Personally, I would rather someone gave me a smile and a “Merry Christmas!” than some of the stuff I get. Rose-scented bath oils are an obvious sign of someone desperately fishing for a gift and feeling utterly at a loss for what to get me. I DO understand the pain and suffering of trying to gift all the people on your list so they don’t think you’ve forgotten them. I do. But I’d rather not have more “stuff” and I don’t wrap the entirety of someone’s feelings for me into a mass gift-giving holiday.

Galadria knitted me a pair of fingerless gloves recently (I racked up enough points in her movie quote game to win a prize!) and I absolutely adore them. I use them really often, and she’s inspired me to try and learn how to knit myself.

Although hand-made gifts can be inappropriate and have nothing to do with the receiver and their life/likes/dislikes, to say that a pair of hand-knitted mittens given to someone who obviously likes to play in the snow is somehow a disappointing insult makes my hackles raise, too.

And furthermore, Etsy is fantastic. SO THERE, eBay! Take THAT!

(Talk about tangents in comments. hoy!)

And doubly furthermore, my favorite perfumer (hand-made perfumes by a single person working in a studio, GASP) has a perfume called Midnight Mass at Old St. Mary’s which is one of her more popular and beloved perfumes, and smells like a church (complete with wax and incense and old wooden pews).

AND TRIPLY FURTHERMORE, to the selfish jerk who got those mittens in the commercial, they probably smelled like YOUR GRANDMOTHER, who loves you and slaved hours over those, and when she’s gone you’re going to WISH you had something that still smelled like her so you can remember what it was like when you were five and she hugged you hello so tightly that it made you giggle.

HARRUMPH!

I’ve tried several times to learn how to knit, but I’m just really bad at it. All thumbs or something.