Do you choose your Christmas presents or do you get surprises?

[ChristmasIsComing2023]

Do you choose your Christmas presents or do you get surprises?

I choose my own. Christmas and birthday is the only time I get to choose something completely frivolous for me. We have a budget of £300 each. I'm getting a new tapestry kit.

I always have a Christmas wish list which DP completely ignores every year. He prefers to surprise me and to be fair he is a great gift buyer and hasn’t got me anything rubbish yet!

My Christmas list comes in handy if my mum/sisters/friends ask what I’d like and I also usually buy myself a couple of things off it in the sales after Christmas.

I provide a list ( to those that ask) and get surprised from the list

I only get presents from my 3 adult sons
Most of the time they club together and get something I choose
This year I have a bracelet which I'd love but wouldn't buy myself

Surprises usually. My mum might ask for ideas but then she picks the exact items.

Choose my own from dh, the kids get me surprises and they’re very good at picking interesting things unlike dh.

Choose. Only three people buy me presents (DS, mum stepmum) and they make sure I get something useful / wanted.

I drop very unsubtle hints for teen DS and he's happy to get little things I like so he's not wandering around town aimlessly.

I always get a couple of surprises, usually from my Mum. My DH buys from a list. To be completely honest, I hate clutter, and we have very different tastes so the surprises she gets me are often not things I would use and go straight to charity.

Surprises, but within guidelines like 'I need stuff for the house' or 'I'd like things for the garden.' This year I've asked for handmade stuff (all my kids are crafty or love cooking and suchlike), so I don't know what I will get but it will all be stuff I want. IYSWIM.

I choose my own main present from DH but he also gets me lots of lovely surprise presents and a few what were you thinking ones

We do surprises, I'd rather we didn't but my husband wont tell me what he wants or needs, and he doesn't listen to me when I talk about things I'd like. It seems so wasteful to be buying for the sake of it. I'm not ungrateful, but he wont agree to not buying for each other or to share what he wants so we are stuck in this loop.

Could be either. If there's something I'd particularly like I mention it to DH or my parents, otherwise I'd just leave them to it.

DH asks me for a list and he works off that. It’s usually suggestions of one or two big things, lots of medium sized presents and lots of little bits, so he can choose surprises according to his budget. He also asks me to add bits to an Amazon wish list and to an Etsy wish list (both of which he ignores), and buys me random bits which are either absolute genius and the best presents ever, or a little bit odd. I know I’m always going to get some Pringle socks and a Terrys chocolate orange, as well as new pyjamas on Christmas Eve.

Ah a new tapestry kit! I have 2 not done from before DC, 16 years ago. My living room has 4 on the walls, and have numerous others around the house.
Most were Penelope kits.
Maybe I should did them out, and get off MN now I have more time and space again.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/314920286898?var=0&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338749387&toolid=20006&customid=GB_14339_314920286898.141453821974~1869066112936-g_EAIaIQobChMI6pn24KC8ggMVVxaiAx0XhgELEAQYASABEgIiNvD_BwE

Both. I give a list of what I would like/ need to DH and DC. They buy from that with one or two surprises. My mum and bf presents are surprises

Inexpensive items - surprises.
Expensive items - pre-agreed.

Total surprises. He is an amazing present buyer and I'm always blown away by how thoughtful they are. Last year he bought me the entire volume of Charles dickens after I had watched a Christmas carol and commented I had loved dickens in school but in the set this particular book was missing. He had actually hidden it in the Christmas tree for me to find. The kids loved it too. I also had gorgeous jewellery and sparkly Ugg slippers. Always spoiled.

I mean as adults we can buy ourselves what we want any time... we don't but we can (like it doesn't need to be your birthday to eat birthday cake) so it seems pointless to 'buy your own' to me.

I buy my own, I don't like people buying me gifts for any occasion except flowers, I'll always enjoy flowers.

I supply a list. Only my elderly DM and DH to look at it.
Sometimes I get exactly what I listed. Sometimes they take the initiative and eg choose the colour.
Quite often I actually buy something I fancy and suggest that I hand it over and get it for Xmas. Without guidance they'd do a good job, but this helps.

We do Amazon wish lists in our family but DH and I also get each other a few surprises

I start each bday and christmas list (which are close together) with a golden retriever and a piano..(and lessons) and a john lewis list with all sorts if stuff from less than £5 to £1000

So a surprise ish from a very big wish list… just wishes and ongoing for several years.

I really just want the golden retriever- one day!

Dad gives me money, my DH wants a list and will only buy from it. My children are a combination DS1 will get me a surprise whilst DD will usually get something I see when we're shopping. DS2 either gets us something between us or nothing but he does have 3young children

A surprise! I am in a fortunate position as I can afford to buy what I want when I want it, so I love a surprise and my husband is an excellent gift buyer!!