When You Don't Know What to Buy: Everyone's Favorite Holiday Gifts

Christmas may be over but the holidays aren't quite done. Although most of us are back to work this week, many are still celebrating as we get ready for the New Year. And a lucky few of us will be celebrating all year long because the gifts that we got will actually last us longer than just this week. Most people are so busy figuring out what perfect gifts to get everyone else that they don't really expect to be too wowed when they unwrap the gifts under their own tree. That's why these gifts that last end up being so important to us.

Here are some of the general gifts that everyone who gets them says are their favorites:

o Useful gifts. Okay, so most women don't want to find that underneath their wrapping paper is a tool box. But the gifts that we actually end up using all throughout the year are often the ones that end up our favorites even though we don't appreciate them when we first open them. The flashlight that we find again when the power goes out and the tool box we access when the sink gets clogged are the things that we come back to again and again and think, "you know, I shouldn't have been so disappointed; this was actually a really great gift".

o The family joke gift. In my family, it was a Chia Pet. The gift was totally inappropriate for the ages that we were when my dad got it for us and we laughed like crazy at the time because it was so ridiculous. I don't remember anything else that we got that Christmas but we've mentioned the Chia Pet more than once and it's set us to laughter every time. That story probably doesn't make any sense to you but your family probably has a funny story behind one of their gifts too.

o The tradition gift. A friend of mine had a statue that a friend gave her for her birthday. That Christmas, she painted it and gave it back to the same friend who gave it to her. Now they know that each year, the one who has the gift is going to give it back, a little bit changed but still the same. And that's something that bonds them enough to make it a favorite gift. In my family, it's a set of lottery tickets in the Christmas stocking that we'd be disappointed not to have turn up there one year.

o The gift of a memory. There is a reason that we like to get photo albums and scrapbooks. They show that someone remembers a number of good times with us and that they love us enough to treasure those times. These gifts almost never fail to touch the recipient.

o The touching gift. Sometimes scrapbooks can fill this role as well but this gift deserves its own category because it means so much more. This is the gift that you get and you actually cry. It's the seashells that you collected with your sister when you were ten that she's strung into a necklace because she knows that you missed the shore this year when you couldn't make the trip. It's the time that your kids save their birthday money to buy you a spa day so that you can relax. It's the gifts that really make you remember that it's the thought that counts.

There is no perfect present. But there is a perfect present for you and when someone hits that nail on the head, it can really make your Christmas!