Forum: lifehacks.stackexchange.com
Tags: <christmas>
Title: Giving the right Christmas Gift without asking what they want
Question: A regular seasonal struggle of choosing the right gift for friends/family.   How can a decision be made of what to give while keeping the element of surprise intact?

Answers:
sents: text: A gift or a present is an item given to someone without the expectation of payment or return.
text: An item is not a gift, if that item, itself, is already owned by the one to whom it is given.
text: Key is to gift something which is in receiver's required-list or wish-list.
text: It is a tricky job which may or may not be easy as it sounds.
text: "Before that happiness, there is a storm of stress."
text: My strategy [has worked with my friends and family] :
text: Silently analyze their hobbies, lifestyle.
text: [ You may have to stalk. ]
text: Based on that, identifyitems they may likely want to have.
text: Get him/her in a conversation and talk very generic about the topic of that item or category.
text: Look into past to make it nostalgic (personal preference)
text: For example, I gifted "Insta Pot" to my sister.
text: I knew she lovescooking and has less time for herself.
text: I got her in a conversationsaying "
text: Hey, did you hear about Instapot?
text: ", Sister responded "Yes!It's a great time-saving device for cooking.
text: " I ended thatconversation and jumped to another topic.
text: And then, it explained me to pick that as a gift
text: and she didn't knowthat it was coming.
text: She was quite surprised.
text: Tip
text: : Be unusual while gifting.
text: For example, if you follow same tradition/approach of gifting them, change a little bit which will increase the level of the surprise factor.
text: Happy Holidays!
answer_details: author: lifehacks.stackexchange.com/users/11420/GC 13
score: 4
sents: text: We gave up trying to second-guess each other.
text: Each family member makes a list and hangs it on a board in the kitchen.
text: The other family members arrange among themselves who gets what
text: and everybody's happy.
text: Try and make the list nice and long, and varied by price, size and wow! effect.
text: The Amazon wish-list is ideal for this purpose too.
text: But you do have to restrain yourself for a few months and not buy those items for yourself.
answer_details: author: lifehacks.stackexchange.com/users/2569/RedSonja
score: 4
sents: text: The only strategy that I found, which works for me, is to observe and take note of anything that comes up in terms of interests, noticing heavily used items that could use an upgrade or replacement, or even a passing comment about something they'd like to have.
text: Maybe it's just a long, wistful glance through a shop window that you will notice.
text: It might be a bit late for this year, but the trick is to not start with this a couple of weeks before Christmas, but make it a habit all year round.
text: Whenever you notice something or an idea crosses your mind, write it down.
text: Quite a few of those ideas will have become obsolete by the time Christmas or birthdays come up, but you'll still end up with a helpful list to work off.
answer_details: author: lifehacks.stackexchange.com/users/19108/Halin
score: 3
sents: text: Two techniques I've used with success: Ask someone else who is closer to the person you're buying for - for example, if you were looking for a gift for your father, ask your mother what he would like.
text: Make a list - the recipient makes a list of things they would like, you then take that list and buy one (or more) things from it -
text: that way you can be sure of getting something they want, but still keeping at least part of the element of surprise.
answer_details: author: lifehacks.stackexchange.com/users/22819/Nick C
score: 3
sents: text: What my wife does is take people shopping, well before Xmas and show them items to see their reactions (of course, she never mentions Xmas and pretends that she is looking for something for herself, mostly but not all the time so that it doesn't look too obvious).
text: It's a bit like manipulating people for a good cause.
text: I couldn't be bothered to do that though.
text: When I need an original gift for her, I take the kids to town and let them do the thinking (no special instruction is needed: "My, my, my, It's Mom's birthday next week, isn't it?" usually does the trick beautifully.
answer_details: author: lifehacks.stackexchange.com/users/23168/user45784
score: 2

Summary of the answers:
There are a few ways to buy the right gift for someone while keeping the element of surprise intact. One simple method is simply to observe their habits and interest and make note of any useful comments that they make. You could even take them shopping near Xmas time to see what sort of things they comment on. Alternatively, you could simply ask them to make a list for you or ask someone close to them for ideas.
The options are to choose after analysing the person's habits and lifestyle, get people to make lists and hang them up in the kitchen, take note of revealing comments, ask someone close to them or take them for a general shop and observe reactions.
There are a few ways to buy the right gift for someone while keeping the element of surprise intact. One simple method is simply to observe their habits and interest and make note of any useful comments that they make. You could even take them shopping near Xmas time to see what sort of things they comment on. Alternatively, you could simply ask them to make a list for you or ask someone close to them for ideas.
One idea is for each family member to make a list and hangs it on a board in the kitchen or Or you can silently analyse their hobbies and lifestyle. Look into past to make the gift nostalgic. Or you could just observe and take note of anything that comes up in terms of interests, noticing heavily used items that could use an upgrade or replacement, or even a passing comment about something they'd like to have.
Silently analyze and observe their hobbies and lifestyle and note of  that comes up in terms of interests. Take note of passing comments about what they would like to have. Whenever you notice something or an idea crosses your mind, write it down.  You could talk to people in general terms about a topic to get ideas. Alternatively, you could ask someone else who is close to the person you are buying for. 
There are many different ways of identifying a potential gift. You could simply ask someone close to them or pay close attention to their hobbies or interests. You may even want to make note of anything they mention in conversation as and when it comes up, even if you're not planning on buying a gift soon.