12 Days of Christmas

My husband is the hardest person to buy gifts for, receiving gifts is not his love language. I have tried to surprise him for years since we started dating. I always thought I had the perfect gift that he would love. However I never got the reaction I was hoping for, you know the one of excitement and surprise. I kept trying but felt better after I read the Gary Chapman book The Five Love Languages. After reading the book I realized that gift giving just wasn't his thing. 

Last year I heard about people giving their significant others little gifts for the 12 days of Christmas. I thought why not do this for my hubby. I wasn't expecting fireworks, remember he just not that into gifts. He had no idea I was going to be doing anything like this which made it even better. He knew I had a great Christmas present for him. What can I say I was so excited about the gift that I kept telling him how much he was going to love it. I was right he did end up loving that gift when he opened it on Christmas morning it was some shirts and hoodies from the college he is attending working towards another degree. He loves this school so I knew that would be a hit and because he hasn't met a hoodie he didn't like.   

When December 13th came around he was shocked when he woke up and saw a ribbon with clothes pins on it hanging in our room. I handed him a gift with a tag that said "On the 1st Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me...." He opened his gift to find a jacket from his favorite sports team.  I then had him write on the tag what the gift was and hang it on the ribbon. Here is the shocking part.........  He loved this and I finally saw the great reaction I was trying to get for years. He told my friends it was one of the coolest things I have ever done for him gift wise. He was excited like a child on Christmas morning. He really looked forward to getting his present every day. I was also told he is expecting it every year now. I guess I created a monster. 

I didn't know I was going to be blogging about this so I didn't take pictures of it last year. I created my tags this year as a simple document with different colors and fonts.  

Here are a few things to know about this and remember you can change it in so many ways to make it special for the person. 

Each day is assigned a number of objects so keep that in mind when deciding what to buy. 

I gave the biggest gift on day 1. It was the most expensive day out of the 12 for me. 

You can also do this without spending a dime. Example each day is associated with a chore or act of kindness.Such as 5 days of taking out the trash. A back rub or 2 car washes etc. 

I wrapped each gift individual which made it even more exciting for him. 

Here are some of the things I used for my 12 days last year: 

Gloves 

Pack of socks

Pack of under shirts 

Instant scratch of tickets (those are great because you can either do the number of the day or some of them have a number in the name such as Lucky 7s) 

CD the number of songs on the disk corresponds to the number of the day.

Favorite candy (If they are really into candy and sweets you could do all 12 days with sweets)

Favorite pop this works good for day 6 or 12

Gift card works good for days 5 or 10   

Books or Magazines

The possibilities are endless there is a lot of ways to customize it or themes to do for each year. 

What I did was make a list of things I wanted to buy and then I filled in with instant tickets the days I couldn't find something in a package with that number. I didn't know how many shirts or socks were going to be in a pack until I went shopping. So if you plan on using instant tickets buy those last. 

Last year I used a simple piece of ribbon and put clothes pins on it so he could hang the tag each day. I may do the same this year or I may create a poster or calendar for him to hang the tags on. 

I will be taking pictures this year and I will share them with you and everything I buy for the days. 

I think this is something special to do for that special person in your life. It also shows the special person in your life that you haven't forgot about them in the middle of the holiday chaos. I hope they like it as much as Mr. Fife did. 

*************Update*****************  Here are some pictures of the tags from this year.

I found the list of what I got Mr. Fife last year.

1. Jacket
2. Pair of gloves
3. Instant Ticket
4. Axe gift set
5. Undershirts
6. Socks
7 Instant Tickets
8. T-Shirts
9. McDonalds gift card
10. Instant tickets
11. CD
12. Golf balls