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Community Corner

Gift Giving 2011

Male Shoppers out over the long Thanksgiving weekend share their thoughts on getting a gift for a "significant other."

Editor's note: Last names were not included in the story so as to keep present information confidential.

Men can’t ask for directions very well, and they usually can’t get appropriate gifts for their wife or girlfriend either. With that in mind The Swampscott Patch asked men shopping in Vinnin Square over the long Thanksgiving weekend to tell us how they go about buying presents for the special gal in their lives.

“I have a real problem right now,” Patrick said outside CVS on Sunday morning. “I just started seeing someone, I like her, this will be our first Christmas together obviously, do I buy her something huge to impress her, or will a big gift turn her off because she’ll think I’m too serious too fast?”

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“On the other hand, if I get her something small and crummy, will she be turned off because she thinks I’m cheap, or will it be OK to give her something small, I really have no idea what to do,” Patrick said.

“I get a list from my girlfriend, who I’ve been dating for over two years, this will be our third holiday season together, so I buy four or five items off her list,” Donnie said. “She usually has 10-15 things on there, so she kinda knows what she’s getting, but not exactly, so it’s a little but of a surprise when she opens her stuff.”

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“I buy what’s on sale, and I keep the receipts,” Billy said. “I was hurt the first time she returned something I gave her, but now it’s kind of a game to see if I can buy something that she’ll keep, or at least not have the energy to take it back.”

Money works, too.

“I cook and clean everything for the entire month of December, and give my wife money to get her hair done or a massage, whatever she feels like having, so she can relax and not get stressed out over the holidays,” David said. “That works for me.”

Another shopper said the key to good gifting is simple, buy gift certificates, and a lot of them, and batteries, people are always going to need batteries around the holidays.

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