Personalized Gifts for Dad

Do you like this christmas story? (I wrote it)?

I posted this before, but I rewrote the ending, I didnt like it.

An Ironic Name:

Cold water soaked her right ankle and oozed quickly down into her favorite shoes, a pair of beaten up converse. “Damnit!” she yelled, though over the loud, pouring rain, her family couldn’t hear her, as they scrambled to get into the silver SUV. They had just started their holiday shopping at the mall for the distant relatives. It was cold, wet, and miserable. Winter. Turning on the radio, her dad hoped to put everyone in a little bit better mood, but the over sung Christmas song by some unknown female pop star looking to cash in on the commercialized holiday put Noel Riga in an even worse mood.
She hated everything about the holiday season. She hated the mindless materialism, the hypocrisy of it all, the crowded malls, the terrible music, the superstition of religion, everyone looking for a tip. But most of all, Noel despised that it was a family holiday and that her relatives felt obligated to come over. A fight would always break out, like last year, when her grandma screamed in broken English that she was leaving, and never wanted to see her unappreciative family ever again. The annual holiday party her mom hosted was yet another catastrophe, because her mom’s opinion on clean could rival that of an operating room or a five-star hotel. But Noel couldn’t just help dust and vacuum, she had to do it all while being yelled at at an excruciatingly loud decibel by her mother. It was awful.
And yet another quip of hers was her name. Noel!? There really couldn’t have been a worse name for a Scrooge like herself. She considered going by her middle name for a while, but Carol wasn’t much better.
So, as her calendar got more and more X’s on the month of December, Noel found herself dreading the holiday season more than usual. She wished with a snap she could make it January 2nd, and forget about the horrid holiday’s altogether.
It was her family’s tradition to make their wish lists on December 15th, exactly ten days before the big day. She scoffed at her brother’s list, which was frightfully long and detailed¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬: “#16. Slip on vans, blue with black trim, size 13. Check online.” She pondered what to put on her list. She had pretty much everything she needed or wanted, and the few things she needed or wanted already, and the couple small things she desired could be bought with the money given to her by an aunt or uncle who wouldn’t dare getting a more personalized gift, lest he or she get the wrong thing.
So Noel’s list contained only one item- a drama-free, happy Christmas and Hanukkah celebration. That was all. Unfortunately, she knew her twin brother was more likely to get everything on his long list, which was now being continued on the back of the college-ruled notebook paper. She had little hope or faith in her family.
Noel sighed. Looks like another crappy December. She signed as her tears slowly trickled down her cheek and fell on her black jeans, leaving tiny traces of her sorrow. Her mom yelled at her to stop crying, and with hiccups she attempted to. But everything was still miserable, so forcing her tears to end was a useless endeavor. Noel’s mother asked her why she would even want to celebrate Jesus’ birth if she was atheist and declared she was disappointed with her parenting and was ashamed of her daughter. Noel’s silent tears fell quicker than before. She wondered what would become of the next several days, and shouted to her mother that she couldn’t celebrate anything, because the word implied happiness. And with that, Noel Carol Riga fled from the house.
THE STORY IS OVER.
There is no happy ending, because there wouldn’t be one in real life.

Do you think christmas spending has gotten out of control?

I was reading some answers on how much people spend on christmas gifts…. and I thought I was going above and beyond!!! We spend maybe $50 on each of our parent couples (mum+dad, then my parents with their seperate partners) $30 on nephew, $50 on brothers and sisters and just whatever on our child (her gift last year was a $400 bouncy castle and that is about 4 times more than I would normally spend), we don’t buy ANYTHING for each other and then I usually make personalised food-type treats for other prominent family members and little gift bags for the minions. We aren’t really on a budget, that’s just how much I thought was reasonable and not overboard. I read that people spend thousands at christmas time, I can only think that would make christmas more stressful than it already is, how do people afford that and why do they do it, don’t they realise they are spiralling the gift-giving costs higher and higher as the receivers try to match what you gave them?

What to get family for christmas?

I don’t have a clue, I have saved up a good few hundred to get them all something nice, I only have 1 sister, 1 brother and my mom and dad and cats and dog and terrapin to buy for lol.

I have brought my cats a cat gym, some cat toys and wrapped it up.
My dog has a lilo and stitch shirt, and some toys to.
I brought my little Brother the Fast and furious box set (f&f1,2 and tokyo drift)
and I don’t no what to get my mom, dad and sister?
what would you suggest? my mom lovesss candles so I might get her a candle that is personalized and says” to mom merry christmas loves you loads from candace xoxo” and some perfumes to. what do you think?

I know its early but I buy my gifts early so its out the way.

I need to buy a christmas present for.?

My partners parents for christmas. My parents have got their presents. I have bought his mum some personalised chocolates and his dad some merlot wine. I have suggested… theatre, wine tasting, in the paper but he isnt keen. We dont have a huge budget but we would like to buy a joint gift. Have you any sussestions? Im at the end of my tether! (no to gift vouchers)
sugestions