Welcome Consumerist readers. Not that I expect many of you to stay. Still, it's always fun to be reading through my feeds, and find my site linked!
With the holidays fast approaching, I've been thinking about Christmas shopping. In my family, we always make wishlists so we know what to buy each other. Sure, there are always surprises (my sister is going to be amazed with what I bought her this year), but sometimes, you want to buy a gift for someone, but don't know what to get. I would prefer to remove some of the surprise but know that what I bought was wanted and enjoyed. That's more important to me than surprising someone.
Sometimes, this is hard though. Having just moved, my wishlist is mostly things like "a leaf blower" and "Home Depot gift cards so I can buy paint." Not the most exciting thing. And I'm getting family reactions to that. "These aren't fun gifts!" True, but they are things that will make me happy.
How do you feel about practical gifts? Do you prefer to give something that you know will be used again and again, or do you go for the one time "Wow" factor?