The best and worst Christmas gifts Consumer NZ's staff have received

Best gifts

Experience is everything

The best gifts I’ve ever received have all been experiences. Dance classes, life drawing classes, or tickets to shows that I’ve gone to with the person who bought me the gift. I barely have enough time to catch up with my friends, and it’s great to put some time aside by having a fun activity in the diary. Personally, I find it more special to be told about a gift in person or on FaceTime. I don’t need a voucher, just an intention.

– Abby Damen, communications and campaigns adviser / kaiāwhina whakapā me ngā kaupapa

Restore and repair to show you care

When I was 19, my dad gave me a barbecue for Christmas. He’d bought a rusty old one on Trade Me and spent hours restoring and cleaning it, including covering the dingy side tables with beautiful, treated wood.

I’d just moved out of home and never used a barbecue before. Dad saw me owning a barbecue as a rite of passage. Sadly, the North Dunedin flatting lifestyle was less conducive to outdoor barbecues than we’d hoped, and a couple of years later I moved to Wellington and had to pass it on.

Even though I wish I’d used it more, the gift was very meaningful because it was a passion project, and it made use of something that would otherwise have gone to landfill. This Christmas, think about if there’s anything you can upcycle for your friends and family.

– Nick Gelling, product test writer / kaituhi whakamātau hautaonga

Everyone needs undies

Socks and underwear are the best presents. Everyone needs them, and if you don’t receive them as presents, you have to spend your own money on them. If you can’t think of something meaningful, I’d prefer to get something useful.

– Tom Riste-Smith, content researcher and podcast producer / kairangahau kohinga kōrero me te kaiwhakaputa pakihere

Practical … and cute

One of the best Christmas presents I’ve ever received is also one of the cheapest. A tiny spatula with a hedgehog on it. The spatula is perfect for scraping out the remnants of a jar of peanut butter or a tub of margarine – which helps with recycling – and for ensuring you don’t leave any of the tastiest parts of a meal in the frying pan. It’s also adorable.

– Ruairi O’Shea, investigative writer / kaituhi mātoro

The gift you choose yourself

One way to make sure you get a great gift is to drop some not-so subtle hints about the product, make, model and colour of a present you want. You get what you want, and they don’t have to think about it – everybody wins. And it never gets old saying, “Oh how did you know I wanted this?” when you unwrap it.

Last year, I chose a neck and shoulder massager that was about $100 in the Black Friday sales and told my husband to wrap it for me. I use it for 15 minutes before bed every night and think it’s stopped me from getting so many tension headaches this year. If you’re considering a massage tool, our colleague Amy has written an article about 5 of them.

– Kate Harvey, digital journalist / kaiwhakahaere kaituhi matihiko

Worst gifts

A good present falls flat

One Christmas, a former partner surprised me with a SodaStream. I’d developed an addiction to carbonated water, and my partner thought it would be a good idea to enable the addiction by buying a SodaStream.

I loved the gift and had fizzy water with me, or in the fridge, at all times. After a while, it got too expensive to keep refilling the gas cylinder. My water, and my relationship, lost their fizz.

It was a great present, but it came with running costs that I couldn’t keep up with, so I gave it to a friend.

– Imogen Wara, community journalist / kaihaurapa kōrero hapori

No more gift cards please

This one may be divisive, but I hate receiving gift cards.

Gift cards make it feel like the person hasn’t even tried to think of something I might like, and worse, they can get lost in a wallet. They encourage me to buy things I don’t need and limit my choice to a single store. And unlike money, they can expire. No more gift cards, please.

– Vanessa Pratley, investigative writer / kaituhi mātoro

Presents for the sake of presents

The worst presents I’ve received are things people have bought because they feel like they have to get me something. I’d prefer to have nothing than to pretend to look happy as I open Name The Emoji – the card game or the cotton handkerchiefs I was given by a former partner’s mum. To be fair, four years later she got me a box of mangos and $50. That was actually a great present.

– Tom Riste-Smith, content researcher and podcast producer / kairangahau kohinga kōrero me te kaiwhakaputa pakihere

Secret Santa banter

Twenty years ago, my friends and I did a Secret Santa with a $60 limit. Back then, $60 could get you a lot, so I was excited to see what my mystery gift giver had bought me.

I was horrified to open a computer mouse (wired – it was mid-noughties) in the shape of a naked lady. The left and right buttons were nipples on massive breasts. I never used it, and to this day, I can't figure out why they bought me it – what a waste of $60!

– Jessica Walker, communications and campaigns manager / kaiwhakahaere whakapā, kaupapa

Multi multi-tools

Everyone I know knows I love cycling, so the shortcut taken by family is to get me anything to do with bikes: a puncture repair kit, a bike-shaped pizza cutter, or even a wallet made of tyres. Worst are the handful of poor quality – sometimes bike-shaped – tools I’ve received from my mum. At best, they’re impractical; at worst, they’ll damage my bike. I don’t use them, so if nothing else, they’re a waste of metal, plastic, and the energy used to create and ship them. If you know someone obsessed with something, they’ve probably already bought the nifty things that are worth buying. I’d rather have socks.

– Ruairi O’Shea, investigative writer / kaituhi mātoro

The unwanted gift buying guide

• Not everyone needs stuff – If you feel like you’ve already got too much stuff in your home, there’s a good chance that so does the person you’re buying a gift. Experiences are a good way of buying someone a thoughtful present that doesn’t fill their home with more stuff and doesn’t require any packaging.

• Give the gift of time – The best gifts received by Consumer NZ staff revolved around time, not money. Planning a day out with a friend or family member or taking the time to refurbish something can cut down the resources used to create a gift, and they’ll often mean more to the person receiving it.

• If you’re out of ideas, aim for usefulness – If you are buying a present for someone you don’t know too well or struggling to think of an idea, aim to get them something useful. Is there an everyday item beloved in your household, or something you know the person will use every day that you could save them from buying themselves? These presents are much more likely to hit the mark than novelty Christmas gifts.

• Avoid gifts with running costs – You can spend a lot of money on a thoughtful gift that someone really likes, but if it comes with running costs that the receiver has not budgeted for, it can often fall flat.

• Joke gifts are hard to get right – If you’ve never bought yourself a mug with a funny slogan on it or a sexualised computer mouse, it’s likely that you wouldn’t want to receive one as a present either. This is particularly bad in the workplace, where your bad gift will likely live in a colleague’s drawer until they get sick of seeing it and throw it in the bin.

• Set up a wishlist – Sure, it removes thoughtfulness from the equation, but if you set up a family wishlist – like a gift registry at a wedding but for Christmas – your family could avoid spending money on gifts that nobody wants. People can still go off-piste, but your wishlist could provide inspiration.

• Keep the receipts – Gift buying can still go wrong even when you have the best intentions and a great idea: an unflattering dress, shoes in the wrong size, or a board game the receiver already owns. Keep the receipt so you (or, more likely, they) can return it for something they do want. Here’s a handy resource for the rules around returns.