Saturday, December 24, 2011

#7 Misha's Christmas Wish Box

When I was a child, I used to look through the Sears Christmas Wish Book for ideas of what I wanted for Christmas. Then one year, I hit upon the idea of creating my own Wish Book. Misha's Christmas Wish Book consisted of pieces of paper stapled into a book(let). Onto the paper I would glue pictures of things that I had cut out of the Sears Christmas Wish Book (and later, other publications.)

Once I went away to college, Misha's Christmas and Birthday Wish Book became even more important, and I would mail it to my family members each December. Until last year, my family would receive an e-mail with an attached document showing photos of the desired items (usually DVDs) and recommendations as to where they could be purchased most cheaply.

The thing is, the cheapest place to buy DVDs is from Amazon, or another web-based company. But my mother isn't going to be able to figure out how to create an account at Deep Discount, much less order something. If I tell her I want Fawlty Towers: The Complete Series, she will go to a record store in the mall and pay at least double what I could get it for on-line.

So this year, when I saw all of the amazing Black Friday deals the the WB Shop was offering on season box sets that I had been keeping my eye on for the last few years, I came upon the solution. I bought them myself. The Adventures of Superman: The Complete Fifth & Sixth Seasons cost me $10.00 with free shipping at the WB Shop. It is selling at HMV right now for $39.99!

I put all of my purchases into a box, each with a Post-it indicating the price, and dubbed it Misha's Christmas and Birthday Wish Box. I then engaged a Wish Box administrator, whose job it is to contact my family via telephone, describe the contents of the Wish Box, and find out if they would like to purchase any of these items for me for Christmas or my imminent birthday. The administrator will bring the items to my family when we go to visit them this Christmas, and will collect the appropriate amount of money and put it in the box for me to retrieve some time in the new year.

I get what I want. I don't get what I don't want. And my family saves 75% on my gifts. Everybody wins. Although my wife was heard to say, about her Wish Box Administrator duties, "I feel like the Grinch's dog."

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