My Favorite Present to Give: Truly Good Food

I am not a great shopping enthusiast! Except around the winter holidays, I hate the parking problems, I don’t enjoy browsing aisle after aisle looking for something that would be just perfect for Grandma or Uncle Arthur. I certainly do not like standing in line with frustrated people waiting for the lone employee to handle yet another exchange. During the holidays, I enjoy strolling through stores simply people watching, without being burdened with packages. The experience for whatever reason gets me into a holiday emotional state, but I do my actual shopping and buying almost entirely online. That’s a practice I developed in the very early years of the Web.

Online shopping didn’t save my life all by itself. Just because I started using the Web before any of my friends, I still had to make the decisions. And then, around five years ago, or so, I discovered food.

That wasn’t very honestly phrased, because I discovered food when I was still an infant. But I didn’t discover food as a gift idea until recently. You see, at that time I received a gift basket full of hardly edible sausages, processed cheese spreads (mostly chemicals I think) and crackers that were about as crunchy as a rock. However, the poor quality of what passed as food in that gift turned out to be my inspiration. “What,” I thought, “If I had received genuinely good food?” How different that would have been, and how much I would have enjoyed it.

Since that moment of momentous insight on my part, I have been a dedicated sampler of a variety of food gifts that I buy for myself on the Internet. (It’s a tough job, but I am up to the challenge as long as I carefully pace myself!) I have found that the online gift food stores handle everything from shipping to the accompanying gift cards. Yes, I actually send myself a gift card to test the store’s dedication to detail. The Internet boutiques are now the sources for all of my gifts, except those gifts of my loved ones who happen to live very nearby.

The wide selection of quality gift foods available is truly remarkable. It ranges from live lobster dinners to a gourmet fruit basket; from cookie bouquets to live lobsters; from wine gift baskets to imported caviar or fine Wisconsin cheeses.

I do keep gift foods around the house, beautifully or cleverly arranged, for my guests who come to my house or for those whom I visit in person during those gift giving times. The Internet provides assistance to me even in these cases, because it is packed full of great ideas for arranging and wrapping gift food.

If you happen to see me strolling a store aisle with a smile on my face when everybody else seems frantic, you will now know my secret. But let’s keep it a secret from my Uncle Arthur.

Gifts for Someone Down on His or Her Luck

A few days ago, I talked with a family friend who recently learned that his huge manufacturing company was closing his plant. He is actually more fortunat than most of his co-workers. He very recently reached the magic age at which he qualifies for early retirement, so he will continue to have a steady income. Those who did not reach that milestone of the specified number of years with the company will get a small severance package and be left to search for a job in that difficult market. That caused me to think about giving gifts for special occasions to those people who are experiencing difficult economic situations. I came up with a few suggestions that make more sense than a piece of home decor or a new tie. Here are some of them:

A fruit basket is healthy, beautiful, yummy and always enjoyed. If you live near your gift recipient, you can find a lovely basket or other attractive container and fill it with fruit that is in season in your region of the country, obtained at a farmers market, and then fill it out with a few exotic fruits picked up at your neighborhood specialty store. If your loved one is farther away, you can arrange for any of a large range of beautiful fruit gift baskets to be delivered directly to the person’s home. It will help them to reduce their grocery bill that month.

A unique meal is another way to remember a special occasion. One alternative might be to take the friend to a special restaurant. If price is no object to you, be sure to suggest some of the pricier entrees on the menu, so that your guests know that they should not worry about ordering whatever they prefer. For example, you could say something like, “The crab legs are perfect here, but, if you don’t like seafood, try the filet mignon.” If they live too far away for that, you can actually find delicious, gourmet, chef-prepared meals online that arrive frozen and can be heated in almost no time. (I actually keep my freezer stocked with these.) Or you might send a gift certificate to a special place in their town.

You might also consider a tasty dessert. No person should have too many desserts, but on a birthday, anniversary or holiday, everyone deserves an opportunity to indulge a sweet tooth. Bake cookies, if that is a skill of yours, and hand deliver or have them delivered. For something a little more special consider giving them a freshly baked pie or turtle cheesecake. Whether you make it yourself or have others do the work for you doesn’t matter. It will be appreciated and definitely enjoyed either way.

You may observe that all my recommendationinvolve food. Someone who is going through a difficult time may not want to accept charity, but nobody can reject a genuinely special gift. If it reduces the grocery bill by a bit, that’s just a bonus.