By Danielle Capalbo
As the holiday shopping season enters full swing, some students said this year’s top gifts fall outside their price range. To make the most of their tight budgets, students said they’ll opt for thoughtful, creative gifts instead of video games and swanky cell phones when they hit stores in the weeks to come.
Tech items like the Nintendo Wii, the Rock Band video game and GPS and navigation systems continue to climb Amazon’s list of most wished for items, but middler Maggie Wilson said she’ll make a gift for her mother by hand.
“My mom doesn’t really like materialistic presents,” said Wilson, a graphic design major. “So, I usually make her a card from scratch, to say the nice things you sometimes forget to say the rest of the year.”
Although students agreed that mp3 players, video games and cell phones will outsell other products this year, some said they don’t foresee themselves splurging on high-tech items.
“Guitar Hero III is going to be big this year,” said Tom Klodenski, a third-year music major. “But it’s too expensive. Like, that’s what my friend’s mom is getting his little brother.”
Instead, he said he’ll also take the more meaningful route and buy his friends albums they wouldn’t typically listen to – a way to introduce exciting new genres into their music collections.
“The best things aren’t necessarily really expensive,” Wilson said. “But they speak to who [my friends] are personally.”
Michaela Cote, a junior nursing major, said she and her sister are painting some special pottery for their mother for the holidays, so she can indulge with style in a newfound love: olive oil.
“She’s been really into dipping bread into olive oil lately, so we’re going to make little dishes,” she said.
But for friends, Cote said she’s taking tips this year from Food Network personality Rachael Ray, who recently dedicated her morning talk show to brainstorming gift ideas. One of the ideas Cote said she liked best was an outside-the-box way to give a night to remember.
“She suggested buying your friends tickets to an upcoming event, or doing something fun together,” Cote said.
In the city, theatre productions, museum exhibits and concerts offer an array of possibilities. Cote added that this gift might be suited best for a boyfriend or girlfriend, as it’s a way to create a new, romantic memory.
Still, some students said they would rather splurge to surprise a friend with an extravagant new product, or something more timeless, like fine jewelry.
“You can’t go wrong with something from Tiffany’s,” said Constance Thomas, a sophomore English major.
Shopping for a girl, Thomas said she’d be inclined to buy a nice pair of designer jeans or a new iPod. For a guy? A fitted baseball cap, or a pair of designer shoes, perhaps from Bodega located off Massachusetts Avenue, Thomas said.
“People usually give guys the most boring things,” she said. “I feel for them.”
Advances in technology have made sophisticated electronics accessible, from the new generation of iPods and the iPhone, to digital cameras and GPS systems. On Amazon.com, this season’s best-seller is the Kindle wireless reading device, followed by the Canon PowerShot camera and the 4-gigabyte iPod Nano.
And, unsurprisingly, video games are popular.
Dan Miller, a sophomore management information systems major, said games and game consoles like the Wii and Xbox 360 will top most people’s holiday lists.
“Everything’s kind of gone down in prices since last year,” he said. “These things premiered last year, but it was 600, 700 bucks for a system. With the Wii, you couldn’t even find one.”
Now, on Amazon and other sites, you can find them as part of an expansive virtual catalog of electronics, home appliances, books, movies, CDs, etc.
Cote values the seemingly endless possibilities of the Internet, where she said she’ll do most of her shopping. But when shopping online, the American Bar Association (ABA) strongly suggests checking out the territory before simply checking out.
SafeShopping.org, create by the ABA, is an informational site aimed to keep consumers safe while making transactions online, especially around the holiday season when online purchases increase. Among the site’s tips are finding and reading the privacy policy of the site you’re buying from, checking that your Internet connection is secure and paying with a credit card.
“If you have an unauthorized charge on your credit card, under federal law your liability is limited to $50,” according to the site. “Moreover, some website operators and credit card issuers (including all VISA and MasterCard issuers) promise that under certain circumstances they will even pay this amount for you.”
Anyone shopping for Thomas won’t have to worry about credit card payments, though – or any payments at all. Though her shopping list is extravagant, Thomas said if she could receive anything this holiday season, it wouldn’t be tangible.
“I’d like the ability to better myself, every day,” she said. She paused. “I guess an iPod wouldn’t hurt.”
