Jannie's thread about no gifts got me thinking. I really oppose trinkets, mandated "gag" gifts and adding junk and clutter to people's probably already over-cluttered lives. But occasionally there's something that someone needs or could use but just wouldn't get for themselves. Might be going out for a meal or something simple. I've become a fan of watching clearance racks at stores. I've always liked the free after rebate stuff, even if I have little use for more. However I've also found that some of these things are of great value to others and makes great gifts. I was thinking about the old kiddie programs where they gave a gift bag and they'd go through it on TV. Pull out a Twinkie, some Dub-ble-bub-bul gum, a toothbrush, crayons, and whatever else. While I was thinking about it one of the TV programs talked about the gift bags celebrities get for appearing at award shows and the controvery over it. It started to come together.
At a get-together last summer, there were four people who were sort of the hosts of the event. This is an annual event and they all work to make it go and I thought it would be nice to give them some kind of a token as a thank-you. I've been meaning to buy them a 12 pack of beer, or a jug of wine, or some candy or something if they didn't drink. Just seemed appropriate. Sometimes they'd be working the grill cooking for everyone and since it was a pot luck with 100+ hungry people there'd only be leftovers of the less popular foods for them. Didn't seem right to me. Thought about trying to pass the hat and come up with a gift (maybe a gift card) but that wasn't practical since people come from all over the country and then would be the issue of someone wanting input on it and other hassles. Nope, had to be from me and do it myself. No big presentation, just slip it to them on the side and say thank you for your efforts.
I didn't want to go spend a lot of money (yeah, I'm cheap) and started thinking, hey, I have a bunch of stuff here that would work great. Then they wouldn't feel bad that "so much money" was spent but could hopefully still feel good about receiving it. So I put together little gift bags. I had picked up a bunch of the reusable bags with baseball team logos on them. Two of them were avid sports fans so I knew they'd especially enjoy them. Each bag cost me 20¢ plus tax, they were on clearance. I had received a bunch of coffee mugs from a vendor once. Nice mugs. No cost, just washed them up and wrapped in some paper so they wouldn't chip or anything. I had a bunch of samples of cleaners, again, no charge but anyone could use them. One had cats and I put in some cat food samples I had. One had dogs so a package of clearance rawhide chews went in. Another loved dill pickle potato chips, so I did splurge and spent $3 on a bag of chips for her. The guys got car wash mitts and a 25' tape measure both of which cost sales tax only. Received some nice gift pens over time and I have plenty of pens. Their positions are always losing pens so they can use them. Cost? Guess! Got some safety glasses (free after rebate) and some of them did a lot of things where eye protection was required. There might have been a couple other things in there too that I don't remember but the grand total cost for four bags probably was $5 and maybe less. The time to put it together? Not a lot. Took more time to look around and think about what I had. Made an inventory list of ideas and just started pulling stuff and tried to make it equivalent so there'd be no bickering. The smiles and surprised looks on their faces were priceless.
Oh, and I do have to say that my efforts to avoid bickering was unsuccessful. The one technician who was volunteering his time to handle the lights and audio deserved one so he got one too. Shocked and very pleased. He didn't realize anyone knew he was there. But one of the gals thought he had taken *her* bag! After I gave it to her she left it with me, she didn't want to bring it up front for some reason. At the end I told her to come and get it or I'm giving it to someone else! I saw the two talking and didn't think much of it. Then she yelled over, hey, is that my bag over there? Or is this it? I was going to hide it and have a little fun, but didn't realize how seriously she took it. She came over and said OMG I owe him an apology! I slapped him, thought he had taken it!! LOL Poor guy deserves hazardous duty pay! But it must have gone over well if they'll fight over them!
Other added benefits, it got some things out of here I didn't really need but they went where they'd likely be used. If not, well, I tried.
janie_ga
dotmom
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