So what goodness did you GIVE for Christmas?

[MrFilthyIke]

Well, my too closest friends and fellow gamers got game books (one Eberron, one Classic Battletech rules hardback). Another friend who loves board/card games got Dungeoneer.
We bought (as a group) Guitar Heroes for one of our social circles members who is addicted to it. Loves of jewelry for the ladies. Stuff like that.

 

[Voadam]

My wife: spa day, chanel 5, the book Wicked, and some stocking stuff.
My infant son: a mobile of teak viking ships for over his bed, a soft stuffed baby doll
My dog: a dog biscuit, some extra mashed potatoes and ham.
Secret Santa Sister (with six siblings plus inlaws we split up the sibling gifts): Books the Silver Spoon and Lebanese Cooking and some bubble bath.
The grandparents and great grandparents: photo album of infant son.

Extended family, too many to list.

And for myself: Tome of Horrors Revised, Monsters of Norrath, Darkness and Dread, and Black Flags Pirates of the Carribean pdfs.

 

[Mystery Man]

I figured what the heck and bought my wife a diamond ring.

Falls into the "things that are shiny" for what to get females category. She of course loved it.

And I must say, a bit more forthcoming that evening.

 

[wingsandsword]

For my best friend: I got him Mongoose's Pocket Player's Handbook. There is a reason this was the perfect gift.

You see, he's an AD&D purist, and still longs for the days of 2nd Edition. He plays 3.x only very begrudingly since that's what all the gaming groups around here play (and he doesn't like to DM so running an Old School game of his own is not practical). He's steadfastly refused to get a current PHB on the principle that it's "not really D&D". Now, he'll borrow others, and he's sarcastically said he'd get one when he could get it for $5.00 from a used pile at a FLGS or something. He'll even play other d20 games happily, and says that he doesn't object to d20, he just say is isn't D&D.

Then I had a little flash of insight. I picked up a copy of the Mongoose Pocket handbook at my FLGS and gave it to him, pointing out it's a Player's Handbook that is in no way a D&D book, and doesn't say "3.5" on the spine or anything like that, it's a generic d20 player's handbook. He smiled, realized I'd found a book that let him have a PHB but keep his onery principles about "real D&D", and now he's got his own PHB to bring to games

For most of the rest of my friends, I bought them miniatures of something I thought they would like and painted them myself. Simple, unique, personalized, and it took more thought and effort than just picking up something and handing it to them.

 

[sniffles]

I wish I could surprise my fiancee more with gifts, but he usually knows what he's getting. This year I gave him the Batman animated season 2 DVD set, the Kolchak - The Night Stalker DVD set (the old series, not the new one), a 5gb portable drive, a mermaid figurine (that one was a surprise), a mug featuring Phil Foglio's "Winslow" character, a Tim the Enchanter hat (from Monty Python), and a Steve Jackson board game called "Strange Synergy". His birthday's coming up in two weeks so I had to save something for that.

I gave his mom a hummingbird figurine, a hummingbird wall hook, a hummingbird pin, a hummingbird charm, a tiny wooden box with a hummingbird on the lid, and a vase with flowers and hummingbirds in it. She collects hummingbirds, as if you couldn't tell.

I sent my sister and brother-in-law a tote bag and two mugs featuring items from my fiancee's Cafe Press store.

And last night we took our newly-downloaded DVD of Doctor Who - The Christmas Invasion over to our friends' house and watched it with them, which I guess one could consider our gift to them.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Money, little electronic items, candles, money, a little bit of love, photo albums, laser crafted glass items (image is cut inside glass cube), money.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

My dog: a dog biscuit, some extra mashed potatoes and ham.

random digression - I've recently found out at the vet I work for that ham can be quite bad for dogs. The salts or somesuch I guess. So careful with the spoiling during the holidays.

 

[Algolei]

...the book of Ruth, which contains the most romantic line EVAR.

Ah yes, how well I know it:

"And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people...."

 

[Pielorinho]

"And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people...."

Okay, I'm torn between giggling at this, wanting to ask Kahuna what the line is, and feeling that my mod duties require me to put a kibosh on this. Kahuna, could I persuade you to give us a chapter-and-verse, and then we can leave it at that?

My best gift-giving this year was to my wife. Every time we walk down to the video store, we pass a tienda that has started selling clothes. They have party dresses in the window, sexy Latin dresses with diagonal frills and bright colors, and my wife always remarks on how pretty they are.

So I went in there and with my amazingly broken Spanish ("Quiero, uh, uh, eso? Uh, toma usted uh, este?" holding out a credit card; and so forth) bought a dress the approximate color and pattern of rainbow sherbet.

And then I spent the next several weeks worrying about it: was she just admiring it in the abstract, and would think it atrociously gaudy when she unwrapped it on Christmas? Would it fit her? Would the rainbow sherbet effect clash with her complexion?

I didn't need to worry: she was astonished and delighted with it, and told me that she'd noticed that dress being absent from the window and had been a little disappointed that someone else had bought it and prevented her from ever getting it.

Soon we go dancing!
Daniel

 

[Rel]

Soon we go dancing!
Daniel

Allow me to express with all available urgency that you must, MUST have a red rose clenched in your teeth when you do so.