Another Christmas gift question..

[KristinCB]

What do you buy for your own parents/inlaws

[Libby Pritchett]

We don't exchange gifts with our parents and in-laws.

In the past though, I've done things like calendars and scrapbooks or a gift card for a restaurant. They seem to appreciate that more than "stuff."

[jacinda]

Nothing. We don't do presents for adults. Maybe a box of chocolates or something to nibble on if the kids want to give something, but otherwise we're all happy not exchanging adult gifts.

We don't even buy for nieces/nephews anymore. Each family donates to a charity of their choice instead, and announces to the rest of the family what they did and who they chose, on Christmas Day. They can donate money, time, service or self - it's totally up to each family. I love it. My family is donating to our local children's hospital again this year (hubby likes to support local charities). We're going to buy gifts off their hospital wishlist and deliver them to the children's ward. I think my sister is going to donate to World Vision, and buy a beehive or goat or something for a family in Uganda. The family gets to live off the income from the honey/milk, so it's a long lasting gift.

Maybe you could donate to a charity in your parents/in-laws name?

[nesser1981]

I send my mom & stepdad a gift card to eat out usually because they don't go to restaurants very often.

We do buy actual gifts for my in laws.

[glumirk]

DH is very much in the mindset of we should only buy gifts that we want to buy for people, so if we think of a fun gift throughout the year, then we get something. Otherwise, nothing. I'm getting my mom a purse organizer insert, because she is crazy about organizing her purse. I did show it to her first to make sure she was interested in it (we are totally like that with gifts...).

Last year we teamed up with siblings to get our moms Kindles. DH's parents are addicted to theirs, and my mom is slowly converting and only brought her Kindle out for Thanksgiving.

[rach3975]

We don't usually do gifts for adults, but this year I made my parents copies of photobooks from 2 family vacations we've taken together. Every year I also give them (and my siblings and grandfather) a calendar with photos of all the grandchildren.

[adi&co.]

we don't really buy for anybody but ourselves. We do make some things for the grandparents (my mom and dad and his mom) but not every year. we aren't doing anything this year. We usually just make sure do something big for their birthdays instead

[Darcy Baldwin]

My FIL got Duck Dynasty - a hat and the Christmas CD. We purchased some LED flameless candles.

We bought a set from Lowe's this year that sit in the fall and Christmas decor and look lovely all the time. She oo'd and ahh'd over them so much (and liked the fact that we forgot to turn them off the first night and they served as a great night lights), so we bought a set for her.

In the past we've given them restaurant gift certificates to let us "take them out to eat" since we can't be there, or calendars.

We don't exchange gifts with my family.

[SmallMoments]

My dad gives me a list (I ask for one) and usually it's books or CDs. This year he had a pedometer on it so I got him a Fit Bit.

My mom is harder. This year I got her two custom pillows from Nest 2 Impress, a friend of ours. Mom loves Christmas & is 100% Swedish so I got her a pillow with a dala horse and one that says god jul, which is merry christmas in swedish.

For my MIL we found five more place settings in her china b/c my BIL has a serious, eventually will be married to her, girlfriend with two daughters.

I have NO CLUE what to get FIL. Seriously.

[luckyme]

Ours are far away -- so it's usually a gift certificate for a bookstore or iTunes or something similar.

[clearskies]

Mom and MIL get scrapbooks. FIL gets a magazine subscription. My dad varies...last year a cookbook, this year a wall calendar. And then we make a charitable donation in each of their names.

[julifish]

Oh parents and in-laws are always the hardest.

My parents have their anniversary right near Thanksgiving and they 've started going shopping together and buying each other gifts for that. My mom always ends up getting whatever my sister and I have bought for her as an anniversary present.

This year my parents are getting
$30 On board credit for their upcoming cruise
Step -Dad - Desktop calendar with pics of all the grandkids
Solid color polo shirts (he's a realtor and that's what he wears every day)

My mom - Vera Bradley tote bag (got it at the outlet store)
A few necklaces she picked out at Charming Charlie
A Shutterfly calendar

MIL -
Brown Crossbody purse - she asks for a different purse each year
I made her a mug with pics from Mardi Gras on it
Kitchen Towels

FIL-
Tablet case (he's getting a Tablet from my MIL and my husband helped pick it out)
SD card for the tablet
Back scratcher (it's an ongoing joke)

Plus we do stocking stuffers for my in-laws

Up until last year we did a gift exchange at my husband's grandmother's house. That was always fun. There were 20+ of us and it was one of those Gift Swaps where you pick numbers and steal from each other. It took an hour to play and it was so fun and we always got good gifts.

[mariewilcox]

It's just my parents now and I don't buy for them - they get most upset with me if I do. Instead I make them a calendar every year with photos of my daughter from the year, which they love. I usually make them something else for around the house - this year it's fleece arm chair caddys for their chairs. My mom is going blind and likes to have things right where she knows they'll be so it's something she'll use a lot. I made my dad a batch of peanut brittle each year too as a treat. This year I'm also making a new set of coasters (quilted) for them because the ones I made a few years ago are getting pretty ragged. They use coasters constantly for their coffee/tea/beer/wine as they have a lot of old antique tables.

[scrapsuzy]

I make a Year-ineview photobook for them each year. It's not scrapbooking, and I use the layout options provided by Shutterfly. Just black pages with photos on them, no words even. My mother loves them, and I think my mother-in-law does, too. (Not sure, as she never says she likes ANY gift that anyone gets her.)

[lauren grier]

I don't..
I bake them goodies, but that's it.

[nun69]

my mom lives in VA so we usually don't do anything that involves mailing stuff, but this year I think I might get some of my pages printed and put them in an album and mail that to her......my FIl and Step MIL are getting a new EHD......and ususally Matt's real mom gets something for around her house or pics of the kids in abook, or some kind of GC......she is very very very hard to buy for!

[pewtertm]

My mom is the only one, and I usually make her a calendar. We'll pick up a few token things, and Rachel usually makes her something as well.

[Keely~B]

Mine mostly get gift certificates, but they like them. We also get them some random things they want/need and if varies from year to year. My stepdad is getting new jellyroll pans and cooling racks, my mom's getting crochet Swiffer covers and coasters (requested) and a new gravy boat. They're all great gift receivers and although they're hard to shop for they are always happy.

[Jengerbread88]

My dad doesn't know he is getting a smoker for Christmas, which he has been begging for, so I got him wood chips for it, as well as a flannel shirt I know he'll really like. I ordered a calendar for my grandma during the Shutterfly coupon of pics of our family (her included) on vacation, including some really sweet shots I snapped of her with my son. She is the only person I know who still uses a paper calendar. I used to buy her steamy ones (sexy firefighters, hot cowboys, etc), but I thought this would be more meaningful. For my mom, my brother and I went in together on one of those record player/CD player all-in-one... she will love it, has been asking for one for years, and I know it'll be a surprise. The only thing is that I bought it on Amazon (I searched EVERYWHERE, and no one had them!) over black Friday weekend for $135, and then this week it was on sale at Target for $50 less... :/ Oops!

[tanyiadeskins]

I got my mil some fancy weird soap from Etsy cause she loves that stuff, plus we let each kid but her something.

For my mom, a ticket to come visit us, a Sea World ticket to take her while she is here since we have passes, a digital photo frame that I can load layouts in to for her to enjoy when she is back home, sweater, slippers, robe, and the girls all got her stuff as well.

It is always the 3 girls, Marc and I, and then his mom and my mom and we all buy stuff for each other

[lovely1m]

My mom I buy something she has mentioned wanting throughout the year. This year it will be little things for the cruise we are going on next month. My step-dad usually something outdoorsy, this year heated gloves and socks for hunting/checking on the cows. My step-mom loves decorative things for around this house, this year a wreath from Jackie and a metal dipped leaf. My dad is the insanely hard one. He collects nothing, has no hobbies and buys whatever he wants. This year, my brother is handling the gift since I found our step-moms. My ex-in-laws, I send them a calendar I made with Nicholas on it every year. They love it and ask about it every year.

[LeeAndra]

We don't usually buy a gift for my ILs as the adults in his family don't exchange gifts. My MIL's bday is next week, however, and since she does so much for us, including watching DD during the week, I buy her something that her pennypincher husband would never buy her or allow her to 'waste' money on e.g. GC for a manicure, tickets to a local Christmas show, etc.

I spend the most money & time on my mom's present as her love language is gifts. She still buys my sister & me tons of gifts at Christmas, and 'Santa' brings DD and her cousin tons of gifts, too (in addition to the ones they get officially from Grandma & Grandpa), so I really try to find something (well, two somethings as her bday is the 22nd) that will make her feel loved e.g. a biography of someone she admires, paper scrapping supplies or GC, a nice top/sweater from her favorite store, etc. She has a lot of allergies, so it can't be anything 'smelly' like perfume or lotion, and she doesn't like the spa. I try very hard to make sure she has two individual presents and that her bday present is not Christmaselated or -themed. She is the easiest person for me to shop for, besides DD, and I can usually walk into a store and 'know' when I see something that she will like.

My dad doesn't really care what he gets as long as he gets something, so I almost always buy him a Bluay of a movie he might like. This year, I bought him and my mom tickets to the Christmas Story museum in Ohio since that is his favorite movie. It is a 4 hour trip, one way, so I gave them to him at Thanksgiving so they could use them when he had a free day (my mom is retired). Hopefully, he will appreciate that I was trying to be thoughtful.

[k23m]

This year we are getting my in-laws a gift card for a photo shoot to use with the whole family (I'm pretty sure they haven't had whole family pictures taken in the last 10 years! At least not good ones).

My parents are getting gift cards this year too. My dad for gourmet food/sauces, and my mom for a fabric/textiles store. I also want to give them a "gift certificate" and make all of the families recipes into a book. Not sure if I will do that this year or next year - and maybe just sneakily get the book done before they know about it.

[crecia27]

This is HARD! This year for my mom I'm going to give her a PL mini album and a small kit and a list of prompts. The idea is I want to know what things were important to her as a child, what items in her house have special memories etc.

For my dad I'll probably get a polo style shirt and my FIL we will get a GC to a restaurant.

[DawnMarch]

Every year, I make a "year in review" kinda photobook. Just a 2 page spread for each month with the highlights of what we did that month. It takes a few days to make, but once I'm done, I give it to all the parents, grandparents, aunt/uncles. They claim it's their favorite gift and they look forward to it each year. Whether that's true or not, it eliminates the "what to get them" question every year!

[kim21673]

My parents always say they don't want anything. We end up getting them framed pictures of the boys, pictures for my mom to scrap, ornaments that the boys made, GC to places they like, my dad always gets a big thing of chocolate, tools, new sweatshirts, etc....

My in-laws....I never know what to get them and my hubby is no help. FB credits, GC to restaurants, puzzles, lottery tickets

Neither set need anything so we try and give them handmade things.