The Christmas Present Advice Thread

[Dion]

Originally Posted by gottabekd

So, my mom, like most women, frets about her weight. I.e. going on diets, watching her weight, etc. However, she uses a crappy $5.00 scale. Is a fancy-pantsy digital scale a suitable gift? Of course, it can come across as "you're fat", but she most definitely isn't. What do you think? Is a weight scale reasonable gift?

Another weight scale is only going to make her fret more about her weight.

Get her something that's going to make her feel good about herself. A gift certificate to a spa would be my choice.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Originally Posted by gottabekd

So, my mom, like most women, frets about her weight. I.e. going on diets, watching her weight, etc. However, she uses a crappy $5.00 scale. Is a fancy-pantsy digital scale a suitable gift? Of course, it can come across as "you're fat", but she most definitely isn't. What do you think? Is a weight scale reasonable gift?

Sort of thing you might want to pair with a smaller gift reinforcing maintaining a fitness regimen (as opposed to weight loss). A weigh scale is sort of a practical gift (especially if she has a really crappy one) most moms will at the very least not hate outright. I dunno, maybe some handbells to "counterweigh" (get it? counter-weigh).

[Flames09]

Originally Posted by redforever

I believe they are just called a video photo frame or digital photo frame, something like that. The price will depend on first of all the size, and second, what capacity it can hold, in other words, how many pictures.

I have seen them at the Bay and Sears for less than $200, I think around 5 x 7 in size, maybe 8 x 10, cant remember what the memory was though, that will vary too. But like I said, they are all over the place, I am sure probably Future shop, the Source etc might carry them too.

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...asp?CatId=1623

Superstore sells them as well, they had them on sale not too long ago, and those were around $150. Good gifts for females are ...

Spa Packages
The usual DVD, CD's and Books
iPod Touch (anyone is more then welcome to buy me that)
GC to places that sell makeup (MAC, Sephora)
Jewellery
Laptop (if you are spending the big bucks)
With young girls you can never go wrong with the Uggz
GAP sells custom fragrances
New cell phone
Digital Camera
Flat Iron (CHI is the most popular and you can get it online for $130)

[enthused]

Any ideas for gifts for a boyfriend of about six months? Keep in mind he recently flew across the world to come visit me, so I'm thinking I need a pretty friggin' good gift!

[@theCBE]

I bought a digital photo frame from tigerdirect last year as a gift. It was pretty good, it was the pandigital one. 8x10 and it was on sale so it ran me about $150 including shipping. Has 64 MB of storage space included and took CF, SD, XD(i think) and usb drives for extra storage. It also plays video clips and mp3's, though I don't think she has every tried them so I don't know how well it works. Also you can replace the outer frame so i can be either black, silver or clear plastic.

[Bobblehead]

A co-worker got a Digital frame from Best Buy that had wireless in it. It would cycle through pictures on a remote drive, so there was no limit on the number of pictures (as long as you kept the system it was reading from turned on)

[hatty]

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

I thought it would be a good idea to start an all-purpose thread for questions and advice on Christmas shopping.

Myself? I'm looking for a set of professional (or profession quality) kitchen knives -- the 8 to 16 piece types that come in the ubiquitous wooden block.

I know Henckels is a good brand. Any others? What kind of price range am I looking at? Whereabouts in town can I find 'em?

So, any CalgaryPuck elves out there?

Hey reggie if your looking for knives and willing to spend some money i'm selling cutco knives for a class project at the u of c, its for a Marketing class (MKTG 449) and its all about selling, and they paired us up with cutco, so if you want i could place an order of knives for you, and 35% of what we sell goes to children's wish foundation which is pretty cool too

[4X4]

Originally Posted by enthused

Any ideas for gifts for a boyfriend of about six months? Keep in mind he recently flew across the world to come visit me, so I'm thinking I need a pretty friggin' good gift!

A beej?


Speaking of being "blown away", the Seinfeld Complete Series Box Set is only $240.00 on Amazon.ca

Any of my friends reading this?

[Juventus3]

Originally Posted by hatty

Hey reggie if your looking for knives and willing to spend some money i'm selling cutco knives for a class project at the u of c, its for a Marketing class (MKTG 449) and its all about selling, and they paired us up with cutco, so if you want i could place an order of knives for you, and 35% of what we sell goes to children's wish foundation which is pretty cool too

Why was I waiting for this post....

I think everyone and their dog knows somebody that sells cutco knives. I'll never forgive myself for sitting through that entire interview.

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by enthused

Any ideas for gifts for a boyfriend of about six months? Keep in mind he recently flew across the world to come visit me, so I'm thinking I need a pretty friggin' good gift!

A Southern Mouth Handshake. Lots of them. Plus they shouldn't cost you any money.

[Got Miikka?]

I'm looking for "You're the best dad ever!" Any ideas?

edit: nevermind, found it... it's right next to the "Ohmygod, ohmygod I love it!"

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

I thought it would be a good idea to start an all-purpose thread for questions and advice on Christmas shopping.

Myself? I'm looking for a set of professional (or profession quality) kitchen knives -- the 8 to 16 piece types that come in the ubiquitous wooden block.

I know Henckels is a good brand. Any others? What kind of price range am I looking at? Whereabouts in town can I find 'em?

So, any CalgaryPuck elves out there?

Got a set of these for Christmas last year.

http://www.chicagocutlery.com/

[tete]

We picked up a 23 pc set of Wusthof classic knives off Ebay for cheap. Nearly half the price of what you'd pay at Williams - Sonoma. We were so impressed that we've picked up smaller sets for our parents for Christmas. They're a real knife set - I can't get over how crappy our other knives were in comparison.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Originally Posted by fotze

My wife has Global Knives from cooking school. From Japan, high end knives that look cool too.

Ooooh... I like those.

Time to check out teh eBay.

[GreenLantern]

I am looking to buy my Dad a nice set of cutlery this year. Nothing fancy, just day to day stuff, he has been using the same set for years and it is time for a change!

I was looking at some president choice sets for around $30, they looked very nice, I don't want to spend to much on it since I am buying him some hunting gear on top of all this. Anyone have any experience with the PC cutlery? Does it taste like metal?

[albertGQ]

Originally Posted by Got Miikka?

I'm looking for "You're the best dad ever!" Any ideas?

edit: nevermind, found it... it's right next to the "Ohmygod, ohmygod I love it!"

Hhahahahah. That's hilarious

I hate those best buy commercials

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

I thought it would be a good idea to start an all-purpose thread for questions and advice on Christmas shopping.

Myself? I'm looking for a set of professional (or profession quality) kitchen knives -- the 8 to 16 piece types that come in the ubiquitous wooden block.

I know Henckels is a good brand. Any others? What kind of price range am I looking at? Whereabouts in town can I find 'em?

So, any CalgaryPuck elves out there?

Try to find Henckels with the 2 guys on the logo. They are much better then the single guy knives, but more expensive of course.

If you can find the Henckels with yellow handels they are really good and a good deal. They are made for cooking schools and priced a lot better then the regualr knives.

[hatty]

Originally Posted by Juventus3

Why was I waiting for this post....

I think everyone and their dog knows somebody that sells cutco knives. I'll never forgive myself for sitting through that entire interview.

hahahaha.....i didn't do this voluntarily, we're actually graded on this, its a group project at the u of c, not really a fan of these types of jobs, and we're not paid for any of it either.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Originally Posted by hatty

hahahaha.....i didn't do this voluntarily, we're actually graded on this, its a group project at the u of c, not really a fan of these types of jobs, and we're not paid for any of it either.

Well, thank you for the offer. I'm looking around a bit and will let you know.

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by hatty

hahahaha.....i didn't do this voluntarily, we're actually graded on this, its a group project at the u of c, not really a fan of these types of jobs, and we're not paid for any of it either.

Just curious... what do you get graded on then? How many sales you make?

As for buying knives on Ebay, buyer beware. A while ago I bought a few individual Henckel Professional S knives. When I received them there were subtle differences in the stenciling on the blade vs ones I saw in store. Fakes do run rampent on ebay and are hard to spot without actually receiving it first. In my case, the seller had a good reputation selling these knives and no one had noticed they were borderline fake before myself. The account was closed after some 250 knives were sold over a period of 10 months.