This post was written in December 2008, but it seemed like the perfect time to repost it here.

I’ve already finished all my Christmas shopping for this year, so I thought I’d give my best tips.

1. Don’t Wait Until The Last Minute

My best tip has to be: don’t wait until the last minute. Don’t go the day before Christmas to find your presents. For starters, you’re not the only person with the same idea; it will be one of busiest days in the high street. Plus, there’s less chance you’ll find what you are searching for.

2. Don’t See It As A Chore

If there is another thing you shouldn’t do, it’s this. Seeing Christmas shopping as a chore will only make you postpone it, and thus, leaving it to the last minute. I always like to see it as a challenge, as a puzzle, trying to figure out what present is suitable for which person.

3. Don’t Give Gift Vouchers, Money, Ties or Socks

In my book, a big no no. Unless they are cute knee high black-and-white striped socks, this is just an easy way out. Just think about it: if everyone started doing this, what’s the point of exchanging presents? I’d be much happier with a smaller gift that’s worth maybe less, than a gift voucher with no real thought behind it. (Mind you, I am talking about direct family present exchange here. If it’s a not too close friend or a distant family member, it should be fine)

4. Pay Attention Throughout The Entire Year

So how do you get someone a gift that he/she really wants? Now the best way is just to pay attention throughout the year. Be aware and keep note of what the person says when they want something. Also handy: drill people two months before Christmas about what they want. If you do it right (meaning sneaky and not too suspect), you’ll end up with loads of ideas. Plus you can’t really do it a couple of days before Christmas, cause then the person will know what it’s all about.

5. Analyze Your Subject

If getting tips from the person doesn’t help, you’ll have to figure it out all by your lonesome. So: analyze your subject. What does this person like to do? What hobbies? TV shows, sports? The really geeky way is to make a mind map out of it all, and just write everything down that pops into your mind.

6. Keep Your Receipts

I actually don’t always do this myself, not with all receipts at least. But there are a couple which you definitely should keep: 1. clothing (in case it doesn’t fit), 2. gadgets/electronics (often the receipt is also the warranty), 3. cd/dvd/book (in case the person has it already, unless you think you’ll always be able to flog it to someone else).

7. Remember What You Bought (And Wrapped Up)

You should always write down and keep a list of all the stuff you’ve bought, with how much everything had cost. Next time you go shopping, take that list with you, so you know who you still have to get something for. Then what I always do is wrap stuff up and forgetting what was in it; always handy to keep track of this too.

8. Shop Online

Every time I mention to someone that I do a lot of my shopping online, they stare at me and tell me that’s cheating. Cheating?!? How does me knowing what I want to get and order it at a place I know that has it classify as ‘cheating’? How is that worse than you buying socks the day before Christmas? The thing you have to keep in mind with online shopping is that you shouldn’t go for the ‘top 10’ lists and stuff like that. You have to KNOW what you want to get.

9. Try To Avoid Weekend Shopping

Easier said than done, right? Cause when you can otherwise shop. Well, (and I know this isn’t perfect) a lot of stores are open to quite late, especially in such malls like Westfield (they’re open till 11pm on week days).

10. Create A Present “Diary”

Yeah, so this isn’t really a tip for now, but one for next year. Remember tip 4 “Pay Attention The Entire Year”? Do this next year. And take it one step further. Write it down when someone mentions they want something or when they mention they’re looking for a certain item. What I mainly do is keep track of the stuff I see in stores, always shelving certain items in a mental bookshelf as possible gift ideas for one person.

Any tips you can give me that I’ve left out?

This post was written in December 2008, but it seemed like the perfect time to repost it here.

I’ve already finished all my Christmas shopping for this year, so I thought I’d give my best tips.

1. Don’t Wait Until The Last Minute

My best tip has to be: not to wait until the last minute. Don’t go the day before Christmas to find your presents. For starters, you’re not the only person with the same idea; it will be one of busiest days in the high street. Plus, there’s less chance you’ll find what you are searching for.

2. Don’t See It As A Chore

If there is another thing you shouldn’t do, it’s this. Seeing Christmas shopping as a chore will only make you postpone it, and thus, leaving it to the last minute. I always like to see it as a challenge, as a puzzle, trying to figure out what present is suitable for which person.

3. Don’t Give Gift Vouchers, Money, Ties or Socks

In my book, a big no no. Unless they are cute knee high black-and-white striped socks, this is just an easy way out. Just think about it: if everyone started doing this, what’s the point of exchanging presents? I’d be much happier with a smaller gift that’s worth maybe less than a gift voucher with no real thought behind it. (Mind you, I am talking about direct family present exchange here. If it’s a not too close friend or a distant family member, it should be fine)

4. Pay Attention Throughout The Entire Year

So how do you get someone a gift that he/she really wants? Now the best way is just to pay attention throughout the year. Be aware and keep note of what the person says when they want something. Also handy: drill people two months before Christmas about what they want. If you do it right (meaning sneaky and not too suspect), you’ll end up with loads of ideas. Plus you can’t really do it a couple of days before Christmas, cause then the person will know what it’s all about.

5. Analyze Your Subject

If getting tips from the person doesn’t help, you’ll have to figure it out all by your lonesome. So: analyze your subject. What does this person like to do? What hobbies? TV shows, sports? The really geeky way is to make a mind map out of it all, and just write everything down that pops into your mind.

6. Keep Your Receipts

I actually don’t always do this myself, not with all receipts at least. But there are a couple which you definitely should keep: 1. clothing (in case it doesn’t fit), 2. gadgets/electronics (often the receipt is also the guarantee), 3. cd/dvd/book (in case the person has it already, unless you think you’ll always be able to flog it to someone else).

7. Remember What You Bought (And Wrapped Up)

You should always write down and keep a list of all the stuff you’ve bought, with how much everything had cost. Next time you go shopping, take that list with you, so you know who you still have to get something for. Then what I always do is wrap stuff up without remembering what was in it; always handy to keep track of this too.

8. Shop Online

Every time I mention to someone that I do a lot of my shopping online, they stare at me and tell me that’s cheating. Cheating?!? How does me knowing what I want to get and order it at a place I know that has it classify as ‘cheating’? How is that worse than you buying socks the day before Christmas? The thing you have to keep in mind with online shopping is that you shouldn’t go for the ‘top 10’ lists and stuff like that. You have to KNOW what you want to get.

9. Try To Avoid Weekend Shopping

Easier said than done, right? Cause when you can otherwise shop. Well, (and I know this isn’t perfect) a lot of stores are open to quite late, especially in such malls like Westfield (they’re open till 11pm on week days).

10. Create A Present “Diary”

Yeah, so this isn’t really a tip for now, but one for next year. Remember tip 4 “Pay Attention The Entire Year”? Do this next year. And take it one step further. Write it down when someone mentions they want something or when they mention they’re looking for a certain item. What I mainly do is keep track of the stuff I see in stores, always shelving certain items in a mental bookshelf as possible gift ideas for one person.

Any tips you can give me that I’ve left out?

Update 2: Signup is now closed and everybody has been emailed the person they have to get a present for.

Update: I’ve opened it up now to the whole of UK. And changed the deadline of signup to tomorrow.

A while back I blogged about participating in two Secret Santa’s for the book blogging community, and since then I’ve had the idea that it would be great to do something similar for the London bloggers. I’m not sure how many people will be interested in participating, but I thought I should at least try to set something up; I think it could be so much fun!

So here’s the plan (for those of you who don’t know what Secret Santa is): all of the participants will be randomly assigned another blogger to send a gift to, and these assignments are kept secret until the gift has been delivered. So no one knows who their gift is coming from! The idea is to get inspired by your assigned person’s blog/twitter/whatever presence that person has online and get them a suitable gift.

Here are the “rules”:

1. Sign up and fill in all your details in this form (signup is now closed) before Friday 11th 18:00 Saturday 12th 20:00. Only sign up if you really plan to do this; I’d hate someone not ending up with a gift.

2. You should be a London UK blogger or at least an avid Twitterer. There should be enough “info” about you online for your secret santa to get you a present.

3. Gifts should be kept under £15 including shipping costs.

4. You’ll get an email sometime during the weekend (before Monday 14th) with the details of your assigned blogger.

5. Make sure your gift(s) are sent out before Christmas. They don’t necessarily have to arrive before Christmas, just sometime during the Christmas holidays (before 1st January).

6. Blog about the cool gifts you receive! Email me (melinda@missgeeky.com) a link to your blog post, so I can make a nice overview of what everybody has gotten. Also if you haven’t received anything by the 1st of January, email me and I’ll try to sort something out.

7. After your person has received and blogged about their presents, feel free to reveal your identity. You don’t have to, if you don’t want to, but it would make it so much more fun if you get to connect with this person!

8. If you have any questions, email me at melinda@missgeeky.com.

That’s it! Feel free to blog, Tweet, spread the word about this; it would be great to have as many people as possible participating.

I’ll also be joining in on the fun of this. We’ve got a piece of software that should sort out the assignments automatically and send everybody the right emails. Plus I’ve got a Christmas Elf on hand to help out with the background details and check if everything runs smoothly; I won’t see who’s paired up with who or who has gotten me. I won’t actually be in London during Christmas (from the 22nd till the 5th), but I will be online and reachable via email to answer any questions.

Have fun!

I’ve been lucky this Christmas; I’ve gotten lots of lovely presents:

Monet Earrings

Loving these earrings, although I did pick them myself. The pair that I got (also pretty) were broken, so I had to take them back to the store. They didn’t have those ones in stock anymore, so I got to choose from their remaining collection.

Hanayama NEWS Puzzle

Besides this little puzzle “box”, my brother created a cool treasure hunt to figure out how to open the box. I’ll blog about that some time later this week, cause it’s worth more than just a quick mention.

Chanel Nailpolish

I got this nail polish from my Mum. It looks pretty red on the photo, but in real life it’s actually a colour much more similar to the red on this blog.

Lancome Eye Shadow

I’m not used to wearing make-up, but I do want to start slowly into it this year. I got this set from my sister and it’s exactly the type of colours I was looking for. Not too flashy, nice and light, and natural. Now if I only knew how to actually apply it properly…

GPS Keyring

I still have to see if I can get it working with my mobile, but if it does I’ll be able to get my GPS location on my mobile. Great for geocaching!

Books

I got these two fantasy books from Cristiano’s parents and sister. Phantom from Terry Goodkind is the tenth book in his Sword of Truth series. Melusine is the debut from new writer Sarah Monette; I’ve heard a lot of good things about it and the plot sounds pretty interesting.

I’ve had the idea of a startup (I’ve mentioned it before here) for some time now, so Cristiano gave me this book to take my first step to making it a reality.

DVDs

One of my plans this year is to do A Movie A Week from the top 250 movies on IMDB, mainly because there were so many films I still hadn’t seen yet. I told my brother this a couple of days before Christmas, so he made sure I at least got two of them.

Comics

Two comics! The first one is the second episode of The Ultimates (can’t wait to see the movie next year, and who they will cast for it). The second is an Angel comic, based during the second season of Angel.

Pink Clogs

Cute pink fuzzy clogs! This will definitely keep my feet warm this winter!

Jewelry Bag

This leather jewelry bag will really come in handy. It’s got separate compartments for earrings, rings, necklaces and bracelets.

Bags

I got two bags this year (one from my parents and one from Cristiano’s parents), and they actually complement each other great. The first one fits my wallet, camera and notepad (and most probably a netbook too).

The other is much smaller, but perfect for when I only need my wallet and some small items.

Table Hook

This is a cool and handy item: it’s a take-along-with-you table hook, so that you can hang your bag on it at restaurants etc.

Last but not least, I’ve gotten money to get a new laptop! I haven’t decided between a MacBook or a MacBook Pro yet, but I guess I’ll wait until MacWorld first. I am thinking of getting a netbook for travel besides it though; whichever MB I choose I won’t be taking it a lot with me (even the 13″ MacBook I find too heavy).

So care to share with me what your presents were?