What is the best present you have given/received where the value was all/mostly in the thought/time/effort?

[cleanandclothed]

Mine are:

Given - a 'Santa is a tractor boy' (Ipswich town supporter) father christmas hat

• a DVD of DS

Received - a palette knife from my MIL - I couldn't find one to buy anywhere and she managed it

• a DVD of the Heidi series that was on when I was about 5 and I loved it (given to me when I was 29
• A tape my DH made me of him reading Winnie the Pooh.

Best I gave - between immigrating back to England from South Africa, and my parents getting divorced, my mam most of her photos of me and my siblings. I asked around family/friends for any photos they had, and made a collage from them all. Well one collage for each of her DC. Had them framed and gave them to her for her 50th. She cried, I cried it was a lovely feeling.

Best I have received - A cabbage patch doll when I was 19, always wanted one and never got one as they didn't sell them in South Africa. Still have her, and the weird thing is that her "birth date" is the same as DH.

Any time I have received a card with something nice written in it.

I prefer words to any present.

I made a mate of mine a 'disco in a box' which had those multi-coloured lights which go round, some babycham, party poppers and a mix tape of cool disco tunes. The idea being that if she wanted a disco she could just whip it out and have a boogie

best present I ever received... My best friend made me a book once, with all funny cartoons, drawings, things from newspapers all stuck in. It was very funny and really sweet.

Given was this year, i gave my mum £200 to buy my DB (13) xmas pressies as she is out of work at mo, he will never know as i requested him not to.
Received was my engagement ring when i was 5 years ago when i was 18.

I have a couple, my mum gave me as a gift 2 large pencil sketches of the dc's drawn from playgroup photos. A dinnerlady she works with drew tham and refused payment.

When we got married a childhood frind of dh and I gave us 2 brilliant gifts, on was an inexpensive picture frame that a family friend of hers had personalised with our names and wedding date on.
The other was a Forever Friends "on you wedding day" candle. The reason being that when her and I were best friends at primary school Forver Friends was the in thing and we both spent every penny of pocket money we had on Forver Friends stuff.
People were so generous to us when we got married but they were the most personal gifts to us.

My best present was very expensive but it was the thought that made it special.

My lovely sister lives in new Zealand and a couple of christmas ago was expecting her first baby a few months later. For christmas dh gave me an envelope and when I opened it expecting it to be vouvhers / tickets there was a bit of paper with the NZ flag on one side and written on the back was this message:

'I was thinking about what alicet would like most in the world for Christmas and I thought it would probably be to see her new kiwi nephew. So this is a voucher to be cashed at the bank of alicet's dh to the value of a plane ticket between UK and NZ to be used either by alicet to visit her sis or for her sis to visit alicet'

It made me bawl my eyes out!

For a wedding present, a friend did all our wedding photography, and sent the DVD to all our guests, and a keepsake book for close family. So much more personal!

I'm loving alicet's sister's pressie, wish I could afford to do the same for my sis back in UK. Am thinking this year a DVD of DD waving/crawling/in santa suit (?!) might do the trick in the meantime.

When my sister went travelling for 6 months round she kept a blog as she went. It was her birthday shortly after she got back and I made her a photobook with all her diary entries and the best of her photos (she was staying with mum and dad so got the pics through them).

When DD was born my older sister had a huge pack of ready meals delivered from here. They were really good and I dreaded having to get it together enough to start cooking again when we ran out of them.

The best gifts I have recieved was my wedding video which was bought for me by my auntie and some friends collectively and my dsis bought me some new pjs and a snowglobe with the word mum written on it after I had dd. I was so touched as everyone else bought gifts for dd that someone had thought about me. I returned the favour when she had her next two dc.

The best gift I have seen given was to my dsis, her dp and son at christmas. They had lost their baby boy a few months earlier and told their older son he had gone to live on the moon so my mam bought them a plot on the moon so he actually had a home.

DS1 went on rugby tour to Ireland aged 15.

He spent the whole of one of his few free afternoons tracking down a perfume called Innisfree.

I had never even heard of it but he had found it when he researched the engraving on my dads headstone. When he died a couple of years ago my mum had the first line of this put on it as it was my dads favorite poem.

"I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,"

I couldn't believe he found it for me . Really really sweet. It means I have a nice reminder of my dad everyday.

Best received was a book my flatmates made me for my 21st with photos and comments from everyone close to me in.

Best I have given probably a printed out and bound copy of all the (very long) emails my friend had sent us all when she was travelling.

the best given was a box of goodie for mumsnet santa i loved shopping for it it took a lot of time making sure it was suitable

best received was when my son was 4 years year wrote i love you mum and put on fridge christmas morning! ( really put me of making dinner i just wanted to cuddle him all day

I like to receive practical, unsentimental gifts. DH bought me a new calculator when I started my new job, and it has dual power supply (solar and battery), a kickstand and a moveable tilted screen. People have laughed at us, saying a calculator is an unromantic present (one colleague even said she would 'go mad' at her DH if he bought her one), but I
needed a new one, and would never have chosen such a nice one for myself.

Another favourite was an antique Wedgwood pestle-and-mortar which my DH bought me for my 30th birthday. It's everything I love: useful, beautiful and Victorian.

When my house was struck by lightening a water tank exploded and ruined some of my childhood books that were on a shelf directly below in my bedroom. DH found a copy of "The Quangle Wangle's Hat" (no longer in print) and gave it to me for my birthday.

Last year my Dh gave me 6 months of doing everything to keep the household going- organising childcare, supermarket shopping, holidays, insurance - the lot. We had both eben working full time and while he did more childcare at weekends and more diy stuff I did everything else.
I helped him out with some of it but he took it really seriously and we now have a much more even split on these things than we did before. Definitely the best I've ever received.

hollyoaks the plot on the moon is beautiful! made a tear come to my eye!
and trace2 what your son did also bought a tear to my eye how cute! i cant wait until ds starts writing!!!!

This whole thread is bringing a tear to my eye, not helped by those pesky early pregnancy hormones.

For Pagwatch

The Lake Isle of Innisfree by WB Yeats

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee;
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

For Pagwatch

The Lake Isle of Innisfree by WB Yeats

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee;
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

My aunt (after I'd spent my whole life moaning about what a cow she is) made me feel awful and great at the same time by giving me a fire opal pendant that she'd inherited when I was panicking about there being no jewellery nice enough for me to get married in.

And for my last birthday my best mate gave me a Prisoner Cell Block H mug.

The best present I've ever given anyone was when two Christamases ago I completely floored DH by giving him tickets to see Queens of the Stone Age.

Last year my sister said no presents for her and her dh, just their dd's, but I felt a bit mean doing that for her, so I asked if I could borrow her camera one day in Dec and downloaded all her photos (about three years worth) as she'd never worked out how to do it, and uploaded them to a website, so that if she ever lost her camera or it was damaged, she wouldn't lose her photos. I also had a calendar with pictures of her girls printed using the photos I'd downloaded for her.

My best friend was at the birth of my first child, along with DH. There was a storm, just as they were both leaving the hospital at 6am after my bf held my hand while i had my placenta moved manually, bit by bit - we all watched thunder, lightning, (followed by a heatwave for weeks).

When she got home, she immediately wrote down her thoughts, some words of her experience and what she thought and felt. She wrote it to my DD. And on my DDs 1st birthday, she presented to her/me with a painting that belonged to her when she was a child, she had it on her wall, bought by her dad and it had great memories.

The best present anyone has given me or dd, ever.

Hello

Best present where thought concerned was a couple of Christmases ago when my MIL gave me a hand written recipe book of all her family baking sectrets (they used to be bakers and she is an amazing cook). It was done with such love and thought that when I opened it I burst out crying!!

DH made me a collage of pictures of my family before my dd was born, presenting it to me when I was pg and about to pop (Xmas before dd was born in January).

3 years later he made me another collage with pictures of my dd and I on different trips. We tended to have 'days out' when dh was working away and he managed to pick the best of them. They are some of my fave pictures.

He has always been good at gifts, but these were the very best.

I bought him a surprise break away one birthday, in a nice hotel with his favourite activity (please don't ask) included. And it's not sexual. Almost the opposite in fact!

Ok, so it was crown green bowling. And he's only 44!