It is not always easy to come up with a perfect gift. I understand how difficult it is to shop around for presents for friends and family so I try to help people get me things that I will appreciate. When I tell people that all I really want for Christmas are books and music not many would believe me.
My children know me so well that they go out of their way to find the kind of books and music I like. I like perfume too and those close to me know my favourite scent. I am an easy person to please when it comes to birthday and Christmas presents. Of course I also love expensive jewellery like every normal self-respecting mature woman but not getting any is not a deal breaker for me.
If you still have last minute shopping you will now have to physically do it instead of taking advantage of online shopping – unless you are online purchasing from local shops. When you buy stuff via the Internet from abroad, it’s a different matter altogether. I found that I have to wait for at least three weeks before the goods arrive and this is during the period of less pressure.
If you are shopping for Christmas you need to give yourself a lot of time because shipping companies tend to get overwhelmed.But if you can afford it you can hop onto a plane and go down South for a quick shopping trip.
I have been going through lists of possible gifts. There is always an exciting new range of lingerie. Woolworths in South Africa has just released mix and match panty and plunging padded push-up bra sets in sexy colours – hot pink, lime, purple, coral and peacock blue. The panties come in steamy cuts including the popular boy shorts. They also have on special Brazilian and the no visible lines panties.
If you want your woman to experience that total feel-good-feeling, then go out and splurge on hot lingerie. Look at it as a two-way present. It will make her feel all warm and tingly inside and show that you are thoughtful but imagine the pleasure you will get from seeing her undress. It is a gift you can both share.
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If you are going to buy perfume try and stick to her signature scent. If you insist on being adventurous then please try and resist the temptation to buy a scent that sends a wrong message. Banish from your list, Lentheric’s Hoity Toity, unless you are trying to tell her that’s how you see her.
Sean John’s Unforgivable might give off a pleasant scent but it smacks of unfinished business. It is the kind of perfume you buy for a woman who did something quite unforgivable to you.
A woman going through a midlife crisis will not appreciate you giving her Miss Sixty – on a good day she might say thank you and let it rest but on a very bad day she will throw the bottle back at you and accuse you of intimating that she is over the hill!
Sex in the City’s Illusion and Britney Spears’s Fantasy and Curious might be amusing gifts for teenagers but real women might not appreciate them. Britney Spears’s Radiance comes in a square pink and blue busy bottle that will look nice on a 12-year-old’s dresser.
Agent Provocateur sounds like the kind of scent you buy for a notorious female spy while DKNY’s Be Delicious Night strikes me as a scent you would give a woman you are dying to play strip poker with.
Safe choices for the timid have always been the Yardley range, Elizabeth Arden, Christian Dior and YSL perfumes. Step out and try Dolce and Gabbana, Bvlgari, Burberry and Sarah Jessica Parker scents.
And if you want to buy perfumes for your man be bold and get something new and pray that it will smell nice on him. A lovely scent on someone will smell like dung on the next person. So just beware of that downside.
Usher and Givenchy have some very good scents attractively packaged. You could also get your man Dunhill’s Desire Red, Diesel’s Him and Dolce Gabbana’s The One Gentleman (if he is truly a gentleman or if you harbour delusions of turning him into one).
If he spends half his lifetime drinking then you will have every reason to buy him Pub’s thoughtful gift set of cologne spray and anti-perspirant deodorant and if he is always getting out doing chores and if he constantly moves parallel to the truth then Quicksilver is a very appropriate eau de toilette for him.
English Leather has also joined the bandwagon of scents but I think they should stick to making bath soap and shaving crème. Unless your man has skin that looks like leather, try and resist buying him an English Leather gift set. It really is very unromantic.
IF HE BUYS YOU DISGUSTING PRESENTS…But if a man has given you a vacuum cleaner, pots, electric jug or toaster as presents in the past then you have every right to buy him equally disgusting presents.
I know there are people out there who think of the kitchen every time they think of their wives, and if you really cannot resist buying your women stuff for the kitchen, do not rush to grab that upgraded sandwich maker.
If you must prove your insanity and lack of thought to your wife at least spend a bit more and buy her a whole set of crystal glasses – real glass or just do the easy thing and buy her jewellery. I mean real precious jewellery not that muck from the man on the street.
I know sometimes we lie and say it does not matter what we get, it is the thought that counts. Believe me when you have lived as long as I have, what you get as presents really matter. So go on guys, put more thought into what you get each other as presents this Christmas– it really matters.
BY GRACE MUTANDWA
