Most Wonderful Time of the Year?

What is the perfect Christmas gift?

I always have trouble finding the perfect gift for each of my family members, my close friends, and a Secret Santa. What if they hate it? Would I want to receive such a present? Will they get me a horrible gift next year if they hate the one I got them this year? How can I find an inexpensive item that doesn't look cheap?

My mom and dad are always the easiest to shop for. I know they'll love me no matter how cheap, unwanted, or last-minute their gifts are. I can simply make them a card or buy them a box of Fannie May chocolates; I've done it in the past, and I will do it again.

However, it is my brothers and my friends that I have problems with. First of all, I have to find out what they want. Though it may seem like a relatively easy task, as I can ask them or look at their Christmas lists, those sources can be unreliable. If they tell me that they want "nothing special, maybe chocolate or a CD," that could mean that they are being modest and actually want a bag full of chocolate plus a couple CDs; it could also mean what they say, and they really want a chocolate bar OR a CD. However, there is also that third option: they don't want chocolate, they don't want a CD. They want something completely different, such as a gift card to Starbucks, but didn't tell me for God knows what reason. What do I do with this information?

So, you see, I overanalyze the whole Christmas-gift-shopping ordeal. It takes me about an hour to buy one gift for someone, which is why I have created shopping creteria for myself this year:

1) Do not spend more than thirty dollars on one person. One year, I got carried away and bought my little brother concert tickets, as well as a t-shirt to wear to the concert. It cost me over one hundred dollars.

2) Do not wait until the day before Christmas Eve to do any shopping. This rule was made as a result of an evening shopping spree that had me up past midnight, rushing to find a gift for the people I had left til two days before Christmas.

3) Do not return a gift after buying it. I returned my best friend's gift six times until settling on one. Too much stress, too many trips to Yorktown Mall...enough said.

4) Do not overanalyze people's Christmas lists. As proved by my earlier rant about gift requests, I tend to spend too much time thinking about what people "really mean" by what they ask for.

With these rules in my mind, I think I will have a much saner, happier, more peaceful Christmas Shopping Season. I can only hope that my Christmas turns out more like a typical Whoville Christmas, with lovely carols creating a soft soundtrack for the joyful exchanging of gifts, and less like Arnold's frantic shopping escapades in "Jingle All the Way."