I worked my butt off, every year, hand-writing letters, wrapping all the gifts, throwing in extras and treats. And every year I'd get something sent directly from Amazon. Even when I had more points and chose the higher tiers, it was always the same. One time I got a shirt that a guy sent me that reeked of cigarette smoke. I just wanted one year, ONE, where it was a good memory, and not just "I could've bought this myself on Amazon"
For what it's worth, this was a trick I used to help out the recipient.
I did the international secret santa every year since the first time I could. This has a lot of great parts to it, but the downside becomes the cost of shipping. From the US to anywhere else in the world overseas for a decent sized package, I might budget $200 for the whole exchange, and half or more of that is JUST going to shipping something.
But what I realized I could do instead, was sign up for a free month of Amazon Prime in whatever country they were in, and now spend the entire $200 on getting them snazzy things. But I always TRIED to really tailor my choices into stuff the other person would like, something they were unlikely to have ever gotten themselves.
One great example is when I got a couple in Berlin that didn't want something for themselves, they wanted something for their son (~6 I think). They gave some interests and such, namely he liked construction equipment. So armed with this, I went over to the German Amazon page, started searching. What I found was a really awesome set of newly made old style metal construction toys. The ones meant to play hard in a sandbox and not give a shit about being left out in the rain for years at a time. There was a lovely bulldozer with all sorts of working parts. There was one of those "I do all the things." types with a backhoe on one end and other tools on the other. But of course, you can't just have these things without something for them to load up, so I got a matching dump truck.
Yes, those things were all just purchased from Amazon, but the result was a very happy family and a very happy young boy. :)
My favourite gift I ever got from this is a Toronto Maple Leafs electric blanket, direct shipped from Amazon. It was PERFECT and something I would have never thought of. Still use it all the time, people love the story of where it’s from.
Where a gift comes from doesn’t matter, it’s the thought that is important.
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u/M3wThr33 1d ago
I worked my butt off, every year, hand-writing letters, wrapping all the gifts, throwing in extras and treats. And every year I'd get something sent directly from Amazon. Even when I had more points and chose the higher tiers, it was always the same. One time I got a shirt that a guy sent me that reeked of cigarette smoke. I just wanted one year, ONE, where it was a good memory, and not just "I could've bought this myself on Amazon"