Shopping for the kids on your list is definitely more fun, but you can’t put it off any longer: it’s time to figure out what to buy for all those hard-to-buy-for people on your holiday shopping list. Well, lucky you, I have some tips on what to buy—and perhaps more importantly—what not to buy.

I know that it’s tempting to give up and resort to gag gifts after several years of buying bad gifts despite your good intentions. Resist. Let’s start there with the list of what not to buy for hard-to-buy-for people:

Do not buy

• Wind-up boxing nuns,
• Racing grandma and grandpa,
• Reindeer that poop candy, or
• Singing bass plaque.
• Do not buy gift certificates for elderly relatives; they don’t need anything from the mall, don’t want to go shopping, don’t have anyplace to put it and really shouldn’t be driving anyhow.

The list of what to buy for hard-to-buy-for people is shorter.

• Send all or part of a holiday meal. There are dozens of stores that deliver wonderful hams, turkeys or smoked fish. (I love the oven-roasted turkey breast from HoneyBaked Ham™ and the smoked salmon from Williams-Sonoma™.) If your particular hard-to-buy-for gift recipients are elderly, they’ll appreciate not having to do so much holiday cooking, or being able to contribute something special to a holiday meal at someone else’s house. Even if they’re younger, your gift will take off some of the pressure.
• Buy them an ID theft service. It’s another one of those things that makes life a little easier for the hard-to-buy-for people. For instance, everyone knows they should check their credit reports for fraudulent activity and errors at least annually, but only 1 in 3 actually does it. LifeLock, for instance, contacts the credit bureaus for them and requests the reports are sent to their members.

In 2008, nearly 10 million Americans were ID theft victims and roughly 285 million records were exposed in data breaches, so it’s not like it’s a gift that nobody needs.

And, maybe best of all, you don’t have to fight shopping crowds to get it and you don’t have to wrap it or ship it.

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