Christmas Gift Baskets Are A Welcome Alternative To The Usual Gifts
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 | Shopping
I came across a site a few weeks ago that was running a series of articles on alternatives to traditional Christmas items. For example, there were a series of posts about people who chose not to buy a fir tree to decorate, but instead opted for some other species. There were small maples, an oak, and a magnolia (not in bloom, unfortunately), but the most impressive effort was from a couple who a very full, ten foot tall paper birch tree into their living room and decorated it with lights, tinsel and ornaments. The white bark made for a striking backdrop to the lights.
Another week they ran a contest to find the most popular alternative to Poinsettias for holiday decorating. This was a tougher one, because a poinsettia is on its own. Where a tree is, in a way, a stand to hold the decorations, the poor potted plant relies on its festively colored leaves to carry the day. No lights or garlands to distract the eye. So, what was declared to be the ultimate alternative Christmas Flower? Votes were collected with readers choosing between red roses, white roses, daisies, orchids, lilies and carnations. My vote would have been for the red roses, which seemed to be a natural to me, but there were apparently several ties when everything was tallied up and the editors announced a surprise winner. Instead of a specific flower, they felt that the virtually deadlocked voting indicated the real winner would be a bouquet or arrangement of Christmas Flowers. In hindsight this made perfect sense, since Christmas decorating is all about a variety of bright colors and different shapes.
Apparently they were getting quite a bit of mileage out of this Christmas alternatives theme, because the following week they were at it yet again. This time, they challenged their readers to come up with the perfect alternative Christmas gift. They had to put some rules in place since this could be such a wide open category. The primary consideration was that this one gift had to be easily customizable to suit any person who might be giving or receiving it. That meant the gift had to be available to people with a very wide range of budgets (so a new car, for example, would not be appropriate) and it had to be suitable to give to anyone from a neighbor to a niece, your husband or a coworker. I would have thought this one was virtually impossible but it was quickly nailed down: a Christmas Gift Basket. The logic is tough to beat. Gift baskets can range anywhere from under $15 to pretty much as high as you want to go, so they’re appropriate for all budgets. There are versions available for kids (for example, with a candy coated caramel apple), chocolate lovers, cheese lovers, there are even spa themed Christmas Gift Baskets.
Looks like this year I’m having an alternative Christmas.
No comments yet.
