Buzzabasket

A few days ago, I talked with a family friend who recently learned that his huge manufacturing company was closing his plant. He is actually luckier than most of the people working for that company. He very recently reached the age at which he qualifies for early retirement, so he will continue to have a steady (although much smaller) income. Those who did not reach that milestone of the specified number of years with the company will get a small severance package and be left to search for a job in that difficult market. That got me thinking about giving gifts for special occasions to those people who are experiencing difficult economic situations. I came up with a few ideas that make more sense than a piece of home decor or a new tie. Here are some of them:

A fruit basket is healthy, beautiful, yummy and always enjoyed. If you live near your gift recipient, you can find a lovely basket or other attractive container and fill it with fruit that is in season in your region of the country, obtained at a farmers market, and then fill it out with a few exotic fruits picked up at your neighborhood specialty store. If your loved one is farther away, you can arrange for any of a large range of beautiful fruit gift baskets to be delivered directly to the person’s home. It will help them to reduce their grocery bill that month.

A special meal is another way to remember a special occasion or holiday. One possibility might be to take the friend or family member to a popular local restaurant. If price is no object to you, be sure to recommend a couple of the more expensive entrees on the menu, so that your guests know that they should not worry about ordering what they want. For example, you might say something like, “The crab legs are wonderful here, but, if you don’t like seafood, try the tender and tasty filet mignon.” If they live too far away for that, you can actually find delicious, gourmet, chef-prepared meals online that arrive frozen and can be heated in almost no time. (I actually keep my freezer stocked with these.)

You might also consider a tasty dessert. No person should have too many desserts, but on a birthday, anniversary or holiday, everyone deserves an opportunity to indulge a sweet tooth. Bake cookies, if that is a skill of yours, and hand deliver or have them delivered. For something a little more special consider giving them a freshly baked pie or turtle cheesecake. Whether you make it yourself or have others do the work for you doesn’t matter. It will be appreciated and definitely enjoyed either way.

You may observe that all my recommendationinvolve food. Someone who is going through a difficult time may not want to accept charity, but nobody can reject a genuinely special gift. If it reduces the grocery bill by a bit, that’s just a bonus. To make it even most festive, invite yourself to share in the delights with them!

Fighting my way through a crowded store with my arms full of packages is not my first choice of hobbies. My mother loves to shop, but I did not inherit those genes. The part that I despise the most, however, is trying to guess what presents everyone would actually appreciate. I used to have this haunting fear that all of my shopping efforts usually resulted in a rushed trip back to the store or, worse, out to the trash receptacle. I could never feel confident about what to get my Grandma or Uncle Arthur. Now, I can enjoy the stores, especially during the holidays, because I can walk through empty handed, unhurried, with all of my shopping already long finished. I do all my shopping online, now. Well practically all of it.

Online shopping didn’t save my life all by itself. Just because I started using the Web before any of my friends, I still had to make the decisions. And then, around five years ago, or so, I discovered food.

Of course, I actually discovered food when I was still an infant, but it didn’t occur to me as a great gift until I had suffered through many rounds of birthdays, baby showers, and countless other events that seem to always pop up. I received a gift basket of little sausages, spreadable cheeses and plain crackers. It was terrible! At the same time, though, I thought what a great gift this could have been. All they had to change in the gift was the quality of the contents!

Since that moment of momentous insight on my part, I have been a dedicated sampler of a variety of food gifts that I buy for myself on the Internet. (It’s a tough job, but I am up to the challenge as long as I carefully pace myself!) I have found that the online gift food stores handle everything from shipping to the accompanying gift cards. Yes, I actually send myself a gift card to test the store’s dedication to detail. The Internet boutiques are now the sources for all of my gifts, except those gifts of my loved ones who happen to live very nearby.

The wide selection of quality gift foods available is truly remarkable. It ranges from live lobster dinners to a fresh fruit basket; from cookie bouquets to live lobsters; from wine gift baskets to imported caviar or fine Wisconsin cheeses.

I do keep gift foods around the house, beautifully or cleverly arranged, for my guests who come to my house or for those whom I visit in person during those gift giving times. The Internet provides assistance to me even in these cases, because it is packed full of great ideas for arranging and wrapping gift food.

If you see me walking down a store aisle with a huge smile on my face when everybody else seems frantic, you will now know my secret. But don’t tell my Uncle Arthur.

While I hate to decide on what to give someone for a particular gift giving occasion, I do actually enjoy giving nice presents to those who mean a lot to me.  It used to take me forever to choose a gift.  Now, though, I just turn to the Internet.  I don’t mean that I just go online to buy a gift, although that is where I do most of my buying.  No, I mean that I go to the web to get gift ideas.

First, a little confession:  I almost always give gift that I would actually like to receive.  No, I don’t actually have them monogramed with my initials.  I don’t carry it quite that far.

Okay, here’s an example.  I cherish food.  It’s not that I actually eat very much, it’s just that I love truly good food.  Therefore, by extension, I love to get food gift ideas.  Not just ordinary food, of course.  I never give someone a loaf of bread for a holiday, although maybe a truly great French bread wouldn’t be a bad idea, now that I think about it.  But I like to give food that is delicious and also demonstrate’s that I have considered my loved one’s tastes.  Imported (or even fine domestic) cheese, for example, is one of my favorite categories.

I also love toys.  I am a man, after all.  Of course, I’m a bit old for Sponge Bob, so my idea of the perfect toy is usually something electronic.  I am admittedly a sucker for anything that blinks, whirs or otherwise involves some sort of high tech magic.  There are so many places online where you can find reviews of electronic gift ideas, such as gaming systems, DVD players or even simple music players.  I can browse those sites for hours without getting bored!

Even as a man, I love jewelry, although I don’t really wear any except for watches.  But a lot of men, and almost all women, wear a lot of jewelry, and I have a sincere visual appreciation for it.  From bracelets to ear rings, from necklaces to unique key chains, I am alway looking out for unique jewelry gift ideas.

I guess the one kind of gift I don’t like is cash.  I mean, what’s the point?  If you’re going to give me twenty dollars, then I’ll give you thirty next year.  Of course, that means that you’ll have to at least match me the following year.  Let’s invest a little thought and keep the cash in our own wallets or use it to by a gift that shows that we’ve done our homework.

I have to admit, I am not a shopping enthusiast! Except around the holidays, I hate the parking problems, I don’t enjoy browsing aisle after aisle looking for something that would be honestly appreciated by Grandma or Uncle Arthur. I certainly do not like waiting on line with inpatient people killing time for the lone employee to handle a complicated exchange. During the holidays, I enjoy meandering through stores just people watching, without being weighted down with packages. The experience for some reason gets me into a holiday emotional state, but I do my actual shopping and buying almost entirely on the web. That’s a practice I developed in the very early years of the Web.

Online shopping didn’t save my life all by itself. Just because I started using the Web before any of my friends, I still had to make the decisions. And then, around five years ago, or so, I discovered food.

That wasn’t very honestly phrased, because I discovered food when I was still an infant. But I didn’t discover food as a gift idea until recently. You see, at that time I received a gift basket full of hardly edible sausages, processed cheese spreads (mostly chemicals I think) and crackers that were about as crunchy as a rock. However, the poor quality of what passed as food in that gift turned out to be my inspiration. “What,” I thought, “If I had received genuinely good food?” How different that would have been, and how much I would have enjoyed it.

Since that moment of momentous insight on my part, I have been a dedicated sampler of a variety of food gifts that I buy for myself on the Internet. (It’s a tough job, but I am up to the challenge as long as I carefully pace myself!) I have found that the online gift food stores handle everything from shipping to the accompanying gift cards. Yes, I actually send myself a gift card to test the store’s dedication to detail. The Internet boutiques are now the sources for all of my gifts, except those gifts of my loved ones who happen to live very nearby.

These Internet shops offer everything from gourmet fruit baskets to live lobster dinners (well, they won’t be alive when they are actually eaten), from wine gift baskets to cookie bouquets. The array of gift foods is really quite amazing.

For those on my gift list who live nearby, I usually assemble my own gift baskets. Even in those cases, the Internet comes to my rescue with helpful suggestions about how to make my self-assembled gift foods more interesting. The available articles also have great gift ideas for special people who often happen to be especially difficult when it comes to choosing a gift.

If you happen to see me walking down a store aisle with a smile on my face when everybody else seems frantic, you will now know my secret. But let’s keep it a secret from my Uncle Arthur.

A few days ago, I talked with a family friend who recently learned that his huge manufacturing company was closing his plant. He is actually more fortunat than most of his co-workers. He very recently reached the age at which he qualifies for early retirement, so he will continue to have a steady income. Those who did not reach that milestone of the specified number of years with the company will get a small severance package and be left to search for a job in that difficult market. That caused me to think about giving gifts for special occasions to those people who are experiencing difficult economic situations. I came up with a few suggestions that make more sense than a piece of home decor or a new tie. Here are some of them:

A beautiful fruit gift basket is healthy, beautiful, delicious and always enjoyed. If you live near your gift recipient, you can find a lovely basket or other attractive container and fill it with fruit that is in season in your region of the country, obtained at a farmers market, and fill it out with a few exotic fruits picked up at your local super market. If your loved one is farther away, you can arrange for any of a large range of beautiful fruit gift baskets to be delivered to the recipient’s home. It will help them to reduce their grocery bill on their next trip to the super market.

A unique meal is another way to remember a special occasion. One alternative might be to take the friend to a special restaurant. If price is no object to you, be sure to suggest some of the pricier entrees on the menu, so that your guests know that they should not worry about ordering whatever they prefer. For example, you could say something like, “The crab legs are perfect here, but, if you don’t like seafood, try the filet mignon.” If they live too far away for that, you can actually find delicious, gourmet, chef-prepared meals online that arrive frozen and can be heated in almost no time. (I actually keep my freezer stocked with these.) Or you might send a gift certificate to a special place in their town.

A final recommendation is a scrumptious dessert. Now, lets face it, nobody should indluge in too many desserts, but on a birthday, anniversary or holiday, everyone deserves a chance to feel a little pampered. Bake cookies, if that is a skill of yours, and hand deliver or have them delivered. For something a little more special consider giving them a delicious pie or a New York style cheesecake. Whether you make it yourself or have others do the work for you doesn’t matter. It will be appreciated and definitely enjoyed either way.

You may observe that all my recommendationinvolve food. Someone who is going through a difficult time may not want to accept charity, but nobody can reject a genuinely special gift. If it reduces the grocery bill by a bit, that’s just a bonus.

Do you know someone who is depressed? I do. I have never seen it this bad. Who lost their job, who is sick, who needs an operation — everyitng seems to be happening at the same time.In all my years I don’t think I have ever seen things this bad. So how can you help? You can make someone’s day. Cheer them up with an Italian Gift Basket.

Who doesn’t love food? And Italian food seems to be everyones favorite. So and Italian Gift Basket makes the perfect gift. Who wouldn’t enjoy a nice basket filled with {gourmet pasta, tomato sauce, chocolate, cheese, coffee, Italian cookies and desserts all imported from Italy? }I know I would.

We all know how food makes us feel great. What food heals better that Italian? So give someone an Italian Gift Basket and cheer them up.For a little while maybe they can forget their problems and focus on what is good in life.

Try to get an Italian gift basket that is high in Italian imported ingredients.

Buy from a company that specializes in what your are looking for.

The cheapest basket is most definately not the best.

Design is important, but ultimately it’s about the food they will be eating.

Make the process enjoyable. Pretend you are in an open air market in Florence.

It is important to keep the person who you are buying the gift for in mind. This way, your decision will be the right one

There is no doubt that an Italian Gift Basket will do the trick. For the money, there is nothing better.

Hopefully this will cheer us up for a while.

You’ll be amazed at much good giving a nice gift does for you.