It's almost Christmas season, which means it's time to start planning Christmas gifts. I have one giftee who is (a) very focused on gifts, (b) very picky, and (c) difficult to please.
This year we are doing a name drawing amongst adults, and lucky me, I drew this person's name. I'll call her Beth.
As an example of Beth's attitude toward gifts: her husband is not a good gift-giver, so she relies on family to fulfill all her gifting wants and desires. For her birthday, she had mentioned wanting a nice cake stand. I bought one, and made an epic chocolate cake (
Chocolate Wasted Cake) to put on it. Upon giving it to her, she said, "Yeah, but where's my *real* birthday present?"
So now I have to figure out what to get Beth for Christmas. The name drawing rules specify the gift must be between $20-30, but everything Beth wants is $60 or more. Beth won't get too specific with her wants, because she wants a complete surprise. She only likes name brand purses, shoes, accessories, etc. She does not like gift cards. She has a very specific style, and I'm not good at picking out things that match that style.
How far should one go to fulfill the desires of an impossible giftee? Would it be rude to pick out a piece of costume jewelry or something else within the price range and be done with it, rather than searching for the mythical "perfect gift"? Would it be rude to say "I'm sure you won't approve of anything I pick out, so here's $30."? (Okay, I know the answer to that one

)