The thing about buying gifts for kids these days, or adults, or your pets, is the reality that there will always be something cooler, trendier, or with aps that you're not buying. You decided that the perfect gift for your grandmother is an electronic reader, because she loves to read so much. You buy the latest kindle online, a pretty smart move because kindles are sold out in stores all across the state of Wisconsin and Minnesota. You're feeling pretty good about yourself and your purchase, but oh, wait, what's that? Your co-worker tells you that he tried both the Ipad and the Kindle, and the Ipad is far superior. You read an article that says Google is coming out with something in February that will make the Kindle look archaic. Suddenly you're wondering if you're grandmother didn't prefer going to the library for the social aspect of the checking out book process.
Now replace the word "grandmother" in that last paragraph with "sister", "niece", "estranged bff", or "scary co-worker who expects a gift", and replace "Kindle" with "hat", "earrings", "car starter", or "box of organic, fair traded and locally made chocolates". While Google may not be entering in the confectionery business any time soon, gift giving is really a leap of faith because what you will buy will never be the best.
Unless...you let the person decide for themselves what the best would be.
This year for Christmas, after much hemming and hawing over what would be a good gift for a six-year-old, we decided to go with...an empty box. It was three feet high by two feet wide and two feet long. For whimsical sake, we did throw in a couple of helium balloons, so that when she opened the box she would be surprised by something jumping out at her (note: we did toy with the idea that grumpy Uncle Mike would jump out of the box, but that would mean making breathing holes, etc, so we left it at helium balloons).
"What is it?" cried out the six-year old after she opened the now-empty box.
"A space ship?" I suggested.
"It looks like a secret fairy house." Her mother loved the idea.
"I think it's a toy box." The father called out.
Pretty soon the six-year old was deciding what the box could be, creative ideas ranging from a a spy box from Russia (no idea where that came from), underwater house for bathtime Barbie, Cave Land, and storage space for all the house pillows.
Empty boxes are pretty entertaining gifts for six-year olds, but would 80 year old grandmothers feel the same way. I handed my grandmother a pretty box. She opened it and saw that it was empty, and then looked at the lid.
"It's peace." I said, pointing to the label at the bottom. She looked at the box again, smiled, and laughed.
"The women at the bridge club will love this! Can I give it away?"
"Of course!" I responded. In my bag of presents I also had an empty box of Harry Potter's used magical spells for my sister, an invisible hug from a unicorn for my estranged bff, and a box with the promise of a better year for the co-worker.
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