What's on your Christmas list?

[Charlotte]

It being the dying days of November, I'm about to start getting pestered by my Mum about what I want for my Birthday and Christmas (to my continued annoyance, the former falls fairly close to the latter).

Being a tremendous grouch, I've tried saying "nothing" but this usually results in my having to unwrap gifts I never wanted or needed and the resultant eBay guilt in the New Year.  I've found it easier to just make a decent list of things I really do want, because at least then I don't have to feign the appropriate emotions come the gorging season.

So this year, I'm rather hoping for either a new lens for my camera or some commuting shoes for the bike. 

There are some fab ideas for Christmas presents at BoingBoing and Gizmodo and with the internets getting better and better for avoiding the hideousness of meatspace shopping, where will your friends and relatives be shopping for your Christmas present and what are you hoping for?

[Little Jim]

I've already written a letter to Father Christmas asking for the Chasing Legends DVD and a new headset (cos mine is borked)

[Kim]

In the absence of any pressing reason to do so, I don't do Christmas.  Makes this sort of thing an awful lot simpler.

What I'd really like would be for ESA (or anyone else) to attempt to land something on another planet again.  Best Christmas I've had in years was spent staying up all night waiting for news from Beagle 2.

[Kathy]

I recently acquired a rather lovely rain coat (black, belted, full skirted with white piping), and really want a stylish rain hat to match it: the sort of thing that Audrey Hepburn would wear if she was dressed by Chanel. But no-one seems to want hats any more - even Selfriges have closed their hat department to make more room for shoes - so I don't know where I could get such a thing. So if anyone does know, please tell me, 'cos such a hat is on my Christmas list. That, and a set of aerial silks lessons.

[Chris L]

I recently acquired a rather lovely rain coat (black, belted, full skirted with white piping), and really want a stylish rain hat to match it: the sort of thing that Audrey Hepburn would wear if she was dressed by Chanel. But no-one seems to want hats any more - even Selfriges have closed their hat department to make more room for shoes - so I don't know where I could get such a thing. So if anyone does know, please tell me, 'cos such a hat is on my Christmas list. That, and a set of aerial silks lessons.

Try here: Hats, Caps and Berets at Village Hats.  Largest selection of hats in the UK, hatsandcaps.co.uk.  Don't know the first thing about them other than the people who built their online store are a nice bunch.

I think the worst thing about asking for anything to do with cycling for Christmas is the certainty that you'll bought something that **looks just like** the thing you wanted, but was **much, much cheaper**, closely followed by getting the thing you wanted along with a looped message saying how expensive it was and it can't really be worth it.  I have pristine 10 year old kit to wave back, but TBH I'd like socks.

[BrianI]

I think I'm getting a new inkjet printer from "Santa", and hopefully some Airfix goodies too! 

[clarion]

I don't want presents.  And I don't want cards.  But it's hard to get the message across.

I do want to spend time with the people I love.

[LindaG]

I was chatting with a patient last week, she and her family don't do presents any more.  Instead they all meet up, stay in a hotel, go to the theatre/a museum/something else that interests them, and they spent time together.  They do this several times a year.

I thought it was a lovely idea.

Except for the bit where you have to spend time with your family.  

Could that be for you Clarion?

[Mrs Pingu]

Kathy, our John Lewis still does hats, maybe your nearest one does too.

I share Charlotte's x-mas antipathy, but in the spirit of trying (and ignoring the next camera lens I want because they're over £200) I've asked for lots of merino under(and outer)wear, a v expensive waterproof jacket, wine, chocolate and a trip to the Peat Inn

[Mrs Pingu]

I don't want presents.  And I don't want cards.  But it's hard to get the message across.

+1
And I want to go on holiday somewhere far, far away....

[spesh]

I find birthdays and Chrimble to be a pain because I don't really want for anything much, and what I really, really want is usually a tad too expensive or is best obtained by myself to avoid ambiguity.

As Chris L ponts out upthread, you have to be careful what you ask for, because what you get get might not be what you wanted.

And I don't do fake sincerity very well.   

EDIT - if anyone was wondering why I was quoting something downthread, I had a bit of an editing fustercluck - abnormal service will be resumed shortly...

[CAMRAMan]

My 8-year-old son has totally let me down. I thought I could count on him to want a Scalextric set or some other similar toy, but no, he has to want an iPod bleeding Touch. Luckily, he has rich family in Hungary whom I have suggested he gets in touch with to arrange that. No christmas day fun for me, then. From me he's getting an Islabike Beinn bike, so I can twist his arm into going out with me more often.

I managed to stop my family buying me anything by always insisting on them buying me Oxfam goats in the past. They don't look on this as quite right somehow, so they don't ask any more.

[Adam]

I'm another one who's not fussed by Christmas and about the only thing I say I want, when asked is "world peace".  

However, this year I'm going to buy myself a GPS.

[Tewdric]

Gran Turismo 5!  

Tomos may well get Scalextric.  11 months is old enough, surely?

[Mrs Pingu]

I thought about buying Pingu a GPS, but then decided I didn't know enough about maps or the technology to be ar3ed to research the gadget lust sites to find the best one.

[Kathy]

I think the whole Oxfam goat thing is a swizz. If people buy me a goat, then said goat ought to be delivered to me, not some family in Kenya or wherever!

I'd like a pet goat.

[spesh]

Gran Turismo 5! 

Tomos may well get Scalextric.  11 months is old enough, surely?

You're just keeping in trust for him until he's old enough to appreciate it properly, que no? 

See also Hornby, Lego etc.

[Jurek]

EDIT - if anyone was wondering why I was quoting something downthread, I had a bit of an editing fustercluck - abnormal service will be resumed shortly...

Have you any idea what that just did to my branes? 

[Jacomus]

I've asked for money, as much as possible, with which I shall buy 2 training courses and some kit that will greatly help my change of career.

[Oscar's dad]

I really don't like Christmas and don't like the present thing for all the reasons mentioned above.  I always ask for:

Girls Aloud (even the ginger one)
Wiggle vouchers

I sometimes get one of the items on the above list but always get socks and smelly bathroom stuff that I don't use.

This year might be better than most as apparently The Current Mrs R and I will be spending at least some of the Big Day on our own - smashing.

[jogler]

a chain tug

[spesh]

EDIT - if anyone was wondering why I was quoting something downthread, I had a bit of an editing fustercluck - abnormal service will be resumed shortly...

Have you any idea what that just did to my branes? 

Relativistic computing FTW.  

The latest development from Muppet Labs, where the future is being made today!

Now if you'll excuse me, Beaker's gone and got himself quantum entangled...

[Butterfly]

It took several years, but I finally convinced my friends to stop buying things by refusing to buy them anything and complaining regularly and loudly about the wasted resources of more unwanted cookbooks/picture frames/toiletries the rest of the year. They are now down to a 'secret santa' which I regretted giving into last year (another bloody picture frame to put in the drawer ) so I'm trying hard not to give in to the guilt this year . Part of me says 'it's only £10' but I know that if I give in again, it'll just go on . My parents and sister are like me in reluctance to buy presents for the sake of it. Clarion will get a cuddle as usual .

[Kim]

It took several years, but I finally convinced my friends to stop buying things by refusing to buy them anything and complaining regularly and loudly about the wasted resources of more unwanted cookbooks/picture frames/toiletries the rest of the year.

Well done.  It's really a lot harder to achieve than most people would think.  I've managed it mainly through not having very many friends, making it abundantly clear that Christmas has bad associations of family and occasional waving of the financial inequality stick.  And even that isn't foolproof.

Growing up, my brother and I had a reciprocal agreement not to buy each other Christmas or birthday presents, on the basis that not having to have the hassle of finding or affording an appropriate gift was itself a decent gift, and meant we could buy or save for something we actually wanted for ourselves.  My mother (the sort of person who would be offended if not bought some item of Christmas lqt) found this level of pragmatism highly objectionable, and would nag us both incessantly about it.

[clarion]

Clarion will get a cuddle as usual .

Best

Present.

Evah!