Christmas Gift Ideas

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Anoraks look neat. I've had a few. Mine were shells - outer garments that you wear over other outer garments that provide the insulation. Or you just wear the anorak alone in the rain or wind sometimes.

Over time I found that I did not like the inability to adjust ventilation. When it's on, it's on. No adjusting anything unless you take it off. This would be fine if you were in a persistently cold area where you wouldn't dare think of taking your coat off. But it didn't work well for me in more temperate climates where coats have a middle setting between on and off - namely "unzipped". I also found my non-stretchy anoraks to be no fun to put on or take off. Kind of a pain actually - like they were fighting the process tooth and nail. The stretchy ones were fine. I am guessing that the insulating anoraks would be much better in this regard - they have some body and bulk and weight to them that would help keep them falling straight, thus easier to put on and take off.
 
Haertig said:
Anoraks look neat. I've had a few. Mine were shells - outer garments that you wear over other outer garments that provide the insulation. Or you just wear the anorak alone in the rain or wind sometimes.

Over time I found that I did not like the inability to adjust ventilation. When it's on, it's on. No adjusting anything unless you take it off. This would be fine if you were in a persistently cold area where you wouldn't dare think of taking your coat off. But it didn't work well for me in more temperate climates where coats have a middle setting between on and off - namely "unzipped". I also found my non-stretchy anoraks to be no fun to put on or take off. Kind of a pain actually - like they were fighting the process tooth and nail. The stretchy ones were fine. I am guessing that the insulating anoraks would be much better in this regard - they have some body and bulk and weight to them that would help keep them falling straight, thus easier to put on and take off.
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Both of my wife's anoraks have full-length zippers. I have a WW2 anorak.
Thompson M1.jpg
 
For gift giving I give breakfast boxes from a local butcher. It includes bacon, sausage, canadian bacon, pork chops, gravy mix and a couple other things. Unfortunately, that butcher is no longer in business so this year the nephew and neice got cash to buy their own. It's weird how I never get complaints when I give cash or bacon. 🤔

For the mail delivery person, I give cashews, chocolates, and various candies in a gift bag. For our regular local friends and family we host a Christmas party and provide the food and entertainment. The guests bring their own coolers but we do have beer available.

Hubby and I are nearly impossible to buy for. As with most here, if we want something we buy it. The kids however, have given us some neat gifts over the years that we didn't even know we wanted. Last year we got an outdoor bluetooth work radio that we use all the time, especially in the summertime around the campfire.

This year I'm getting the kid a milwaukee tire inflator. He doesn't have a compressor and doesn't pay a whole lot of attention to his vehicles. That thing is amazing and idiot proof so I'm sure he'll get some use out of it.:)
 
angie_nrs said:
For gift giving I give breakfast boxes from a local butcher. It includes bacon, sausage, canadian bacon, pork chops, gravy mix and a couple other things. Unfortunately, that butcher is no longer in business so this year the nephew and neice got cash to buy their own. It's weird how I never get complaints when I give cash or bacon. 🤔

For the mail delivery person, I give cashews, chocolates, and various candies in a gift bag. For our regular local friends and family we host a Christmas party and provide the food and entertainment. The guests bring their own coolers but we do have beer available.

Hubby and I are nearly impossible to buy for. As with most here, if we want something we buy it. The kids however, have given us some neat gifts over the years that we didn't even know we wanted. Last year we got an outdoor bluetooth work radio that we use all the time, especially in the summertime around the campfire.

This year I'm getting the kid a milwaukee tire inflator. He doesn't have a compressor and doesn't pay a whole lot of attention to his vehicles. That thing is amazing and idiot proof so I'm sure he'll get some use out of it.:)
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I need to look into one of those inflator for the camper
 
Bacpacker said:
I need to look into one of those inflator for the camper
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Here's another one to consider. On sale now.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-18V-Cordless-Portable-Inflator-Tool-Only-R87044/313257505
Bought at Home Depot and registered within 90 days, you get lifetime service - parts and labor. I just bought me one of these. Haven't used it yet. I just did internet research on "tire inflators" and this was my pick for my personal needs. There are several comparisons for tire inflators available with a simple Google search. I like the following two comparisons, but also looked at several more before deciding on the Rigid brand one. Note: It makes a difference what size tires you are using an inflator with. You can get really cheap ones on Amazon, and they might be fine for rare use on a lightweight Kia or something. But those little ones might not work well with a large truck. The Rigid was the minimum that I thought would work with our largest vehicle: an F-150 with 17 inch (?) tires. I'd have to go look to remind myself of the exact size tires we have on the thing, but my wife took it to work today. The Rigid allows you to use an optional rechargeable battery (the battery and charger cost more than the inflator!) So I won't be using it that way. The thing comes with a cord to plug into your cigarette lighter and that's the way I will use it.



 
zoomzoom said:
I give them knit (poly/cotton blend) gloves.
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I need to get me some more of those! For my entire life, I have been good with gloves. But for some reason, over the past three years, I have lost two pairs! Well, only one glove from each pair, but the lost halfs are both for the same hand so I can't make a hybrid mismatched pair for temporary use. Maybe I ought to just get me a couple dozen of these knit ones to cover loss. We have had that type glove in the past. They weren't the warmest for sure, but they were great for working with the horses when we still had those. The gloves get horse grodies on them? Just toss 'em and grab a fresh pair. I think we bought ours at Home Depot in some kind of multi-pack. I'm glad you reminded me about these. I'll be heading to Home Depot today to buy some other needed stuff and I'll add in the gloves!
 
Bacpacker said:
I think my truck has 20s and tires inflate to 80psi max.
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That may well push the Rigid and it's siblings past their limit. It will go up to 150PSI, as will many of the super cheap ones. The problem is not always PSI though, it's more a total volume thing. Which translates to how long the thing has to run to fill the tire. The cheap ones don't run long before committing suicide if you don't let them cool down and rest fairly often. I used an el-cheapo to fill a low tire on our F-150 a few months ago. It did just fine. However, it only had to run for 5 minutes to top off the tire. It would have gagged if it had to fill a totally empty tire of that size.

A lot of the little el-cheapos say "not for truck tires!" because of the run time needed to fill them. The Rigid does not say this. That, plus the free lifetime service on the thing is what finalized my decision. I know not to run it for long periods despite it not saying to stay away from truck tires. Your 20" tires are in a whole different class than my 17" (?) ones regarding filling times. And ... you must need a ladder to climb into your vehicle!
 
zoomzoom said:
For smaller gifts to give to family, friends or people that provide me services (e.g. garbage man, town road crew...) I give them knit (poly/cotton blend) gloves.
I buy 300 pair and give them out 10 or 20 pair per person.



View attachment 121177
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These are great under leather gloves also.
 
Haertig said:
Here's another one to consider. On sale now.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-18V-Cordless-Portable-Inflator-Tool-Only-R87044/313257505
Bought at Home Depot and registered within 90 days, you get lifetime service - parts and labor. I just bought me one of these. Haven't used it yet. I just did internet research on "tire inflators" and this was my pick for my personal needs. There are several comparisons for tire inflators available with a simple Google search. I like the following two comparisons, but also looked at several more before deciding on the Rigid brand one. Note: It makes a difference what size tires you are using an inflator with. You can get really cheap ones on Amazon, and they might be fine for rare use on a lightweight Kia or something. But those little ones might not work well with a large truck. The Rigid was the minimum that I thought would work with our largest vehicle: an F-150 with 17 inch (?) tires. I'd have to go look to remind myself of the exact size tires we have on the thing, but my wife took it to work today. The Rigid allows you to use an optional rechargeable battery (the battery and charger cost more than the inflator!) So I won't be using it that way. The thing comes with a cord to plug into your cigarette lighter and that's the way I will use it.



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I bought the DeWalt 20v air compressor since I have a shop full of DeWalt tools.
My camp trailer tire pressure is 65PSI and it will work for them and my truck.

For smaller gifts to give to family, friends or people that provide me services (e.g. garbage man, town road crew...) I give them knit (poly/cotton blend) gloves.
I buy 300 pair and give them out 10 or 20 pair per person.
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They work well under a pair of disposable gloves when you are slicing hot meat like turkey or shredding pork butt.
 
Cabin Fever said:
This fall, I gifted myself with the portable compressor below. I will keep it in our RV.
VIAIR 300P Compressor
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I like those VIAIR compressors. I used to have one, until it was in the back of my sons car when his car got stolen. So it went bye-bye.

Yours is a higher end model than the one I had:

VIAIR 88P Compressor

But even my lessor model would fill any tire on our vehicles very rapidly. When I bought it, in 2016, it was only $49. Now they are typically $89 (but I see they are on sale at Amazon for $71 at the moment). When I bought my new Rigid model, the VIAIR was not on sale. I juggled the $49 vs. $89 price difference in my mind, and finally decided on the Rigid due to the lifetime service. I don't have humongous tires, nor do I actually need a tire inflator very often. The speed with which the VIAIR can fill a tire - even my smaller model - was it's big selling point for me at the time. But now that I'm retired, two minutes vs. five minutes to fill a tire? Not a big deal for me anymore. Time will tell if my recent buying decision was a good one or a bad one.
 
Oh, one more thing on tire inflators - I did some testing of the little el-cheapo one I used a while back to top off one of our tires (I borrowed that el-cheapo from a friend). And that compressor definitely picked up the pace when I started the car. Noticeably faster inflation than when running on the car battery without the car running. I do not know if the same will happen for better compressors like the VIAIR, but it would be worth a quick test to find out. The VIAIR's clip straight to the battery terminals. No cigarette lighter adapter on VIAIR's larger models (their smaller models do have cigarette lighter adapters). The heavier duty ones draw too much current to pull through a cigarette lighter plug. So it's probably a reasonable idea to run your car when using one, even if it doesn't appear to make a difference in inflation speed.
 
Haertig said:
That may well push the Rigid and it's siblings past their limit. It will go up to 150PSI, as will many of the super cheap ones. The problem is not always PSI though, it's more a total volume thing. Which translates to how long the thing has to run to fill the tire. The cheap ones don't run long before committing suicide if you don't let them cool down and rest fairly often. I used an el-cheapo to fill a low tire on our F-150 a few months ago. It did just fine. However, it only had to run for 5 minutes to top off the tire. It would have gagged if it had to fill a totally empty tire of that size.

A lot of the little el-cheapos say "not for truck tires!" because of the run time needed to fill them. The Rigid does not say this. That, plus the free lifetime service on the thing is what finalized my decision. I know not to run it for long periods despite it not saying to stay away from truck tires. Your 20" tires are in a whole different class than my 17" (?) ones regarding filling times. And ... you must need a ladder to climb into your vehicle!
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Ill have to dig into PSI vs fill rate before I buy one. The VIAIR may well be the one.
My truck is just a 2 wd. It does have running boards, which the wife uses. But I just slide right in. Dont seem that high to me.
 
Bacpacker said:
Ill have to dig into PSI vs fill rate before I buy one.
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If you can, find the User Manual for ones you are considering online. Google usually will find these things. And check the specification for "Duty Cycle". Sometimes this is mentioned in product features on websites, other times you have to dig into user manuals to find it.

For example, my smaller Rigid model has a 5 minutes on / 5 minutes off duty cycle. So the bigger your tire air volume, the longer it will take to fill, the more times you will have to shut off the compressor for it's cool down period. This Rigid duty cycle is shorter than many compressors advertise. I don't think it's necessarily a less powerful compressor than others in its class, I think Rigid may just be more conservative in this specification (especially since they are giving you lifetime service). But I'd watch out for CCC (Cheap Chinese Crap) tools that advertise long duty cycles when they are el-cheapo devices. The Chinese tend to, ahem, overrate their products by a significant degree. So if it happens to burn out the first time you try to use its advertised "24 hour on / 3 minute off!!!" duty cycle, oh well, that's what happens with CCC. Most everything we buy these days is made in China. But not everything is CCC. They are capable of making decent stuff. They just usually choose not to.
 
I don't want or need anything really... The only ...luxury... item I would appreciate is a pair of heated gloves.. Will look into that after the holidays with my Cabela bonus bucks....

Otherwise.. Just enjoy an occasional holiday baked good...
 
Tim Horton said:
I don't want or need anything really... The only ...luxury... item I would appreciate is a pair of heated gloves.. Will look into that after the holidays with my Cabela bonus bucks....

Otherwise.. Just enjoy an occasional holiday baked good...
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This is awesome T. It’s sorta how our family works. I got my aunt two different kinds of black licorice, my uncle on the other side loves pecans in the shell so he gets a bag of those. Things like that. We don’t go crazy with gifts. 🎁
 
LadyLocust said:
This is awesome T. It’s sorta how our family works. I got my aunt two different kinds of black licorice, my uncle on the other side loves pecans in the shell so he gets a bag of those. Things like that. We don’t go crazy with gifts. 🎁
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That is smart not to go crazy for Christmas. When I was a kid, I got little, and no problem. Daughter got trained differently because her dad always got big stuff for Christmas. The last two years she has gotten a new I-phone and a Mac laptop. But, she has had years when she told me not to get her anything.

I like to do some things like lotion, Burts Bees lip care, etc,
 
I really don’t want much. I like very thick, Sherpa lined slipper socks. I have a pair I just got at Walmart and I love them. They were not expensive, either. I bought my husband a drone. We have 7.5 acres, mostly wooded and I like to see what is really out there. A few weeks ago I was feeding a herd of 5 deer but I think they’ve all been shot this hunting season. I wonder if other deer will move into this territory.
 
I don't believe my luck..... At one of the thrift shops... On senior discount day even.... I found something I've always wanted.... A very nice, seemingly almost new Atlantic Coast Canada wool sweater.... This for only $6 out the door... AND to find one in my size is unusual...
== ==
I wonder if other deer will move into this territory.
Yes... More deer will move into your area.. Eventually... It may take a time for them to do this.. You can't really ...bait.. them in or the like.. You can make the area ..attractive.. as long as it doesn't attract predators also... Saying this because my experience was dealing with a high bear population in the area... Good luck...
 
LadyLocust said:
I just thought of something. Last year I got a few of the young people an ounce of silver for Christmas. It's sparkly and is currently worth about $5 more than what I paid for them. They are gifts that appreciate rather than depreciate 😊
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I have been thinking of the same gift for grandkids. The only problem I have is if I gave them. let's say, four silver quarters and they went out and spent them on a candy bar.
 
Cabin Fever said:
I have been thinking of the same gift for grandkids. The only problem I have is if I gave them. let's say, four silver quarters and they went out and spent them on a candy bar.
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I did the silver 1 oz. coins so not like spending money and our "kids" are now all in their 20s (not sure if we should cry or be shocked over that one) so they understand it's not for things like candy bars. Might be a good lesson: spending money vs. investment money.
 
LadyLocust said:
I did the silver 1 oz. coins so not like spending money and our "kids" are now all in their 20s (not sure if we should cry or be shocked over that one) so they understand it's not for things like candy bars. Might be a good lesson: spending money vs. investment money.
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Gotcha. I was thinking grandkids, not kids. I remember when my MIL gifted us with a gold Krugerrand.
 
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