So, what did you GIVE?

[Mezzaluna]

I read thebighat's thread about what people received for their holidays. Now the question: what did you give others? I'm sure plenty of you spent lots of time and care in selecting or making gifts for special people, so I'd love to hear about your gifts.

My husband and I do not exchange Chanukah gifts, but we did send the traditional Chanukah "gelt" (money) to nieces and nephews, along with some little gifts (stickers, etc.).

[Athenaeus]

To Nick ,a huge old book which describes the Monasteries and Churches of Arcadia -Greece (where my husband comes from) and contains old sketches and secret paths that guided to those monasteries that they were the secret Greek schools during the Ottoman occupation ( Teaching Greek was forbidden)
I was searching for this book for months in Plaka ( You remember Mezzaluna ? )
This book is old and heavy but it smells great! It has notes on it from previous owners. We found a note of 1878 with red ink!!!
To my dad a new crystal glass for his whiskey but it's not an ordinary glass.
To Melina and my mother what else? Two very nice venisian mirrors for their purse.
To close friends I give a bottle of the best olive oil on the Earth, from Mani (extra virgin and organic ), a bottle of Raki from Crete and a Christopsomo I have made of course, the Bread of Jesus we prepare here in Christmas.Its a round bread that has many decorations on it.
I keep the best of both products for this occasion and I give them only to people they can appreciate it.

To my best friend's baby that has driven me crazy and I spend every day hours squeezing it, I got silly baby toys and of course I ended up on the floor playing with them with his mother and left him watching...

[momoreg]

For my husband, a 'new' Stevie Ray Vaughan CD, and lots of clothes for his new job.

Otherwise, I just gave to the kids of family members and friends. My best friend has a 9-year-old boy who's a real war buff, and he had asked me to find him something in New Orleans. Well, I spent a couple of hours on the D-Day Museum there, and got him all kinds of educational WWII gifts.

I love picking out gifts for people.

[chrose]

Originally posted by momoreg
For my husband, a 'new' Stevie Ray Vaughan CD,

You know, I knew there was something more deep down in you! excellent choice
I hate to keep bringing it up, but things turned way too tight this year and we waited until the last minute for something that didn't come. So any gifts we give will have to wait for a couple of months!
Other than that though I made for my friend from Finland the traditional Riisipuuro (Rice Porridge) I wanted to bring a taste of home to them for the holiday. I discovered though that it was a touch sweet. Apparently their Christmas Rice Porridge is more on the savory side. They sweeten it to taste.
We also collected toys and other items to donate to the "battered womens shelter" for the kids.

[Risa]

Tins of homemade cookies along with amaryllis or paper whites to several families. I couldn't believe how excited they all were with these very little gifts. A decent Henckels knife to a friend who was complaining that her $20 "never- needs-sharpening" knife SET has a hard time even with onions. I should have given most of my other friends good knives also, but I only realized on Christmas Eve that they all have dangerously dull knives. A deep fryer, sweaters, chocolate and marron glacees for my parents and brothers (still in my living room waiting to be mailed).

[thebighat]

Got my wife a new wedding band, as hers got stolen on vacation several years ago. Knotted Celtic in gold, with the kids's birthstones.

[Mezzaluna]

Adam, what a great thing you did- and taught your kids- by taking items to a shelter. That's what I believe we're here for.

[marmalady]

A night vision scope for my husband - we live on 2 acres of a wooded lot, and hear all kinds of things that go bump in the night - now he'll be able to SEE them!

A little otter magnet for my son's fridge, to remind him of things he 'otter' be doin!

Cookie plates (made 15 kinds this year!) for my husband's office folks, and for my son's nurses and therapists, and the mailman.

A set of Portuguese knives (8" chef, 6" utility, and paring) for my son's aide, who loves to cook and is learning all sorts of new things in our house!

And a Melita brew and grind coffeemaker for my older son , who is a major coffee freak - also got him two bags of primo coffee beans - he opened the beans first, and thought - 'WHY did she get me just the beans - now I have to go to the grocery store to get them ground!) HeHe!

[Pastachef]

For the housekeeper at work, a snowman tablecloth, dish towels and oven mitts. Also a wooden set of three snowmen, snowman dishes and cuttlery. For the boss, red plaid place mats and napkins with gold pine cone napkin rings. To the grandchildren, a ton of toys! To my adult kids, lots of new clothes and stockings filled with goodies and trinkets. To my husband, lots of clothes. To one daughter, an entire new bathroom decorated in her favorite color. To our next door neighbor, a bag filled with flag items and flag bows that he used to decorate the outside of his house. To my sons girlfriend, an afghan, a book and a new tree ornament. It was a very nice christmas

[Melina]

To my husband who is a photographer the volume of National Geographic with fantastic photos from all over the world.
To my mom I gave her some pictures of hers from Vogues' past issues, that I have found in NY when she started her carreer in modelling. She was very surprised and I really enjoyed that she liked this gift.
To my dad, a pen , you know those that you have to refill with ink.
To my dear brother in law a book, a collection of all the Mensa IQ tests. He must have resolved the half of them in an hour.
I gave Athenaeus her sixth copy of "Kitchen Confidential". I brought it from NY but obviously I had the same idea with other 5 people...
It was very nice Christmas. I passed them in Greece for the first time after 10 years.

[Isa]

First the home made gifts for friends and families. Cookies, candies, chocolates and miniature brandied fruit cakes.

To my mother, a gol heart. To my dad a cookie jar filled with XXX spice drops and a cd of a polish pianist.

To my cat a few balls she won't even touch and a small mouse with a very big tail that she loves.

To a special friend a nice cookbook.

[Pastachef]

Dear Isa, Your post reminded me of the most wonderful christmas my family ever had. Everyone came to my house that year, sisters, brothers, neices and nephews. Instead of store bought gifts we exchanged home made presents. We were all stay at home housewives at the time, so we had time to do these things for our large family. I played christmas carols on our piano, and everybody sang. Then we went to the children's nativity play at our church. My nephew, (four at the time) cried, because he thought the angels were real. We even got my brother-in-law, (the original Grinch) to go to church with us. I have always felt that this was the first and only 'real' christmas we ever had. We didn't give costly gifts. We gave of ourselves. Thank you for bringing back the memory

[Anneke]

That's such a sweet story... I couldn't agree with both of you more. What I'm finding is that most of my family and friends buy what they want or need on their own anyway, so gifts are either something they don't really need or don't really want anyway.

This year I cooked up a storm, invited friends and family and we had a bash at my place. It was so relaxing and enjoyable, which was surprising because it was the first Christmas without my Dad. At the end of the night I gave everyone a little jar of homemade pear ginger butter, and the joy we experienced lingered for several days. Nobody noticed that the 'gift exchange' had not taken place. Christmas has definitely become a good experience ever since I started this tradition; no running around in the malls etc... I highly recommend it!

[fodigger]

I made about 1200 chocolate tuffles for my employees and friends. I also gave away several nice bottles of wine to my frinds who appreciate those kind of things.

The other thing I did was give a blank $25 check to my two older boys aged 7 and 9 so that they could give the money to any charity they wanted. I wanted them to find out what they supported and report back to me. No matter what I would write the check. My oldest son picked spina bifida assoc. and my middle son picked a Mexico mission program and my 18 month old picked windows of Hope (I helped him a little w/ the choice). Hopefully this will spur them to give back as they can when they are older

[chrose]

Excellent move fodigger a good idea to remember, I'll try that too, but I'll match what my son gives and then some.