggest bugbear about Christmas- token adult gifts.

Even £10 per couple for 5 couples would save you £50 if you all stopped doing it and you could buy something for yourself you actually wanted.

Just why? 😀

I find your " kits " a little bizarre OP.

Sorry, I am sure you know your family.

I think if I was given hot dogs as a gift it would go in the bin.

I agree with PP. Don't give a present for the sake of it.
For me, part of the fun of Christmas is finding or choosing something that I know the recipient will really love. And I also love receiving really thoughtful gifts, where I can tell someone really thought about me.

They've always been very well received.

They've always been very well received.

Really?

Would the recipients honestly say otherwise?

Do the recipients know each other? I mean, do they all see they've got the same gift?

Do they also give the same gifts to everyone?

If it were me, I'd absolutely love a jar of homemade chutney.

Wow everyone is so negative! I think your gifts sound lovely & thoughtful. I’d gratefully receive all of them. However, I’ve also decided to just buy for children now, perhaps you could put that idea forward to the other adults?

I think these sound lovely and would
love any of them. Also think the above responses are rather rude.

How about a relax kit - bath bomb, magazine, candle

I always think something practical is the way to go:

Travel mug
Water bottle
Slipper socks

Total tat- sorry.

Either buy 1 small gift that you know they will like or don't give a gift at all.

Generic gift giving is poor form and generic hamper giving is the worst form.

Break the gift giving cycle. If you don't know enough about someone to give them a thoughtful gift then dont give hem anything at all.

Travel mug,Water bottle,Slipper socks

All stuff that you only need 1 of and if you were they type of person who would want/use these things then you would already have them.

Bit hypocritical to have a travel mug or water bottle to be environmentally friendly and then have a number of them.

When I had my dd mega early 3 Christmas's ago I was very disorganised and literally went online ordering people Carluccio's food hampers. I didn't even decide myself what to put in them!!!!

All my family loved them and all the stuff got used so much better than randome smelly sets that nobody ever wants that end up in charity bags!

Op ignore negative comments if people enjoy receiving them then great

Cash? Universally accepted I think. And reduces the likelihood of not being of interest to the recipient.

We used to exchange £15-20 m&s presents with relatives, which both parties would exchange in January (or fail to exchange in July in my case and end up dumping in thief recycling bin). Moved to cash - easier to post and less waste hopefully.

I think the beer vs. other consumables ratio is wrong in that 'movie night' kit.

In an ideal world we’d all devote time to picking out perfect presents and only exchange with people we really care about. But you can end up in weird circumstances where you don’t exchange with your nearest and dearest yet remain entangled in exchanges with people you don’t know that well.
When time and energy were scarce I did themes (e.g. all stationery, jewellery) which still let me personalize a bit but massively reduced the mental load.
One year I spent an hour browsing in a book shop and got books, board games, diaries and even soft toys all under one roof. There are times in life when you just need to make it as easy as possible.

I do personalised hampers. A gift bag with a selection of items for each family. There will be little wrapped items in there for the small children, homemade flavoured vodka for the adults, a fancy soap, a bottle, fancy chocs etc.

I buy some items in quantity (soaps), and do a supermarket run for others. Some stuff I make.
Homemade caramelised onion chutney is easy, also homemade chocolates. I make a rocky road type chocolate with posh ingredients- almond and apricot, orange and ginger, things like that. I don't bother about tempering and all that jazz. It's very simple.

Thank you for the helpful replies. The other ones I'll scroll past. I wasn't looking for criticism and those of you who think it's a stupid or weird idea will be glad you're not getting one!

Book bag with a book token in and a bar of choc to munch whilst reading lovely new book of choice

Cookery book geared to taste/lifestyle

Tickets for their local 'naice' cinema

Tea and biscuits from Fortnums

Ohhhh Carluccio gift hampers- would love to recieve one for Christmas. We love the food from there!

I'd love to give up exchanging gifts with my inlaws but they'd have none of it. I often do one size fits all because none of them actually want anything and I'm done trying to be thoughtful.

I do ok out of it as I've carefully cultivated the fact I love my baths so at least I get decent toiletries. But I honestly have no idea which gifts they've liked as they're meh about everything.

Well I think your gifts sound great. I want to do similar this year as I’m fed up of putting in loads of effort picking out individual gifts and no one else bothering. Most of my family gift food items, smellies of plastic tat. I think I would prefer to receive a cinema/movie night hamper and I love the bird feeder idea. Always like foodie gifts, small food hampers with exciting things in which I normally wouldn’t buy.

Sorry OP, but even the positive posts are very much along the lines of 'I can't be arsed so I do this.'