USB flash drives. They’re given away at every professional conference I attend, with the school’s logo printed on the outside and all the conference papers stored on the drive.

Every year, birthday and Christmas, the default gift given to me seems to always be gift cards/certificates to Amazon, LifeWay, etc. And I’m not complaining! Though, flash drives are always handy!

One word, Scot: candles! Who doesn’t love a nice-smelling home?

I like Flash Drives…
What about I-tunes gift cards. I know, not everone has the I-Pod, but realistically it reaches quite a few people. I always and dowloading music/teaching fro I-tunes.

Books are my default gift – I almost always buy more books than I read, so I always have some new books sitting on my shelf to give when I’ve forgotten to buy someone a gift…
The repeat gift I get some family members each year is a calendar – and if I forget, I hear about it! But those wouldn’t work as a common default gift, ’cause you really only need one or two wall calendars.
Another default gift I often give is a journal, but so many people do all their writing on electronic devices nowadays that the journal is becoming outdated.
I like the bookmark idea, but I wonder whether you think people will be turning to Kindle so much in the future that even the bookmark will become outmoded?

Before the mugs came the pens, which then sat in those lonely mugs…until I got picky about my pens and my mugs.
Actually, the best gift I received for speaking came a few weeks after my sermon – notes from members of the congregation who wanted to share what they took away from the message and what they were still wrestling with.
If that is a bit too touchy-feely, I’m all for the gift card!

Ah, you said the leather bookmark was a tacky gift, huh? JK, I know you were referring to it’s sticktoitivness.
I don’t have any default gifts that I give, what with trying to cut back on spending, although I have given my parents ice cream cake twice in the past year. My hairdresser in wanting to get me something for my birthday asked me about my favorite restaurants and finally settled on a gift card to Barnes and Noble since I always have a book in hand when I’m at the salon. Those are probably the new default gifts. Hard to go wrong there.

Only 15 mugs?
By the way – the Beliefnet site has suddenly stopped remembering my name and e-mail address in all browsers. It has caused me to lose several comments – to my deep annoyance.
Are others noticing this?

My default gifts are consumable so that they don’t pile up. I usually go with local coffee (often Intelligentsia), wine, or interesting spice blends for cooking (from a place like Penzy’s or the Spice House), depending on the recipient…

For me it’a angels. For some reason family members have decided I like angels and I get a couple every year for Christmas. I don’t generically like angels, I like the angels I have bought and display. I generally don’t like the ones given me. Besides, I’ve got enough angels, I don’t need nor want more.

1. CHOCOLATE
2. Starbucks gift cards
3. FOR ME–Always the Amazon gift card! PS, my birthday is one week from today!

Ecards

My default gift is five minutes of uninterrupted eye contact.

Please, please… ONLY buy me iTunes or Amazon gift cards! I will always treasure the ability to buy some new music or a new book I’ve been wanting to read.

I usually just re-gift what people give me.

well…we could always go back to fruitcake.
especially if it’s from here:
http://www.gethsemanifarms.org/fruitcake.aspx

And once again the poor fruitcake is unjustly maligned. I have become convinced that attacking fruitcakes is done far more because it’s fashionable to do so than because of any true failing on the part of fruitcakes themselves….

I want this one from,
Patrick Oden 13
“My default gift is five minutes of uninterrupted eye contact”
Wow, that takes my breath away. HUGE gift, for giver and the getter!
And I was going to say ecards/amazon cards…

The question Scot is posing is really this: What do you get for someone like Scot (and Scot’s blog readers would probably have similar tastes) when you want to show your appreciation for them but you do not know what they really need they already have much of what they need? Instead of mug or fruitcake or bookmark or gift certificate for iTunes, Starbucks, or Amazon, I would suggest maybe flowers for the wife, a gift certificate for dinner out with the wife, music, or a quality book–like a commentary or novel or something recommended by Eugene Peterson in Take & Read: Spiritual Reading : An Annotated List. Gifts are a bit weird because you don’t want to get someone something they might need lest you send the wrong message. A nose hair trimmer, running shoes, or a dictionary might not send the message of your appreciation for their work. Then again you don’t want them to throw what you gave them away. Maybe the Amazon gift certificate is the best.

But if you get the kindle…then the bookmark becomes obsolete, lonely, and a dust collector. Let the brainstorming continue. Thanks again for sharing at Parkcrest this weekend. It was great having you here.

I agree that the default gift is gift cards. I only like to get them from bookstores. Candles used to be a default gift in my world but no more. Coffee is always a good gift.

Oh T-shirts. I forgot that the default gift used to t-shirts and to some extent still is. For years I have gotten piles of them, with all sorts of advertising on them.

My default gifts are Starbucks and iTunes cards. I love to give them and get them
Speaking of gifts, Scot, Doug just gave me the AeroPress coffee maker you recommended a while ago here for my birthday last week, and we LOVE it!!! He also gave me a pound of Caffe Vita (Theo Fairtrade Blend), and I think it beats the Stumptown I have had since moving back up here. Definitely a new favorite!
Thanks for the good advice!

I have a easy solution Scot…
We need to have a cupping for all the local Coffee Geeks in your office. (admission can be a bag of coffee to contribute) I’ll provide the grinder and the Water you provide the space and the mugs… It’s a Quick and dirty way to justify your collection and sample a cornucopia of tasty offerings… what do you think?

Billy, most any Tues or Thurs afternoon — between 1 to 3pm — and we’ll invite “whoever.”

Scot, this is so unfair to mugs, comparing them to fruitcake.

Billy and Scot,
Sounds good … but Chicago is a bit far for an afternoon coffee …

What if your family is made up of “Mugs” and “Fruitcakes”????

I’ve never understood the maligning of fruitcake. I like (good) fruitcake. But gift cards seem to be the new default gift (and I favor ones for coffee shops, bookstores and REI).

What if the are hand thrown mugs?
SO, here is what you do. (I did this 21 years ago at my last office Christmas party and today the secret is out.)
For the office (church, family, etc.) Christmas exchange take in a gift wrapped and suitable for who you are. Make sure SOMEONE sees you set it down. THEN, when NO ONE is looking, you sneak in a huge box of mugs (or whatever you want to get rid of), wrapped differently, of course.
Someone will choose your beautifully wrapped gift. At the end there will be an extra gift. Confusion will reign. Many will complain about the big box of gift, but no one will figure out who brought it. You will be completely in the clear since one or several saw you bring your gift. All sorts of gossip will ensue and you are back down to three or four mugs. Merry Christmas and a Tidy New Year

A leather bookmark instead of a coffee mug? Really?