Christmas for Myself

I know that Christmas is 2 months away, however, I had a wonderful idea that I was work-shopping in my head recently, and I thought perhaps I would blog about it and see if I could really bring it to fruition.  

Rewind:  My parents have always called me selfish and materialistic.  Fine, I admit it.  I like nice things.  I like name brands.  I think owning expensive things improves my self-worth.  Fine, I get it.  Not a great way to live my life, but hey, who doesn't want these things?  Anyway, as the years went on and everyone in my family was getting married and I was still single, I began to get even more materialistic and jealous around  Christmas.  Here is why:  

As my 3 siblings are all married, it gets rather expensive buying gifts for everyone.  I get it.  I live in NYC and I don't exactly have money lying around to buy gifts for everyone, including my parents and nieces.  A few years back, we went to the "Pick a Name out of a Hat" rule where you buy one gift for a sibling/sibling-in-law and spend up to $75.  Well, that is great - except when you are single.  And I know the spirit of Christmas is all about giving and not receiving, but whatever(!), this really just limits me to getting one gift.  My siblings are all buying gifts for their spouses, and vice-versa.  I, on the other hand, just get one gift.  Poor me you must be thinking!

Here is what I propose.  I would like to make a list of say, 20 things that I want for Christmas.  Then, I will give this list to my group of friends, along with $250 of my own money.  I will then ask that they pick a few items off my list and purchase them and wrap them for me.  Then, I will put these under my Christmas tree, and when Christmas comes, I will have more than 1 present to open.  And since they were bought off my list of 20 things, I technically won't know what I am getting!  What a surprise!

I think that this is a fantastic idea for anyone who is single out there and either a) feels slighted by their married siblings, or b) does not really have a family at all and really is gift-less at Christmas.  Thoughts, feelings, concerns? ...