Gift-buying Phobia

To tell the truth, I have never been a creative person when it comes to buying gifts. Moreover, I am not exactly the most observant person in the world, so I often know next to nothing about the needs or taste of friends and colleagues. Buying birthday or Christmas gifts often cause me lots of headache, so I often resort to the lazy way of just getting vouchers - the most practical gift.

Many friends often disapprove of this suggestion as vouchers imply insincerity and lack of imagination, while I have always been a strong advocate of this gift. Frankly speaking, I welcome the receipt of vouchers. In fact, I believe the advent of vouchers is one of the greatest saviour for gift buying. It is easy to carry, nearly as flexible and valuable as money.

Unfortunately, despite its ubiquity, there are still situations where vouchers will be shunned against - our upcoming Christmas parties being one of such situations. All of us are supposed to buy a gift for another colleague. To help the colleague getting the gift for us, we are supposed to write on a piece of paper a list of 5 things that we do NOT want to receive. For the person buying the gift, it is even harder to fathom a good guess of what he/she wants than if he/she has written out specifically what he/she wants. Out of the infinite things we can get for a gift, only 5 have been eliminated as a choice. The remaining range is still nearly infinite. On dear, I can feel my head throbbing again.

What is practical, yet not too personal (like facial wash, clothes or shoes) and fall within our proposed budget? Walking along the crowd-packed malls, I am swarmed with choices and yet THE choice is not apparent. Things that come into my heads are still the traditional towel set, toiletries, etc, especially when photo frames, ornaments, glassware, CDs have all been 'eliminated' from her list. My creative juices have run dry from thinking of what else is appropriate.

As the date of the Christmas party approeaches, so is my panic at still not having found a gift. I better run out to the malls again this weekend.