My Top 10 Practical Christmas Gifts List

You reach a stage in your life when useless stuff starts to pile up and you spend more time trying to move it around or clean it than you do actually using it.  So I have been thinking about my Top Ten Practical Gifts that I might want and that would make great gifts.  So if you are stuck on some ideas for people you think are hard to buy presents for then I hope this helps.

1. Grocery Store Gift card. 
Food is getting really expensive.  Get a gift card for food.  You can get something like a card to Whole Foods or even Eataly or the closest store to the person that you are getting the card for.  The less money spent on basic groceries the more money to have fun.  Cards to places like Eataly are splurges for foods you can't get all the time.

2. Uber Gift Card.
You can get an Uber gift card that's good for food delivery and ride shares.  Great for those sick days or rushed days or when you are out partying and need a safe ride home or even a ride to somewhere with no parking which is more common these days.

3.  Netflix gift card.
This one is pretty self explanatory. Who doesn't want to binge watch and Netflix and chill in the cold winter months.  Getting a gift card means you don't have to think about paying those Netflix bills and can watch whenever you want to.

4.  Ikea Gift card or something useful that someone needs from Ikea.  Personally I need a new dresser so a gift card towards one would be a great thing.  They also have food and great seasonal decorating items.

5.  Cineplex movie gift card.
Get together with your friends for dinner and a movie. Give a great gift card and your friends can enjoy a night in one of the VIP theatres.  If you haven't done that you should try it.  You won't want to sit in a regular seat again.

6.  A Restaurant Gift Card. 
There are lots of restaurant options here.  The Keg, and I am sure there are lots of local hidden gem restaurants that have gift cards.  Give someone a night away from cooking.  Mom's would especially love this.

7.  Cleaning service gift card.
Who wouldn't want someone to come and clean your house?  Unless you are OCD you probably would rather do anything else with your time.  I love to have my home clean but find it's hard to keep it looking as clean as I would like because it's time consuming and takes a lot of energy. 

8.  A good night's sleep.
How about putting a sleep kit together.   A couple of really great pillows.  A high quality sheet set.  A weighted blanket is very popular these days.  A sleep mask.  Some lavendar linen spray.  A sound machine.  Some relaxing before bed teas or some comfy pajamas.

9.  Coffee Time
Personally when I get a Starbucks gift card it makes me happy because Starbucks is great but it's pretty pricey when you have it all the time.  You can get a cool Starbucks mug and add a gift card to it to keep the coffee love going.  If your people are addicted to Tim Horton's then do the same thing or maybe a container of Tims coffee if they like to have it at home too.

10.  Winners, Homesense, Marshalls or The Bay Gift card.
So as you can tell I am all about the practical gift cards.  I picked these places because they are all over and you can get almost anything.  If you need clothes, makeup, home goods and even some treats then this is a great way to get those things without burning a hole in your wallet.  Ever little bit helps stretch the dollars. 

So as you can see I have chosen a lot of gift cards but I would suggest that you get creative in presenting them.  Put them in a mug that means something to the person.  My boss found a trick gift card holder.  Wrap it up in box of chocolates or with a pair of gloves or whatever fun thing you can think of.

But be careful and get the cards direct from the source because there are a lot of people out to scam the money from those gift cards and make sure they don't have expiry dates.

Are big festivals still enjoyable?

I used to be the Street Festival Queen.  I started going to street festivals when I wasn't working for something to do that was free and entertaining.  I could get some street food for $5 to $10 and wander around and take photos.  I would write about them on my Starving Foodie Blog. 

The photo above was take about 2 hours before the fireworks at Mel Lastman Square and on the other side of the food trucks were thousands of people.

I am writing this post on this blog because it's not food related as much as it is a commentary about how Festivals have changed.

Last year I went to fewer and fewer festivals because they were becoming further and further away and more hassle to get to them and insanely long lines and the prices of food and drink not as affordable to try a bunch of things.

But in the past year I think there are so many other reasons that have added to my decline in attending street festivals.

Between the man in the van that mowed down people in the very area I was standing at tonight at Mel Lastman Square to the other guy that ran people down on the Danforth not too long after that.   So many people were just going about their daily business or out enjoying the weather at the time so there were probably a lot more people than usual around.  Someone's life can change in an instant just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time these days and someone else's bad decisions that harm innocent people.

Also recently I had my wallet stolen somewhere between taking out cash at the bank machine before jumping onto the subway to go to work and discovering that it was missing when I went to grab my wallet to buy my lunch.   I have spent 2 weeks replacing the things in my wallet.  I still don't have my birth certificate and can't renew my passport without it.  I also can't rent a Zipcar yet becuase my card hasn't arrived yet.
It is a very uneasy feeling to lose your wallet.  You wonder what the person who took it is going to do with it.  You have to remember everything you had and backtrack and then replace everything.  It's very time consuming.

What I noticed when I went to Mel Lastman Square to see the Canada Day events was that I had to worry about my personal space and make sure my bag was protected.  I also couldn't handle being in a crowd of people flailing their arms,  wandering around with their phones in their face and not paying attention to where they were going and the crowd of families with kids just running wild and un supervised.

I have gone to Mel Lastman Square many times for concerts and festivals over the years.  I was there yesterday and watched an African band for a little while but this time I had an overwhelming desire to get out of the area.

I thought about the people that died in that very area and it seemed to me that the people have changed over the years.   I have grown up on a street with mostly immigrant families but we knew all of our neighbours.  Things have changed so much now that we have more Asian and Indian population than we do people born in Canada.  People stay within their communities and they don't know their neighbours.   Most have not grown up in Canada and therefore do not seem to have the same value for things as they may not have the feeling that we did when I grew up that we look out for our area and the people that lived in it.

I don't feel like people have the same respect level that I grew up with.  The example is how much trash people leave behind now after these large festivals.  It's someone else's job to pick it up instead of walking your butt a few feet to dispose of it properly.

Mel Lastman square was designed for half the population that now resides in North York and people weren't coming from all over the city to go there.  It was mostly a neighbourhood destination.
It's not designed for large groups of people to comfortably watch concerts and other events. 

I couldn't just enjoy my time there anymore like I had done in the past because I couldn't feel safe or comfortable anymore and didn't even see anyone I recognized and I have lived in this area since 2011 and things have changed drastically since then.

I blame the state of the world and the poverty and wealth divide.  If more people could earn a living wage in the areas they live in things would be more balanced throughout the city.   I also blame the greedy developers who build huge skyscraping  buildings while taking out community spaces and green spaces where people can relax and feel safe.  I do not think there is any turning back at this point,  we have grown too big for the infrastructure we have now.  It's very visible when you  ride the Yonge Street subway any given day.  People get on at Finch and don't get off until Union station.  This is an indicator to me that people don't work where they live and the concentration of work and entertainment is all centred around the Union station area.  it's just too much in one small area and where I live there is the highest density of the whole city.  That wasn't true when I moved here.

I waffle between staying and moving but with the cost of rent downtown and the commuting times out of town there aren't many good options.

I just feel sad that the one thing that was enjoyable in the past has now been taken away because of a handful of bad people who hold innocent people hostage in their own city.   I feel like I have lost my freedom and ability to enjoy the good things the city has to do.  I know someone in the Netherlands who is envious of the many festivals I attend but I am envious of the peaceful life she leads in the Netherlands.  I was never afraid to go anywhere in Toronto my whole life but I do not feel that way anymore unfortunately.

Welcome to Canada.