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OMETIMES the list seems endless. Just as you're tying the last bow on the last package, you think of somebody else you want to remember in this giving season.
The neighbor kid who watches your pets while you're away. The piano teacher. Your exercise instructor. Gaah!
So who do you get gifts for?
A totally unscientific survey of shoppers at local stores revealed that most people give something to close neighbors and selected co-workers. Elementary school teachers, newspaper carriers, hairdressers and postal carriers also ranked fairly high.
Others expand their lists to include school bus drivers, trash collectors, baby sitters, Sunday school teachers and dance instructors.
"The people we feel are more involved in our life," said Susan Jensen of Stafford County, when explaining her list. She was shopping for chocolates and candles to fill gift mugs she'd bought.
In a twist, Angie Hawkins of Stafford Lakes buys inexpensive gifts for 10 to 15 of her regular customers at the Hard Times Cafe. She also gives to her children's teachers, her day-care provider and to her neighbors.
The recipients appreciate the gifts.
"I have some farms on my route where they still bake," said Aubrey Leatherland, who delivers newspapers in the Chancellor area of Spotsylvania County. "There's maybe half a dozen ministers, their wives still bake."
He said the bakers give him banana nut bread, homemade fruitcake and Christmas cookies.
Others give him gloves, scarves or gift certificates to Blockbuster or Starbucks.
Letherland estimated that two-thirds of his 350 customers give him some sort of remembrance at Christmas. He's been working the 16.5-mile route for nearly 10 years. He also lives in the area, so he knows many of his customers as neighbors and friends.
His favorite gift, he said, is cash or checks. He saves it all up until Christmas eve and buys a big present for his family, like a big-screen TV or a computer. This year he's getting a family membership to the Spotsylvania County branch of the Rappahannock Area YMCA.
Patty Estes, a first-grade teacher at Fredericksburg Academy, gets Christmas gifts from her students.
"I really enjoy the things the children have made themselves," she said. "Other gifts are nice, but the most meaningful gifts are the things the children think of and make themselves."
Things like Christmas tree ornaments made of construction paper, clay or even gingerbread. Things like felt banners with Christmas themes.
Estes, who lives in the Spotswood Estates section of Spotsylvania County, also gets mugs--lots of mugs--cookies, chocolates, fancy teas and snack foods.
"Last year we got waffles from Belgium," she said. One of her students was the child of a flight attendant who brought them back with her. "It was the best Christmas breakfast we ever had," Estes said.
But the gift she values the most from her 20-year teaching career is a book of Robert Frost's poems and a three-minute egg timer.
She was teaching seventh-grade English at the time.
"I tried to reach them through poetry," Estes said. "And I would tell them that they had to write for three minutes without stopping, even if all they wrote was 'I hate writing, I hate writing, I hate writing.'"
One of her students that year was living in a homeless shelter with his mother. He didn't have much, but among his possessions was the used copy of Frost's poems that he had gotten at a library book sale and the little timer.
"He was so proud to be able to give me a gift, something meaningful to me," Estes said.
That was 10 years ago, but she still has both the book and the timer.
To reach LUCIA ANDERSON: 540/374-5405 landerson@freelancestar.com