Chip and Pinterest – Gift-Giving Dream

Gift Ideas from Pinterest Eliminate Guessing

Chip and Pinterest – Gift-Giving Dream

According to the Agency Omnicore, only 19% of Pinerest users are men.  However, 40% of New Signups are Men; 60% New Signups are Women. Men account for only 7% of total pins on Pinterest. Chip is not one of them.  So what do Chip and Pinterest have in common?  He uses it to get gift ideas for me.  This just pose some challenges for him though.

Bad Luck Gift-Giving

Let’s say, some people (not me) have not been thrilled with Chip’s gifts.  They appreciate the effort, but love that most places give gift receipts.  He always gets them.

For a period of time, he had some success walking into stores; looking at the displays and buying whatever it is.  If there was a mannequin with a complete outfit, he’d buy the whole thing. He did the same with electronics; pretty much everything you can think of.

The Challenge – The Person Who Wants Nothing

I am one of those people who never wants anything.  This is true since I was a kid.  At any given time, you could ask my brother if he needed or wanted anything and he could blurt out a minimum of three things.  Me, nuttin’.

There’s  no car I aspire to own;  place I have to go to; or clothes or shoes I want to have; no gadget I want.  This makes gift-giving for me hard.

When Pinterest became a valued pastime, Chip shrugged his shoulders and thought if meant more time to watch Alaska wilderness shows.  He was all for it.

Because, I’m a sharer, every so often, I would show him the pins on one Pinterest board or another.

He would scroll quickly through it; nod and say, ‘nice.”

Using the Pinterest Board for Good Not Evil

When a gift-giving event occurs, he panics.  “What to buy?’  He asks for ideas.  This time I shrug my shoulders and say, “nothing.”

Just an FYI … men don’t seem to like that answer.

He asks our kids … no ideas.

He’s on His Own – The Mission Begins

He walks into a random store to wander around aimlessly.  A female associate approaches him and asks if she could help him.  He said he wished she could, but he didn’t know where to even start.

She asks him to tell her about me.  Somewhere in the list he mentions I like to Pinterest.

Chip and Pinterest – A Match Made in Heaven

The associate perks up.  “Do you have access to her Pinterest page?”

Gently huffing in defeat,  he reports, no.

She said she occasionally ‘pins” and asks my name.

Boom, the skies parted, the sun shown and the rain stopped.

My page was found.  My interests and preferences. reveal themselves.

Chip is happy.  As the associate scrolls, vague memories of the late-night pin sharing all comes back to him.

In mere minutes, the associate shows him a few items and a victorious purchase is made.

Walking a Little Taller, But More Work to Be Done

Chip is a fan of buying one main gift and one or two smaller ones.  Always soo sweet.

With his new secret weapon in the holster, he goes to the next store.  No one there has Pinterest or aren’t allowed to have their phones on the store floor.

Chip pauses, then the light bulb shines.  He’ll just use his own phone and search it.

Whoops, only users can see your full board and pin selections; and he was certainly not signing up for Pinterest on the second floor of Macy’s.

He was able to get little quadrant pictures with some ideas.

He finally accomplished his purchases in under 2 hours compared to his usual 4-5 hours.  With some of the time attributed to drive time and a comforting double, carmel mocha iced coffee.

He buys a card in record time; and, gets the obligatory gift bag and he’s done.

Yes, I Loved What He Gave Me

Upon telling me the Pinterest shopping survival guide approach he used, I was curious.

Could there be a tool to access gift ideas?

Yup, there is … Pinterest Secret Santa tool.

Should Chip and Pinterest Secret Santa be Introduced

Well, maybe, but probably not.

The Pinterest Secret Santa tool takes your pins and searches Pinterest, Amazon and other retailers to suggest things to purchase.

If I were a betting woman, he would move him from moving around stores muttering to clicking around cyberspace muttering.

(In fairness, he is addicted to Amazon Prime and that is always the place he starts all gift-giving.  Luckily, he has restraint from purchasing me app controlled devices. 

That actually would make him like my brother who, as a child,  bought gifts for others with himself in mind.)

Here’s How Pinterest Secret Santa Works

According to Pinterest:

Secret Santa is a holiday promotion.  From what I can tell, this was a holiday effort.  So the rest of the year, I guess you are on your own.

Secret Santa allows people to find friends or family on Pinterest. It then uses the Pinterest API to create custom gift idea boards based on what those friends or family members have been saving.

And if the people they’re shopping for aren’t on Pinterest? Pinners can select a gift persona that resembles the person they want to give to, from world travelers to pet parents.

Pinners will see personalized idea boards that include Pins of trending gift ideas and gift suggestions from five major brands and suggestions such as Amazon for toys and games; and their Echo division with tech suggestions.

Bed Bath & Beyond is supplying ideas for the home. CVS Pharmacy will showcase the gifting supplies—wrap, tags, boxes, cards. And Universal Pictures will tease the release of holiday movies.

Chip and Pinterest May Enjoy a Lasting Relationship

Chip seems to like his discovery of Pinterest and its uses for his generous purchases.  Having someone take so much care to select gifts for the people in his life, is pretty special.

Pinterest Purchasing Fun Facts

  • There are over 75 billion ideas on Pinterest.
  • 87% of Pinners have purchased a product because of Pinterest.
  • 72% of Pinners use Pinterest to decide what to buy offline.
  • 67% of Pinners are under 40-years-old.  Um… we are proudly in the 33%.
  • Over 5% of all referral traffic to websites comes from Pinterest.
  • Pinterest said 80% of its users access Pinterest through a mobile device.
  • 93% of active pinners said they use Pinterest to plan for purchases and 87% said they’ve purchased something because of Pinterest.
  • Two-thirds of pins represent brands and products.
  • Food & Drink & Technology are the most popular categories for men.
  • An average Pins made by an Active Female User is 158.
  • Recipes: There are more than 1.7 billion recipe Pins.
  • Shopping: Every day nearly 2M people Pin product rich Pins.
  • Articles: More than 14 million articles are Pinned each day.
  • Average time spent on Pinterest per visit is 14.2 minutes.

After reading these stats, maybe I’ll give Chip access to my Pinterest account.  If food, drink and technology are the most defined areas, he may have found a new playground.

I’ll tell you one thing.  My “look at my pins before sleep” moments now get more interest.

Tell us if you fear gift-giving or other ways you find gift ideas.

If you like this post, please share it.

 

Christmas Songs I’ve Never Heard

Christmas Songs I've Never Heard

Christmas Songs I’ve Never Heard

A week or two ago, a friend of mine, had a Christmas song on her post that I had never heard before.  Then, today, another friend had a clip of a song with David Bowie singing with Bing Crosby; and, I also had never heard that one before.  It got me wondering … how many other Christmas songs I’ve never heard.  So, I went on a mission to find some Christmas songs that are good,  but  new to me. Oh and the songs are from all different styles of music.  So scroll, listen and get a little more of that holiday spirit.

If people send me more videos, I’ll do another post on this topic. 

Let me start with the ones I saw in friends posts

It’s a Marshmallow World – Dean Martin – There are parts of this video that are fresh and racy, even by 2017 standards

David Bowie and Bing Crosby – Little Drummer Boy.  Let me just say how cute is David Bowie.  If it was today, he would of been in a boy band; but we would have missed a ton of good music.

https://youtu.be/n9kfdEyV3RQ

Here are 15 Christmas Songs I’ve Never Heard Before

  1. I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day

This is such a sweet song.  Some versions had choirs singing, but they were home videos.  If you aren’t worried about sound quality, go listen to some of the choir versions.

2. Underneath the Tree

Totally unintentional that the song above and this one are former American Idol contestants.   I always love Kelly Clarkson.  She sounds great.

3.  Christmas in Blue Chair Bay – Kenny Chesney

I have never heard this before, but I have seen Kenny Chesney in concert.  He has high energy from the second he walks on the stage to the second he takes his last encore… A blast.

4. There’s a smidgen of a musical lead in but the (I think 1940s) dance scenes are pretty fun to watch.   It’s called “What Will Santa Claus Say”, by Louie Prima.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCtBHZ1MItE

4a. I’ve never heard this one.  It’s only  40 seconds.  The original is 2.40 sec.  But it is just a picture of old xmas lights in the box as the image.  So I went with this one.  Maybe I’ll do 16 songs if I can find one more.

5. I may have heard this before, but not sure enough.  So I’m adding it.  It’s Run DMC – Christmas in Hollis

6.  I remember Tom Waits in the 80s, but this doesn’t seem like his regular style.  But it’s a Christmas song I’ve never heard; so into the list it goes.  Maybe I’m thinking of someone else.  It’s  John Waite who I’m thinking of.

Just a few more for our list … but there are a ton more Christmas songs I’ve never heard.

7.  This one is just crazy.  It’s 14 minutes long, but only 4 min of it is the song.  It’s pretty fun.  It starts with a dialogue that made me laugh too.

8. This one I’m adding because it has Guy Lombardo in it with the Andrew Sisters.  An odd little fact,  Guy Lombardo is my 6th cousin.  Lol.

I know; I’m almost famous. When you think of Christmas songs I’ve never Heard or you’ve never heard, you can think of me.

I also have another cousin, Anthony George (real name Octavio Gabriel George)  who was part of the original cast of Dark Shadows then later Search for Tomorrow and One Life to Live.  Also The Untouchables, etc.

Our family called him Oct.  If you know the scene from the movie The Godfather when all the family makes a fuss when the famous singer shows up.  That’s what my family was like when Oct showed up.  Very nice gracious man.

9. Oi to The World .. No Doubt.  Gwen Stephani is on “The Voice” now.  Such a beautiful woman.  I kinda am wondering if she’s had some freshening.  Just sayin’.

10.  Never heard this …but love the Ramones rhythm.

https://youtu.be/4Y5GtaTrPHM

Here’s something I should be ashamed to admit.

11. OMG … I loved the Archies.  They are the only comic books I ever bought.  Oh I have to go see if the Batman TV show had a Christmas song.  That show had that same cheeky feel.  One sec.   It doesn’t exist.  The only thing is the Jingle Bells Batman Smells” one.  Ick.

11a. I think I’ve heard this before… but sharing it for two reasons.  The beginning sounds like the music that they listened to in the “Night at the Roxy ” movie.  And, I either heard it in the movie Pretty in Pink or wait.  Just Googled it … it was in an SNl skit.

12. Coldplay is one of those bands that I like some of their songs, but never know it’s them.  If someone asks me if I like Coldplay, I say, “I think so.”   Wow! I like this song a lot.

13.  Gotta have some classics (that I’ve never heard).  My dad liked Perry Como; so into the list.  My standards are very flexible.

13 a) I’ve heard this before, but it is such a fresh take on it.  I’m adding it in.  I guess that makes three that don’t count, but are added.

14. Come On … It’s the Twist and Christmas.

Although I could keep finding more songs, I’m almost done.

And, the final song I’m telling you I’ve never heard is ….

15.  Here’s one from one of the original boy bands.  What was the sequence ….New Kids, New Edition, Nsynch then Boys to Men?  Not sure.  Anyone know?

And two for my mom and dad .. that I have heard.

And, One for Me

I just heard this on Alexa in a Christmas song list.  So Adorable … bummed I could not find a video of it.  This song starts with Brad Paisley’s first performance when he was 13, then transitions to his voice today.  Loved it.

Let me know if you liked any of these.

Hope you had fun  watching and listening.  If you like this post or others, please share them with your friends.