What do you buy your wealthy relatives for Christmas?

[Maisiethemorningsidecat]

....that doesn't involve another photo of the kids in a frame, or indeed anything kid-related? It's a pain in the bum - if they want anything, they buy it. If they need anything, they buy it. They also buy a far higher quality 'it' than we can afford.

Ideas very welcome

[BelligerentGhoul]

I haven't got any wealthy relatives!

If I did have, I'd probably just buy them something to either drink or eat.

Eg:

a big cheese and some 'posh' crackers;
nice spices like rose harissa, sumac, daqqa etc;
olive oil;
blasamic vinegar;
good hot chocolate and a bar of choc for grating, maybe with one of those tiny graters.

[BelligerentGhoul]

balsamic

[ShowOfBloodyStumps]

DH's grandparents. Last year we bought them a welcome on board mat for their boat.

Year before that some covers for their golf clubs (naff novelty shrek ones picked by dd).

This year we've bought them a treasure hunt. You need a boat to do it. Each clue is at a location along the broads.

We struggle tbh.

[Maisiethemorningsidecat]

Forgot to say - the female wealthy relative doesn't 'do' dairy, chocolate or carbs (yes, v annoying). I like the idea of the spices though - she's going through a wholefood phase, so that might work actually. Any good websites that you know of?

[ShowOfBloodyStumps]

We didn't set up the treasure hunt by the way. It's a company that sells them, designed to take you along a scenic route, tell you some history and make a game of it.

[traceybath]

Cheese from somewhere like fine cheese co.

[Maisiethemorningsidecat]

I wondered about an experience instead of a present - do you have to have your own boat for that treasure hunt? She's at home, trying to get some kind of weird business off the ground, after giving up her management consultancy, he's always travelling with his mega job and they don't have children together, so it's really difficult to find something that they both enjoy.

[sethstarkaddersmummyreturns]

books or dvds or cds mostly, but have also had success with random kitchen gadgets that they didn't know existed (or they would have already had one).

this year they will be getting a little square of plastic to grip jar lids for opening.

I think one of my greatest successes was the toy dustpan and brush when they'd been saying for ages they needed a little mini one to brush the crumbs off the table on their yacht and they could only find posh ones in silver

cost about a pound, that little dustpan and brush did, and they still use it and love it

[80sMum]

Nothing! They already have everything.

[sethstarkaddersmummyreturns]

Maisie - if she's going through a wholefood phase, how about a seed sprouter?

[traceybath]

Show I was just so impressed at the thought of you devising your own treasure hunt

[Maisiethemorningsidecat]

A seed what?!

[BelligerentGhoul]

Waitrose do lots of nice spices, including the ones I mentioned iirc.

[ShowOfBloodyStumps]

You can hire boats to do them I'd imagine. It's for the Norfolk Broads. And the one we've got takes 3 days so they could have a long weekend away on a posh narrow boat and take the treasure hunt with them.

TBH, I worked on the theme of 'what do they like and how can I add to it' so they like golf, get some club covers, they like their boat, gets a few things for it.

This year they'll be getting the same as everybody. Vases fashioned by dd out of jamjars, putty and shells with homemade sweets inside.

tracey, bless you for believing I'd bother to set up a treasure hunt for a Christmas gift. Actually, I did once but I'm not proud of it.

[castlesintheair]

I've exhausted just about every possibility with my ILs. I usually get MIL something cashmere or good quality smelly stuff. FIL (a complete nightmare) kitchen gadget - great one being enormous electric pepper mill. Champagne flutes or wine glasses. Good ones in Habitat usually. I'm scratching my head already this year.

[sethstarkaddersmummyreturns]

seed sprouter

[BendyBobbingApples]

My parents and inlaws aren't rich as such but they are comfortable and don't need anything as such.

Some things which have gone down well have been magazine subscriptions and last year gave inlaws a years National Trust membership, so they can visit gardens for free which they enjoy.

I thought I might give them theatre vouchers this year.

[Maisiethemorningsidecat]

I like the seed sprouter - I think she'd go for that. The experiences and the subscriptions are also good, so will look into that idea. She's also into new -agey type stuff right now (if you've ever watched Outnumbered, she is Karen's sister in the last series) I wondered about getting her horoscope written, or something like that..

Or I may just say "sod it" and get them Amazon tokens