Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to decide on a gift of the year.
Speaker 1: You can make gift giving easier on yourself by being
Speaker 1: more streamlined, but you can preserve a lot of thoughtfulness too.
Speaker 1: My guess is that if you are the sort of
Speaker 1: person who listens to this podcast, you want to give
Speaker 1: gifts that people will love. You also don't want to
Speaker 1: spend huge chunks of your life hunting through the entire
Speaker 1: universe of gift options. If that is the case, you
Speaker 1: will probably benefit from having a default plan. Just as
Speaker 1: I have a basic structure for each Before Breakfast episode
Speaker 1: so I don't sit down and say, hmmm, how should
Speaker 1: I begin things today? It can be helpful to add
Speaker 1: structure to your gift giving. For instance, you can always
Speaker 1: give one particular thing for people's special occasions. I know
Speaker 1: of a couple who give every young couple that's getting
Speaker 1: married whatever betting they have registered for, no deliberating over gifts,
Speaker 1: and no need to remember what they gave anyone else, sir,
Speaker 1: whether it was equivalently priced. You put sheets on your
Speaker 1: registry that is what this couple is going to give you.
Speaker 1: You can do something similar as we go into the
Speaker 1: holiday season. Decide on a gift of the year, choose
Speaker 1: something you like that you think others will like too,
Speaker 1: and then give it to most of the people on
Speaker 1: your list in some form or another. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: if you like those LLBean boat bags and who doesn't
Speaker 1: give them to everyone on your list? You can very
Speaker 1: the specifics by person. The family that loves picnics gets
Speaker 1: a big, open topped bag, while your niece who commutes
Speaker 1: by train gets a smaller one that zips up so
Speaker 1: she doesn't have to worry about everything spilling out. You
Speaker 1: can choose a color each person likes and get it
Speaker 1: monogrammed if you prefer. You could also put stuff in
Speaker 1: the bags to amplify the gift. The gifts are not
Speaker 1: in any way identical, but you don't spend time wondering
Speaker 1: what should I get my in laws? You consider which
Speaker 1: particular boot bag your in laws would like the best,
Speaker 1: and go with that. There are other gifts that will
Speaker 1: appeal to just about everyone on your list. For instance,
Speaker 1: you might get everyone your favorite water bottle or yet
Speaker 1: e coffee cup in different colors. Or patterns. You could
Speaker 1: give everyone a Christmas ornament and choose specific ornaments that
Speaker 1: relate to each person's taste. You could give everyone stationary
Speaker 1: with their initials, or a gift of regional food from
Speaker 1: your area. I bet there is a local restaurant or
Speaker 1: store that would be happy to have you give a
Speaker 1: gift basket from them to everyone on your list. What
Speaker 1: I like about this idea is that it is personal
Speaker 1: and easy. There are a lot of presents in this world.
Speaker 1: By narrowing things down to one small category, you keep
Speaker 1: yourself from spinning your wheels. But within that category there
Speaker 1: are probably lots of options that can speak to each
Speaker 1: particular person. You save time and put thought into your gifts.
Speaker 1: That is not a bad combination at all. If you
Speaker 1: try choosing a gift of the year, let me know
Speaker 1: how it goes. You can reach me at Laura at
Speaker 1: Laura vandercam dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura,
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Thanks for listening to before Breakfast. If you've
Speaker 1: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.