What they may like and may not yet have?

It is a tradition in my family of origin to have a gathering around Xmas, right from the time when my parents were around and when none of us were Christians until today when 3 out of my 5 siblings are. Used to be, presents were bought for my parents and the children. Now, we only get presents for the children's children, and what a headache it is.

I browse around the toy departments of big stores and find it hard to hit something which my grand-nieces/nephew may like and may not yet have. Setting a budget of around S$25 per item proves to be really constraining. So a small Playmobil set may be interesting but recalling a picture on facebook showing my grandnephew sprawling on the floor amidst what looks like a complete array of vehicles and helmet-wearing figures in a complete "Men at work" set, made me replace the toy on the shelve.

How about a book for my grandniece going to K2 next year? Surely one with glossy colourful pictures should be delightful. Then again, I always wonder what her tablet consists. Or is it Kindle she already possess which probably fulfills her reading needs right up to JC ?. Oh but don't I love those pop-up books which were so costly that I never got to buy any for my own children when they were toddlers. Come to think of it some of the things I bought for my kids when they were growing up were actually things I missed and would love to have if I was young again. So I must never fall into this mistake again but of course things available today don't even exist in our wildest imagination then.

Maybe just being practical and buying some stationery sets may solve the headache. Now the problem arises deciding which brand they want, is it Hello Kitty or Angry Bird etc etc? Again I had to forgo this idea after recalling one incident. My daughter was once invited to a birthday party of some rich primary school classmate. Again at a loss of ideas and falling into the "what I wanted as a child" trap I helped her buy the biggest set of Faber Castell colour pencils available. My daughter reported it was the present the birthday girl gave the least "glance' time.

OK the final straw came when my niece who just gave birth to a baby girl posted on her facebook a picture of the baby next to the iconic Tiffany box and the comment "...'s first Tiffany" (from daddy).

Out of impulse I commented "Level of satisfaction correlates with degree of 'want'. Let her have the chance to enjoy 'Tiffany' when she is older".