Do you buy your neighbors Christmas gifts/goodies? (San Diego: condo, houses) - California (CA) - City-Data Forum

earlyretirement · 12-20-2011, 10:48 PM

I was just curious if all you long time locals buy your neighbors gifts for Christmas? I'm not talking big gifts but small things like Chocolates/fruit baskets, etc?

We can't figure out if it's a San Diego thing or just our development. I've never lived in a neighborhood where so many people go around and buy things for their neighbors. It's really wonderful.

The past week, several people in the neighborhood have come to our house and brought us holiday gifts. At first we thought they were just welcoming us to the neighborhood as we recently moved to the neighborhood. Many cards even said things like "Happy Holidays and welcome to the neighborhood".

But yesterday and today we noticed the neighbors actually going around and carrying baskets and goodies to each house. And I'm not just talking about your immediate neighbors on your right or left. Many people we saw gift baskets for like 10 or 15 people. And yesterday I invited one couple with their kids in after they knocked on my door and brought us a box of Godiva chocolates. He had a bag full of presents for other neighbors.

Is this a San Diego North County thing? Or just unique to our development? We are really blown away by the sense of community here and how genuinely friendly people are in our development.

So this got me curious if other neighborhoods in San Diego do this sort of thing? Many of the places I've lived before you can go years and not talk to your neighbors, let alone get holiday gifts from them.

futbol · 12-20-2011, 10:58 PM

You live in a nice community.

It would not be good to go years without knowing your neighbors.

We don't have a habit of buying gifts for our neighbors, but we have made real friends here. Sometimes (like after a long trip away) we will bring chocolates or whatever to them, and they do the same.

More often it will be something like a surplus of tomatoes from the garden that we give away in the Summer, or we get a bag full or oranges from someone with a tree.

Halloween is when people interact the most... also during crisis events, like the big fire of 2007 or the power outage a few months ago.

We're not in good relations with all the neighbors, though.

earlyretirement · 12-20-2011, 11:05 PM

Thanks futbol. Yeah, I agree it wouldn't be good to go years without knowing your immediate neighbors. But we just moved in a few weeks ago. And some are bringing gifts that live up to 1 block away and I can see they are bringing all the neighbors something.

It did get me a little curious how they got our names. Our names aren't published anywhere. I can tell they didn't get our names from some list either as the spelling of our first and last names are spelled wrong.

The funny thing is tonight I asked one of the neighbors where they got our names just out of curiosity and he said he couldn't remember and that his wife made the cards. LOL.

But it was so cute yesterday our immediate neighbors daughters were going around with a basket of at least 20 nice boxes of cookies and they had really nice Christmas Cards printed up with their names/photos on them.

The only thing is now we have to go out and get gifts for all of them. We will feel guilty not getting something for all of the people that got us something. But we don't mind...it just got me curious.

oddstray · 12-21-2011, 12:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by earlyretirement

Thanks futbol. Yeah, I agree it wouldn't be good to go years without knowing your immediate neighbors. But we just moved in a few weeks ago. And some are bringing gifts that live up to 1 block away and I can see they are bringing all the neighbors something. ...
The only thing is now we have to go out and get gifts for all of them. We will feel guilty not getting something for all of the people that got us something. But we don't mind...it just got me curious.

Nothing like that in our neighborhood (high-turnover condo complex). But a work colleague of mine has raised her family in a different neighborhood, and they seem to do stuff like this. She just posted about baking for her neighborhood "cookie exchange".

So, if you have time/energy, maybe bake a huge batch of small treats - cupcakes or cookies or something. Pack 'em up, and bring 'em over to your neighbors.

loveCA · 12-21-2011, 06:27 AM

Hi earlyretirement,
Where do you live in San Diego? I love to move to that type of neighborhood!! This is what we do in India during festival days (exchanging goodies) and people know each other. I miss that sense of community here. Right now I live in Midwest but counting days to move to a place with warmer weather.

Clevelandgal · 12-21-2011, 07:30 AM

I think you just fell into a nice a community. Probably the people are from all over, but someone started the tradition and they are just "playing it forward" so to speak.

shmoov_groovzsd · 12-21-2011, 08:59 AM

earlyretirement,

Thats really great to hear about your neighborhood! I think that is a tradition and sense of class that has fallen by the way side in recent years

We have only lived on our street for a year, but last year, most of our neighbors came by with cakes/dessert type noshes and did a "welcome to the neighborhood" thing and welcomed us over their houses on Xmas day for a drink and food.
But then again the street I live on is very established (20+ years)

However, buying gifts just wouldnt seem fitting for us given how to economy has hit this area in particular. So we decided not to buy gifts but bake them. So we (wife actually, I just watch and eat) are making some mini mascarpone cheesecakes and just drop in for a chat.
I am REALLY glad the street I live on has that sense of neighborhood pride and camaraderie, because in this part of town they it can be hit miss. And the miss is a big miss

earlyretirement · 12-21-2011, 09:53 AM

Hey guys. Thanks for the comments. It's good to hear that other neighborhoods also do these types of things. It actually pleasantly surprised us.

loveCA, that sounds wonderful how they do that in India.

Shmoov, yeah I figured with the poor economy people wouldn't be going out and buying nice gifts for so many people. I like your idea of baking cookies, etc. We've gotten 7 presents so far ranging from really nice potted plants, flowers, Godiva chocolates, fruit basket, box of nice Macadamia nut cookies and boxes of chocolates.

I live in the development of Santaluz. I'm not sure if the entire development does this on each block or I just happened to end up on an especially friendly block of people.

I only have 2 immediate neighbors as I don't have anyone behind me. And they both are very established here buying when the development started in 2002. So people seem to be fairly established here which I'm sure makes the big difference.

Thanks all for the comments.

Jenkay · 12-21-2011, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by earlyretirement

Hey guys. Thanks for the comments. It's good to hear that other neighborhoods also do these types of things. It actually pleasantly surprised us.

loveCA, that sounds wonderful how they do that in India.

Shmoov, yeah I figured with the poor economy people wouldn't be going out and buying nice gifts for so many people. I like your idea of baking cookies, etc. We've gotten 7 presents so far ranging from really nice potted plants, flowers, Godiva chocolates, fruit basket, box of nice Macadamia nut cookies and boxes of chocolates.

I live in the development of Santaluz. I'm not sure if the entire development does this on each block or I just happened to end up on an especially friendly block of people.

I only have 2 immediate neighbors as I don't have anyone behind me. And they both are very established here buying when the development started in 2002. So people seem to be fairly established here which I'm sure makes the big difference.

Thanks all for the comments.

I live in North Park, in a more urban neighborhood where it's hard to know all your neighbors, even just on the same street. That said, I've formed enough of a relationship with a few of them that I brought 'em jars of homemade jam and some cookies last week.

T. Damon · 12-21-2011, 06:57 PM

We eat and drink a bit more together with neighborhood drop-byes this time of year, does that count?
Actually we are known for our home-made Lemon Bars which we hand out to most of the neighbors and get plenty of yummy or imbibee stuff in return.

On Friday we are going to an annual white elephant party next door- always a hoot!