Random gift day?

I had this idea, kind of random.  A lot of people post their wish lists (mostly Amazon.com wish lists) on their blogs or websites as a reference for family and friends.  I've always thought how cool it might be to get a random item from my wish list sent by someone I know, or even someone I don't.  Actually, whenever I receive a birthday present from someone I never expect to, it's always a pleasant surprise.  It doesn't matter the size of the gift, just the fact that the person took the time to send something – heck, even a card – was something.

I'm not always the best gift giver or even card sender.  We have such a huge circle of friends now, it's also very hard to think about who we should buy for, and most of the time I lame-out and just let my wife figure it out.  Of course this doesn't work when I need to get her a present!  Being someone who's easily distracted and who has a myriad little projects and other occupiers of my time and attention, being organized enough to be able to send cards out to anyone aside for some close family's birthdays is somewhat of a pipe dream.

With that in mind, I thought it would be a kind of cool "project" to take the whole sense of obligation and expectation out of the gift-giving process.  The idea was to look up a friend or family member's wish list, if you know someone who has one, and send them something from it.  Anything.  It doesn't have to be for any occasion, and ideally it wouldn't be for any.  That way it would be completely unexpected.  If you don't know of anyone personally, perhaps you know a blogger or someone else with a website who has a wish list online?  I'm not suggesting myself, I swear!  Googling for "amazon wishlist blog" gives a whole bunch of random bloggers who publish their wish list.

Some might say this idea is a bit self indulgent – or at least publishing your wish list is self-indulgent.  Maybe this is true, who knows, but in defense of the idea think about those people you know who are really hard to figure out a gift for.  If they had their wish list online, you would at least get a sense of what they would like, even if you don't buy something specifically on the list.  Likewise, when posting a link to my wish list, I would never expect someone to just buy something for me for no reason.  Family members know where to look for my wish list and have used it often to buy me stuff, because apparently I am one of those people for whom it's tough to buy presents.  (I think it's because I generally lust after gadgets that are in the $100's of dollars or more, but can never think of anything smaller and more practical that I need).  But I do think that like other things you might share with your readers, a wish list is just another way for them to learn a little more about you, your tastes, etc.  Often I just use my wish list as a kind of bookmark holder for things I've heard about that sound interesting, or to note down a piece of equipment that I think should be in contention when I consider buying that type of product, but a lot of my wish list is filled with books and music that I think probably says something about me – what I don't know!

So, that's my suggestion, anyway.  I'm planning on doing this, but I haven't figured out who to yet.  Hopefully whoever it is won't think I'm some weird internet stalker, or that I'm sending it as a late Christmas present!  If you think this is an interesting idea and plan to do this yourself – or have already done this sort of thing – I'd love to hear your comments.

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