I agree with this. The vast majority of the time I don't really have money to be buying presents for people. My mother will always ask my right around Thanksgiving time what I want for Christmas and I always tell her nothing. But she always gets me something anyway... so I might as well tell her to get me things I need so that I am not getting something that will sit in the back of a drawer and not be used... I will ask her for simple things too... makeup, shampoo, conditioner, kitchen supplies, really anything that I would use on a day to day basis; it is better than some random gift that will never be touched again and since she HAS to get me something that is how I have dealt with that. Last year I got some small kitchen utensils and use them regularly, so they were great gifts. (Proof I am getting old).
I also don't tend to buy people presents unless they outright tell me something that they need or want, most of the time I get an "I don't know" from people, so I go to the ATM, pull out the money I would have spent to get some random gift and put it in a card.... then they aren't getting something that sits in a drawer for many years. (My sisters love this actually, they know that I will always give them money... lol).
Overall, simple things mean more to me and often times I will just tell family that I will take them to dinner for Christmas and we can then spend some one on one time together since I don't see them very often any more. (I can't do this with my grandparents because my grandpa refuses to let me pay, so I have to be sneaky with them).
I agree, I don't really like the whole gift-giving thing. We used to for a few years, when everyone was still around and living close by, at Thanksgiving time we would put everyone's name into a hat, then you would pick that person's name and that was the one person you would buy a gift for at Christmas, we also combined it with telling that person what they mean to you and telling memories you have had with that person.... those were probably some of the best Christmases we had; no pressure to get everyone a gift, just the one person whose name you picked and you also had the time to reflect upon how much that person really means to you... those were some special Christmases.
