Donations to the house fund! This has become a standard request when my grown children ask. Such Christmas presents have helped finance over a dozen new interior doors and accompanying hardware in our fifty-year-old house, refurbishing of the exterior doors (and new hardware), and crown moulding in several of the rooms.
I have all the books, jewelry, and perfume I need, and my taste in shoes is too expensive! So this works, and then I have to send everybody pictures of the work that was done (hopefully within the year).
Oh, and a little chocolate is always welcome, too.
I have some non-material "special requests," too, but God already knows what they are.