A Neopian's Guide to Christmas Shopping

First and most importantly MAKE A BUDGET! Start saving up for Christmas gift giving season two months before the season begins. This way you can say to yourself “Ok, I’m going to spend a total of 200K (or less) on Christmas Gifts this year.” That way you don’t have to be stuck with only 10K, and then you obviously can’t go out and spend very many neopoints for your neofriends. I know this has happened to me before and you think to yourself “Why didn’t I start saving up earlier?” You’ll have to narrow your Christmas list down or just shop for one or two people instead of your entire neofriend list.

That brings me to my second point. You don’t have to shop for your entire neofriend list. Skip the people you hardly talk to. If you haven’t received a neomail from them in the past 2 months, I wouldn’t bother giving them a Christmas present. Unless of course they out of the blue decide to give you one. Pick your closest neofriends, the people you talk to the most.

Also, if you are in a guild you can’t forget them either! You’ll have to decide which people you’ll want to get presents for if they aren’t the people you’re already getting presents for in the first place. Sometimes guilds will do Secret Santa around the holiday season and this will make things a little easier with the guild friends because you will only have to shop for one person. You then can be creative like sending that person a small item each week leading up to Christmas, something that describes who you are. Then, on the last day, send them a bigger gift, something around 5 or 10K and give them one final hint as to who you could be. Then, tell them and see if they guessed the correct person or if it was someone totally different.

Next, look at each person’s wish list if they have one. If they don’t have one, kindly ask them to make one or ask them if there is anything in particular (within reason, of course) that they have been wanting. If the items they want are within a reasonable price range, pick something from that list. You can be sure it’s something they want and will use because they put it on a wish list.

Also be sure to talk to the person's neofriends that you know to make sure they’re not giving them the same gift or that they don’t already have one. Say something like “Hey do you happen to have….” This will make sure that they don’t have the gift you will be giving them. Don’t you always feel bad when you give a double gift that someone else gave your friend or it’s something they already own?

Does the person (or persons) you’re shopping for have a gallery? If they do, this makes things even easier on you. Go to their gallery and see what items they don’t have for it. Pick two or three items (depending on the price of each one of course) that they can add to their collection. I know when I had a gallery I always loved getting new items to expand it and make it better looking.

Does the person collect avatars and need ones within a reasonable price range such as the dung avatar or the orange avatar? If so, buy them the items they need. As an avatar collector myself, new avatars always brighten my day.

Still stuck on Christmas gift ideas? Here are a few other helpful tips of some items that you can give to your neofriends.

Do they like to train their pets? Give them a couple of codestones or dubloons. Those are always appreciated by people who love to train their pets. It will also be something useful that their pets can use to make them stronger or just help gain a level. Plus they can be found cheap. If you are lucky, you’ll find some for less than 4K.

Petpets make a good gift too. There are many to choose from in different colors and species. Some are more expensive than most but there are a great deal of them around Neopets that are under 20K. A few include: warf, puppyblew, buzzer, cirrus, miamouse, floud, and many others. A great addition (if you’re feeling generous) would be a petpet paint brush. One that can be found for under 20K is the snow petpet paint brush.

Now if you want to be VERY generous, you can go all out and get your best neofriend a full lab map. With this they can get many avatars, increase their pets’ levels, and change their colors. Who knows, they may get lucky one day and the ray will zap their pet into an avatar pet. If this is a little TOO generous for you, you can always give them a paint brush. Some can be found for under 200K.

I hope this Neopian Christmas Shopping Guide has been useful to you. Remember, to check your list and check it twice. I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a great 2006!