Recently I took the opportunity to shower my wife with gifts. While I have moments of creativity in our marriage, this idea came surprisingly easy, and thankfully with the proper amount of time to pull it off. This year I gave her a "12 Days of Christmas". I first Googled the title of the song to find a complete list in order, so that I could use it as a template. I found that there were several variations of the song which gave me a little leeway to arrange them in the order I wanted. Obviously I did not get everything on the list as it was sung, but I tried to capture the spirit of the lyric so as to keep in theme. The following is the order I used and what I got her. Clearly, these gifts are tailored to her liking, so other gifts may work for other people.
1st Day Partridge in a pear tree - I got her a pear
2nd Day Turtle doves - I got her a box of Chocolate Turtles and a bag of Doves chocolate
3rd Day French hens - I got her a hen mug from Crackle Barrel and a La Madeline gift card
4th Day Calling birds - I got four of her best friends to call her
5th Day Golden Rings - I got her 5 wreaths of gold tinsel (Wal*Mart and returned them) and Fable III an Xbox360 game she wanted.
6th Day Geese of Laying - I took her to the Blue Goose Mexican Restaurant
7th Day Swans of Swimming - I gave her a coupon to a trip to South Padre Island
8th Day Maids of Milking - I gave her a Chick-Fil-A calendar
9th Day Ladies Dancing - I gave her a Wii game "Just Dance 2"
10th Day Drummers Drumming - Really wanted to get her the drummers, but had to settle for a $15 iTunes gift card (enough for her to purchase 10 songs)
11th Day Lord of Leaping - I gave her a gift card to get a pedicure
12th Day Pipers Piping - I gave her an iPhone 4
Clearly, I had to manage money to pull this off. I had to spend more money in some places, but I did Days 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, and 10 all under $20 a piece. Seven will clearly cost me more later, but later is better. Days 5 and 9 combined for about $90 after taking the wreaths back to Wal*Mart, and I consider Day 6 a wash because we had to eat anyway, we might as well have eaten at Blue Goose. Day 11 was the cost of a pedicure (that is under $30), and the iPhone not surprisingly was the most expensive gift. The presentation of Day 12 was really what tied it in to the day. It turns out you can go to any Up In Smoke store and they will give you empty cigar boxes. I used one for my gift box, and bought two corn-cob pipes for about $15 and hot glued them to the top in a cross. All of these gifts were accompanied by a card and put in multiple locations including her stocking, under the tree, in the bathroom, in the car, etc. I tried to vary it up to keep her on her toes. Maybe someone else can use this again. Hope it inspires you to think out of the box.
