The tutor offers advice towards successful Christmas shopping.

In a way, a math tutor’s offering advice about Christmas shopping might seem odd. Academics, after all, are perhaps thought to inhabit a separate world, so be rather naive about everyday people and everyday life. Such might likely have been said about this tutor, fifteen years ago.

With a wife, two kids (11 and 13), and in-laws who live 11 doors away, the tutor has been steeped in the culture of family holidays, not least of all Christmas. In fact, I’ve come to pride myself on being a very good finder of gifts, sometimes even advising my wife what to buy. That can be the way with academic people, though: once they learn something, they own it.

Here are some of my Christmas shopping hints:

1. Start early, though not too early. When the stores start decorating for Christmas is perhaps the time to start looking.
2. Think up some ideas about what to buy Person A or Person B, yet be ready to abandon those notions if something much better presents itself.
3. In my experience, the best Christmas gifts are always impulse buys. That’s one reason it’s best to start in November: spontaneous decisions come much easier when you’re not under pressure to find a gift today.
4. Don’t focus on what’s best for the person, but rather, what will make them happy. (Of course, this point needs measured consideration.)
5. Many people prefer lots of little gifts that they can open separately and use right away (like coffee or chocolates, for example), rather than one grand gift that will only be important after Christmas.
6. With the selection available today, it’s easy to find gifts that are really quite nice, yet reasonably priced. Nice means attractive, not expensive.
7. Gifts that appeal to the senses are generally more popular than ones that appeal to the mind. However, if you don’t know the person well, a “mind” gift (like a book, for instance), is safer.
8. There’s hardly such thing as a nice, yet wasted, gift. If the gift is appealing but the receiver doesn’t happen to like it, they can always re-gift it.
9. While shopping, keep in mind the time and supplies you will need to wrap each gift. My wife and I spend around four hours each Christmas wrapping presents, writing tags, etc.

Good luck with your Christmas shopping!

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.