Last second gift? Next-day air won’t do it? Give by e-mail: An online gift doesn’t even require shipping.
Give a gift card, gift certificate, or gift in someone’s honor from globalgiving or givemeaning or kiva or oxfam.
What do you get for the person who has everything?: You’ll find lots of articles on the web claiming to answer that question and, usually, it’s more of everything: a shower radio, a guaranteed to dry quickly soap dish, a chocolate putter. How about something that’s everything-proof?
How about someone you don’t really know well or aren’t close to? I say it every year – it may be the co-worker you don’t know enough about to get something truly personal, or the friend who lives at Walmart and buys whatever whimsey suggests anyway, or it may be that you’ve got a dollar limit placed on the gift for some absurd office game. This lets you share something of meaning rather than one more meaningless bauble.
Your closest friend: What about someone you have a deep, personal investment in, who shares your outlook on the world, and a generic gift card just won’t do it? This is a way of sharing meaning that goes beyond the stocking stuffer.
