<p>Do you think this board can stand yet ANOTHER thread?!! Sure why not!! I thought it might be fun to list ideas you have for gifts for your S/D this holiday season....hopefully by listing you won't give any secrets away.</p>
<p>I won't reveal those ideas myself until after the holidays....however I will give you some ideas what I have done in the past.</p>
<p>One year I bought a wonderful woven basket box from Pier One and filled it with scripts, audition books, and various other books about Musical Theatre and Acting. I then embellished two paper mache clay stars with the words of my Ss names and attached the stars to the box handle with ribbon...I dubbed it their "Drama Box".</p>
<p>Another year I bought an old vintage "Little Shop of Horrors" window card/poster and placed it in a large frame and added some art decco embellishments to the sides of the picture matt.</p>
<p>Last year it was the entire collection of August Wilson plays.</p>
<p>Whatever cast recordings happen to have come out during the year.</p>
<p>Tickets to shows are always a hit.</p>
<p>One of my Ds collects Broadway <em>stuff</em>- costume pieces, props, etc. These are not easy to find except through BC/EFA either at their Broadway Flea Market in September or in their ebay auctions.</p>
<p>Other than that, it's usually the 'normal' stuff that kids want: clothes, dvds, books. There's usually at least one of our Ds who wants $$ help towards a summer project or trip they're saving for so we usually contribute to those.</p>
<p>Our family chooses a charity each year at Christmas to make a donation to on behalf of the entire family. It is usually one which benefits children in some way. This year's is a scholarship fund which has been set up in our city by a local police division for kids who face real challenges in their family lives and who have worked hard to overcome those, and have been accepted to a college. One year we contributed to a group which funds school groups visits to theatre productions. When the kids were younger, we 'adopted' a family each year and my 4Ds and I would shop for the kids. </p>
<p>I really love the holiday season. The planning and searching for special gifts for my family is a real joy for me. I'm already in holiday mode and have been listening to my holiday cds (a great one, if any of you are looking for a new one, is Broadway Cares-Home for the Holidays!) :)</p>
<p>The PBS "The American Musical" DVD
A recording session at a local studio
Musical scores and CD that goes with it
or...
(pricey) several recording sessions for a CD-demo
(also pricey) studio session with photographer for new headshot
Stage make up kit</p>
<p>We make the 9 hour trip to NJ to visit family every Christmas, so our family gift for years and years has been tickets to a broadway show. Everyone loves it. My 3 kids all make suggestions beforehand and then we suprise them with the show we are going to see. My parents usually come in too or friends who we don't see very often. The tree, the Christmas hustle and bustle and skating at Central Park all make for a wonderful day and fabulous memories from year to year.</p>
<p>Here are 2 suggestions that worked recently for my daughter's birthday:
1. my son went to playbill.com and got her the official binder for Playbills. Yes, you can make a scrapbook of sorts at less cost. This one was large and the right size, etc. It also could be used for programs of local productions, instead of Broadway shows. </p>
<ol>
<li>I had a makeup artist come to my house for a makeup lesson. The person who came understood she was NOT there to sell products but to give specific lessons, etc. (Otherwise, why pay anything,right? You can get this done at a department store!) This worked out very well. I found the person through someone who works at my local beauty salon.</li>
</ol>
<p>We did that one year. My husband is from NYC and we went up to spend Christmas with the entire family all the way from Texas. My sister in law took us all (brothers, sisters, grandparents) into the city in a Limo first to ice skate in Central Park, then surprised all of us all with tickes to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular! The day was a fairy tale.</p>
<p>ipods ARE amazing for carrying your songs with you - I finally got one this year and I don't know what I did without it - your D is not exaggerating TOO much to call it a need.. ; ) (although the nano size, maybe not totally necessary)</p>
<p>It was always a fantasy for me too until my hubby and I decided years ago to do it. I grew up in NJ a 30 minute train ride from the city and NEVER went in to the city until college! My parents just never took us...they were afraid of something so overwhelming. We never thought it would be a tradition just a one time thing but everyone just ended up loving it so. We are not wealthy people by any means. They are many years the kids opted to "have santa" bring less things to bring those tickets instead or we gambled at what would be at the TKTS booth. My older d said one Christmas that this was the best thing she could ever get for Christmas. Not some toy or game that gets forgotten about after 5 minutes but a lasting gift of something really special. I knew then that this would be a tradition for us. </p>
<p>Sissy, Your trip sounded great! Love the limo ride in. Our ride in definitely is not so glamorous....NJ transit!!! I am embarassed to say...All our years in and we have never seen the radio city christmas spectacular! I have heard such wonderful things about it we just never did it! We used to go to a Christmas Carole at Madison Square Garden and that was wonderful! </p>
<p>All this talk makes me realize how much I just love the holidays!</p>
<p>I just saw the most gorgeous coffee table book on Wicked, I think the cover actually says "the Grimmery." The big Rent book is on my D's list. (As I type this she is knitting a Mark Cohen type scarf for her MT crazy boyfriend.)</p>
<p>Show tickets / cast recordings are a holiday staple at our house, too. Also wonderful posters and bags (what MT kid has enough bags?) from Broadway New York's website.</p>
<p>Here's one of my crafty things: I like to make iron-ons for tee shirts, using the computer paper from office stores. I sent some to SDM this summer. One depicted a cartoon snake entitled "Wayne" referring to the Jason Robert Brown song she used at the previous year's audition. The other one was simply "I (graphic of heart) (photo of Sondheim)". Iron ons are a great way to create graphics that only MT kids would find funny. For years I've been meaning to iron Playbill graphics onto a blanket. Maybe I'll start small with a pillowcase.<g></g></p>
<p>My D asked for a hoodie from Alloy that says "Talk nerdy to me."</p>
<p>She also has a charm bracelet with a charm from every show she's done. Do a Google search for Dixie's Outlet -- they have tons of charms at great prices.</p>
<p>I'll try to think of more. I loved reading about your holiday experiences!</p>
<p>dramama - Your daughter has an MT-crazy boyfriend? I am SO JEALOUS! Do you know how hard it is to find a heterosexual guy who likes musical theatre??? I'm being serious; I am not saying this to be funny. My DREAM in life is for my future husband to be as in love with MT as I am, but geez! It's hard! Every single boy in my MT class at U of A was gay, and in the class the year behind us, there was only one straight guy in MT, and he wasn't at all nice to women. Lecherous. Tell your daughter how incredibly lucky she is! Keep knitting, dramama's daughter!</p>
<p>I am seriously telling you....my twins who are both studying MT at Webster are very straight. Their sophomore class has a couple others...so they are out there. ;)</p>
<p>Samia, while there is a larger ratio of gay males in theater than in the general population, there certainly are straight guys in this field as well. I hear what you are saying and surely there are many gay guys in the programs and in shows you do. They're great guys and such good friends. There are straight ones too. My daughter's boyfriend from high school does musical theater and is straight. My daughter's current boyfriend who she knows from her summer theater program and who is now at Tisch with her is also straight. He is a straight actor and not studying musical theater, but he has done some musicals as well. There's hope for you....keep looking :D It is nice to date a guy who shares your passion for theater.
Susan</p>
<p>5pants - Twins, huh? Can I get their number? ;) Just kidding. Mwahahaha.</p>
<p>Yeah, I've known a few, too, but it's like auditioning for a BFA MT program...the odds are stacked against you. ;)</p>
<p>And just for the record, everything I say is in fun and shouldn't be taken seriously. Ya gotta watch out on message boards that people don't take you too seriously.</p>
<p>Oh it's refreshing to be lighthearted...I don't think anything could be taken wrongly. It's all good!! I don't mean to highjack the thread with more on this topic, but being a heterosexual male in MT is a dream come true for my guys....that's about the only thing that keeps them interested in ballet class!! Okay, now I am kidding....sort of!! :)</p>
<p>I'm going to get Sirius radio for my D's car. When we used a rental car, she was so excited about the Broadway station. Broadway tunes round the clock!</p>
<p>Dramama, we have that gizmo that plugs into the cigarette lighter and then to the IPod and transmits through a radio in the car. It works pretty good though sometimes when you are on a drive, you have to readjust it to which radio stations come in (truthfully I don't know how it exactly works but the kids do it and I have seen at times when we get out of range of one radio station, they have to adjust it to another). I just know that they listen to the IPod in the car. The issue over the radio stations coming in and having to change from time to time is likely way more an issue in the rural state where I live where the reception changes as we drive (mountains and all, plus rural).....and I won't even go there when it comes to the cell phone! So, they have the IPods in the car all the time. </p>
<p>One drawback is when they start driving themselves...using the IPod is more difficult (unless I guess you keep it on some playlist). I know that my older D is not using the IPod when she is the driver and resorts to using her CDs which are easier to pop in and not have to play around with the IPod as she is driving. But when the kids are passengers, they can listen to the IPod in the car, and can even use headphones too. </p>
<p>My younger one just got some attachment for the IPod where you can record your voice which I guess is something she does in classes now at CAP21, so it now works like a tape player too in that way as far as recording.</p>