Crowdsource your Christmas: Want something expensive? Get your family and friends to pay...
Present etiquette is prone to slip after a few sherries. There was the year where I’d been eyeing up a bottle-shaped package under the tree for weeks — surely it was the Miller Harris perfume I’d been dropping hints about. Finally I made my way through the tasteful wrapping paper and found a bottle, not of perfume but Boot’s own brand shampoo. It was nestling on a pink fake Burberry scarf. Merry Christmas.
Why had my aunt, who I thought understood me, bothered wrapping it up so nicely? The sensible part of my brain knew I was being unreasonable and was lucky to be given presents but I couldn’t help feeling misunderstood and having a small sulk. The scarf ended up at a charity shop, although it was so ugly that I had my misgivings about encouraging it to be worn by anyone, and the shampoo was never used.
So this year, I am avoiding that angst with Patchwork Present. It allows you to crowdfund your Christmas gift — set up a page asking for a gift, and it can be anything from a holiday to a new tumble dryer, then split it up into parts so that people can donate as much or as little as they want.
Olivia Knight founded Patchwork Present when she was getting married. “I’d been living with my partner for 10 years and didn’t need the usual wedding gifts of department store kitchen equipment so I created a site that let family and friends chip in to our honeymoon in Cuba rather than buy stuff that would end up in landfill.
“There is a taboo around asking for your own gift. But really it’s about not wanting people to waste time and money on things you don’t want. Patchwork Present allows it to be fun because it’s about what you can contribute, starting at £1. It’s also a London thing — no one has any space in their houses.”
The site is also a way to ask for “things that are not consumer products”, says Knight. “One girl wanted a pony loan over Christmas and everyone contributed so she could go to the stables every day and ride”.
At weddings the second most popular thing couples ask for on the site is a deposit for a flat. Knight, who used to work at environmental charity Do the Green Thing, takes three per cent commission from every contribution. This year she has noticed lots of people asking for expensive handbags — “from groups of friends rather than have them buy lots of separate bits that might not be right such as lipsticks in a shade that doesn’t suit you”.
I’m asking for a pair of Whistles boots. All contributions are welcome — and it’ll mean no simmering resentment at Christmas dinner.
ArticleHow to crowdsource your Christmas presentsChristmasGiftsOlivia Knight set up Patchwork Present, which allows you to crowdfund your Christmas gift
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