A Christmas Story and Gifts for Film Lovers

Well it's the midst of the Christmas shopping season, so get your wallets ready, put a smile on your face and head to the mall where you try to figure out what to give the people on your list that you only see on Holidays. Stressful, I know, but at least there are crowds to cheer you up. No, you don't like crowds? But hey there's Santa. You're too old to sit on Santa's lap? Too bad. At least when you get home you can dust off your copy of A Christmas Story, and put it in the DVD player to remind you why we give gifts in the first place.

Before I continue let me take a second to say A Christmas Story is my favorite Christmas movie ever, and I'm quite a sucker for Christmas movies. It evokes a flawless a sense of childhood nostalgia, Americana, and Christmas spirit all in one tidy little, and very funny package. But this isn't a post on the brilliance of A Christmas Story, it's a post about gift giving. So where were we...Oh right what A Christmas Story teaches us about why we give gifts.

The Children. Ralphie's sense of anticipation and want is something truly magical. Being a child on Christmas morning is awesome, sprinting down the stairs to discover a pile of present. Things you've been asking for and dreaming about for a month. Stuff you've been good for. But it's also something uniquely for children. Movies like A Christmas Story do a good job of evoking the Christmas spirit through a child's eye, but it doesn't even come close to the wonder of being a kid during the Christmas season. Can you imagine an adult getting as excited about anything as Ralphie gets for his BB gun? It just doesn't happen. So we give gifts to Children and its awesome and magical and special, but why do adults give gifts to each other on Christmas? It's stressful and expensive and certainly not magical. I don't know why, but if it were up to me we'd abolish the practice. There's just too many issues that make it a shallow and stressful gesture.

The first problem is that when an adult wants something, like really wants it, they just go ahead and buy it. Unless they can't afford it, but the tradition of giving equal value gifts means you gift giver wouldn't be able to buy it for you anyways. This means you can't buy people something they really want. But of course you want the person you're buying for to like their gift, so you need to buy something they'd like but not want. This is starting to get tricky but its still doable. OK, but what happens when you don't know the person well enough that you don't have intimate knowledge of their tastes and preferences, their likes and dislikes. I'll admit to having some people amongst my friends and family, people I buy gifts for, that I don't know that well. People I love. People I genuinely look forward to celebrating the holidays with. I just don't know, say, whether they like their sweaters in blue or green. So now we need to buy something that our gift target doesn't want, but would nonetheless enjoy, despite not knowing what they like. This is starting to look impossible, and that's not even factoring in we usually have a fairly modest budget to work with. So what's the solution?

Gift cards seem to solve the problem, but upon closer examination are totally inadequate. If two people exchange gift cards or cash of equal value to spend as they please, wouldn't it be easier if they just didn't exchange gifts. If I give you a twenty dollar bill, and you give me one at the same moment, we might as well have kept our wallets in our pocket. Gift cards are a shallow substitute for cash so the same principle applies. Really the same principle applies for any gift with a stated face value. There's something to be said for its the thought that counts. Even a bad present shows thought even if it was misguided. A gift card shows none. Boy, now I know why they spike the egg nog.

Below is my attempt to help you pick a gift for the film lover in your life. Because this time of year we all need all the help we can get.

A DVD or Blu-Ray movie: This is good, but it can be tricky. First you need to know whether or not the film lover in your life collects DVD's. I, for one, watch most of my movies at home using a rental subscription service, so If someone bought me a DVD, its not a gift that has much value to me. Some film lovers take pride in a large collection of DVD's, so this can be a great gift but you need to know what they already own, which can be quite extensive. You also need to have a pretty good idea of what type of movies they enjoy. You can always use Rotten Tomatoes to pick a well reviewed movie, but its not a foolproof solution. As a bonus the gift scales well to all budgets. You can buy a bargain bin title for under 10 USD, a new release for between 20 and 30 dollars, or a collection for much more.

Blu-Ray Player: Good. Just make sure they don't have one already. Also relatively expensive. 150 USD and up.

TV/Surround Sound System: Needs to be better than what they already own. Prohibitively expensive.

Movie Tickets: Has the face value/gift card problem, but can work in a pinch, if you can't do any better. But you should try.

Stovetop Popper/Air Popper: I think this is a great gift. Stovetop popcorn is infinitely superior to the microwave BS, and who doesn't like popcorn with their movies. You'd be surprised to find out how few people own one, especially young people, who have grown up on the microwave BS. Package it with some nice gourmet popcorn and you've got a real nice and affordable gift. 20-30 USD. Get an oil-free air popper if you're buying for someone a little more health conscious.

Movie Memorabilia: This can be awesome. A lot of film lovers will get a kick out of a lot of movie related collectibles. Things like one-sheets or props. This is hard stuff to shop for and can be expensive. It will involve doing some light research especially if you don't want to get ripped off on Ebay. I would recommend staying away from action figures or anything too toy-like unless you know they're already a collector. It's also going to suck when you buy the big film buff in your life an awesome expensive framed authentic movie poster, and they never put it up because maybe their spouse decorates and finds that tacky. Tread carefully; you're going to want to be certain they'll want to display your gift, otherwise its a big fail. Make sure there is a spot in their house where your gift will be appropriate and you could hit this out of the park, but there's a lot of risk.

Hope I helped and happy shopping!