The season of giving is in full swing again. Has panic set in yet?

It’s the time of the year when we want to spread holiday cheer to the special people in our lives, but we drive ourselves nuts trying to figure out what to buy for those people on our list who seem to already have everything.

Here, we’ve assembled some suggestions of what to give those hard-to-buy-for people. We asked local professionals to share their no-fail gift ideas and tell us what types of presents they like to receive.

Advice from guys

Johnny Danos, president of the Greater Des Moines Community Foundation, said he doesn’t have too much trouble deciding what to buy his family for the holidays. When it comes to his children, he gives gifts such as season tickets to the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines’ Betts Broadway Series, accompanied by an offer to baby-sit their children for the night. If he is at a loss for what to buy his wife, Teresa VanVleet-Danos, he heads to the jewelry store.

“Women always love diamonds,” Danos said. “When all else fails, you just spend more money and go to the next level.”

Though Danos completes his holiday shopping list with ease, his family members can’t always say the same. They sometimes struggle with finding gifts for him. Danos said his daughter jokes that she has given up on trying to guess what he would like, and instead buys him something that she wouldn’t mind having for herself. Danos has been known to “re-gift” things to his family.

“I have very few things I want,” he said.

One of the best gifts Danos remembers receiving in recent years was a gift certificate for a year’s worth of spa services, which he used toward pedicures. It was given to him by his daughter.

“I loved that,” he said. “Everyone likes those things.”

Like Danos, Joel Jackman, vice president of Paragon IT Professionals, has also been told by family members that he is hard to shop for.

“I tend to go get what I want, so that might be why my wife says it’s hard to buy for me,” Jackman said.

Yet she recently came up with a creative gift for him for his birthday this fall. She cleared their schedules for a weekend and arranged for them to visit some of his favorite places, eat at his favorite restaurants and do outdoor activities he enjoys.

“It was so nice because it was all about special time with the people you want to be with,” Jackman said. “That’s so hard to get when you’re busy with work and family.”

One type of gift that Jackman said he likes to both give and receive is books. He buys them for others based on their hobbies, or he sometimes chooses ones featuring the works of local authors or artists.

“Everyone has hobbies and cares about their community, so you can find a book for anyone,” he said.

Doug Dieck, vice president of development for Ryan Cos., also likes to receive books, particularly antique ones that are a favorite read of the gift-giver.

“I can read it and learn a little bit more about the person that way,” Dieck said.

When shopping for others, Dieck isn’t afraid to seek input from people around him. When he’s looking for a gift for his wife, Tricia, he always calls her best friend and her sister to run ideas past them, which he said has helped him avoid making more than a few mistakes.



Tips from women

Melodee Pomerantz, owner of Pomerantz Events, said giving someone a gift they’ll enjoy is simple when you take their interests into account. She likes to make customized gift baskets for friends, relatives and clients that incorporate something about the recipient and build off a common theme with the items she includes.

Here are a few examples of themes she has used. For the movie lover, a popcorn box filled with movies, candy and gift certificates to a movie theater. For a frequent traveler, a travel case containing travel books, a passport holder and other related items. For children, a wagon filled with toys.

After compiling the contents, Pomerantz wraps the container with cellophane or shrink wrap and tops it off with a bow.

“It can get quite expensive,” she said. “But you can make them to whatever scale you want. If you want to take it to the next level, add gift certificates that tie in.”

Sharon Krause also likes giving themed gifts. This year, she will give one of her friends ice skates, tickets to the Brenton Skating Plaza and hot cocoa mix packaged together.

“I think it’s great if you can mix our local attractions in with an interest of the person,” Krause said. She said she often gives tickets to places such as the Civic Center and Science Center of Iowa as gifts.

For other people in her life, she gives philanthropic gifts. Her father, for example, asks her to choose a charity each year and make a donation to it in his name. Some donations come with a symbol of how the money benefits the organization, such as the bricks being sold by the Restoration Ingersoll committee, or the Angel of Courage Isabel Bloom statues being sold by Children & Families of Iowa.

“I think people would prefer to think that your money went to a good cause rather than giving them something that is going to sit on a shelf in their home,” she said.

When it comes to herself, Krause said her friends and relatives always seem to give nice gifts that relate to her hobbies. She enjoys swimming, and this year, a family member gave her a waterproof cover and waterproof headphones for her iPod so she can listen to it while she swims. Home entertaining, another one of her favorite pastimes, also lends itself to gift ideas, from platters to holiday dish towels to kitchen accessories. One of the best gifts she has gotten came from her husband, Kyle, last year: an Italian meat slicer.

Wait. Isn’t the rule that you’re not supposed to buy kitchen things for your wife?

“It was probably one of my favorite gifts I have received,” Krause said. “If you can find out the true interests of a person, then you’ll be fine.”