I need some ideas for Christmas presents for both my mother in-law and father in-law. These are two individuals who have the means to purchase anything they need or want no questions asked. They are not very sentimental so something my daughter made would be looked at and commented on but then tossed.
Any ideas would be appreciated. Thank you!
Thank you guys for all the wonderful advice. I will take it all to heart and see what I end up. I'll let you know after Christmas if I was successful or not.
I like the idea that someone said of sending them steaks for christmas. My in-laws send us Omaha steaks a lot and we about die of joy everytime we see the box on the doorstep!! It's definately something they would probably use...
Is $50 too much?? At neimans at willowbend, they are doing free personalized engravings on all Jo Malone purchases. It's a great fragrance....Oprah is always talking about it, etc. They also have men's cologne. I just bought several today for hard to buy for relatives and the engraving is really beautiful.
Don't you just hate that? I am in your same shoes. However, my in-laws are at least sentimental. However, NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING, I have EVER given my MIL have I ever seen again!!! I don't know what she does with it or where she puts it, but it disappears, never to be seen again! And I get her nice things too - not cheap! Now I've decided to try to make whatever I buy her not too expensive (but might look like it is), personal, and just get several smaller things rather than one big thing. My husband tries to help me but it's a lost cause! They have EVERYTHING! You might try something electronic - I saw these cool digital key chains at Sharper Image for $50, and cheaper ones at Walgreens for $20. Read the details on the boxes, though. My in-laws are technologically challenged, so they're out for me! Good luck!
Okay - I am sure that I will be hearing about this one from everyone, but my in-laws are the SAME way. I have sent sentimental things like pictures (which were tossed), frames, even bought precisely what they asked for and they either took it back, didn't like it or threw them out. So, last year we were VERY pregnant (my son was born Dec 29th) with our second child and I was VERY stressed out about the idea of hunting for the perfect Christmas gift for them and my husband finally took the rational approach to call them and suggest that we not exchange gifts last year. We let them know that if they wanted to get gifts for the kids then fine, but we preferred to not exchange gifts. We just realized that we spent a lot of non-productive time worrying about their gift and subsequently being upset when they didn't appreciate it. I love digital picture frames - you can preload pics of the kids and fun gifts like that, but once my MIL sent back the frame - I determined that it was a futile effort. Make life easy and stress free - if they can afford it if they want it and don't appreciate sentimental gifts then why bother.
Giving a Donation in their name to charity of their choice.
I don't know how much you want to spend. I am getting my mom and stepdad a digital photo frame and an extra card so they can have lots of pictures. ($150 ish)
One year I got them a towel warmer for the bathroom and they seemed to really like that. ($50 ish)
They also like Kansas City Steaks.
Susan
what are their interests? are they wine drinkers? pottery barn has some nice (engraved w/initial) bottle stoppers....or decanters.
Or Williams Sonoma has some nice serving platters. I think anything from Williams Sonoma makes a nice gift to anyone! they have great cooking/baking mixes too!
also, cookbooks are great "couple" gifts. Nice ones. I'm also giving my MIL a gift certificate to get an hour-long massage. I know she'd really enjoy that and she rarely does that.
also, every Christmas, I like to get my mother and my MIL a calendar with photos of my son in it (a personalized photo calendar).....they both remark how much they love seeing new photos every month. In my mom's, I try to include photos of her other grandchildren as well. snapfish.com and kodakgallery.com both have photo calendars for sale....and they have other personalized photo products.
I see a lot of great items on Etsy that are unique they might like.
For example, there are some nice wood handcarved pens for your father in law, and etsy has some beautiful jewelry, linens, pottery, art... for your mother in law. Check it out, it may spark some ideas.
