Practical gifts for outdoorsy people
For those of you who also feel a bit weird about Christmas shopping
Writing my Christmas wish list used to feel like a meticulous operation. I guess as a kid my personal spending power was otherwise non-existent (save for the couple of quid pocket money I got from my Nan each week) and this was my chance to get my hands on the things I’d spent all year lusting over in the Argos catalogue etc. I remember the palpable anticipation of waiting to see if I was going to be the proud owner of a Groovy Chick pencil case or the latest Jacqueline Wilson book or a new skirt from Tammy Girl.
But as an adult, Christmas shopping often makes me feel a bit weird. I try to buy nice things that people are excited to receive, but I hate the thought of giving somebody something they just don’t want or need and which they end up shuffling around between cupboards until they eventually decide enough time has passed to take it to a charity shop. Similarly, I honestly feel physically sick thinking of somebody spending their hard earned money on something for me that just ends up collecting dust.
At the end of the day we all own too much crap anyway, and I worry that random gifts swapped between relatives who don’t really know each other that well (or even who do - choosing a genuinely great gift is hard!) only enhances the problem.
There are a few solutions. We could try and tackle the root cause of excessive gift giving and over consumerism at Christmas but, frankly, that feels like too big a task to be starting mid-December. Then there are practical ways to reduce the amount of aimless Christmas shopping we do: Secret Santa, homemade gifts only, preloved only, the straightforward option of simply asking somebody what they want.
But maybe for whatever reason the above isn’t possible. You don’t want to rock the boat, you need to buy a gift, you don’t want to add to landfill unnecessarily. In those circumstances, I think that practical presents are the way to go. They might not be the most exciting, but hopefully they’ll get used.
It’s funny because for my eighth birthday, my Grandma bought me a box of cod. Yes, I mean the fish. A whole box of frozen cod fillets. Apparently I really liked cod?Whenever the topic of weird gifts comes up, I always use this as my trump card. It is an undeniably bizarre present for a child and we’ve always laughed about it.
Perhaps she was onto something though. While I’m sure the Groovy Chick pencil case eventually ended up forgotten at the back of a cupboard, I’ve no doubt the cod got eaten. Grandma was ahead of her times, clearly.
If a box of cod feels a bit too maverick, hopefully the below list will provide some inspiration for slightly more mainstream but still extremely useful gifts for the outdoorsy people in your life. Most of them should be quite easy to get your hands on too, just in case you also rarely your start your Christmas shopping before December 22nd (guilty).