What to Give...The Hard-to-Buy-For People on Your Christmas List!

We all have those people on our gift-giving list that are impossible to buy for.  We rack our brains trying to figure out the perfect gift for them every year.  Here are some great suggestions for those difficult loved ones:

1. The Friends with Expensive Tastes: "Think small, but deliver big," says Robyn Freedman Spizman, author of The Giftionary.  If she likes designer duds, get a designer wallet or key chain.
2. The Friend Who's Struggling: Parents appreciate knowing that their children can continue the activities they love.  So spring for soccer lessons or the YMCA membership (check with parents first).  Or offer to babysit.
3. The Friend Who Has Everything: "People love gifts that offer them a better way of doing something," says Spizman.  What does she do regularly?  Does she cut flowers with scissors?  Try a travel mug or rose clippers.
4. The Person Who Never Likes Anything: More of what you're sure she does like:  a certain scent, etc.
5. Mom and Dad: Hobby gifts.  Ask someone with the same hobby what's the best gift he's ever gotten.  A runner might tell you about a great wrist key holder; a knitter, an extravagant yarn.

Gifts We'd Like to Ban

Please take the following gifts off your list!

1. Gift Certificates: A whopping 25% of people still haven't used them after a year, saying they don't have time.  Unless it's from a place you know the person goes to all the time, skip it.
2. Bath Products: There's a reason men don't give each other shaving cream: It's lame.  Bath products are only allowed if the giftee particularly enjoys a lotion or spa treatment and can genuinely respond, "Oh, she knows me so well!"
3. Random Decorative Knickknacks: Face it: If you don't want it, neither do they.  Everyone on your list already has too much stuff.  Unless your knickknack is full of deep emotional meaning to the recipient, find another gift.

{This post is an excerpt from "Merry Holidays: What to Give..." as published in Woman's Day magazine}