At risk of being very ungrateful, I am grappling here with the unwanted accumulated results of ritual business gift giving - 7 boxed bottles of whiskey, four of brandy, and box of dodgy looking Australian wine.

None of us here drink spirits and in spite of passing a couple of bottles on, we still have some of last year's in the back of the cupboard. Brandy and wine can be handy for cooking, but you can only get through so much.

Any suggestions on what to do with it all?

cactus flower wrote:

At risk of being very ungrateful, I am grappling here with the unwanted accumulated results of ritual business gift giving - 7 boxed bottles of whiskey, four of brandy, and box of dodgy looking Australian wine.

None of us here drink spirits and in spite of passing a couple of bottles on, we still have some of last year's in the back of the cupboard. Brandy and wine can be handy for cooking, but you can only get through so much.

Any suggestions on what to do with it all?

Unwanted alcohol can work as an excellent anti-freeze for the windscreen washers of your car. Incidentally, screen wash, at a pinch, can make an ideal, emergency Christmas tipple.

I'm not sure if you're having me on, lukedelmege - wouldn't it be a bit sticky?

cactus flower wrote:

I'm not sure if you're having me on, lukedelmege - wouldn't it be a bit sticky?

Entirely made up Cactus, sorry about that but I'm fairly certain that the mountain of tainted Austrian wine from the eighties was used as anti-freeze for the runways of airports. Then again, it may have been AF that the wine was spoiled with initially. Merry Christmas anyway, expecting anything nice under the tree?

Apparently all the bottles confiscated at the airport are given to their charity of the year - this year it's Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin. They will use them for hampers in raffles.

Perhaps your business could offer them as spot prizes for events run by local organisations during the year - or else give them to a charity to use.

cactus flower wrote:

At risk of being very ungrateful, I am grappling here with the unwanted accumulated results of ritual business gift giving - 7 boxed bottles of whiskey, four of brandy, and box of dodgy looking Australian wine.

None of us here drink spirits and in spite of passing a couple of bottles on, we still have some of last year's in the back of the cupboard. Brandy and wine can be handy for cooking, but you can only get through so much.

Any suggestions on what to do with it all?

I dug up a bottle at the back of cupboard yesterday - IIRC its called 'Chardonay' or sumit.

Does anyone know if its any good or just CP?

Kate P wrote:

Apparently all the bottles confiscated at the airport are given to their charity of the year - this year it's Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin. They will use them for hampers in raffles.

Perhaps your business could offer them as spot prizes for events run by local organisations during the year - or else give them to a charity to use.

That's a good idea Kate P. Some of the sports organisations around here are deep in the red due to badly timed land deals. They will be scraping around behind the sofa cushions for the next few years.

lukedelmege wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

I'm not sure if you're having me on, lukedelmege - wouldn't it be a bit sticky?

Entirely made up Cactus, sorry about that but I'm fairly certain that the mountain of tainted Austrian wine from the eighties was used as anti-freeze for the runways of airports. Then again, it may have been AF that the wine was spoiled with initially. Merry Christmas anyway, expecting anything nice under the tree?

I'm still wrapping things up here. There does seem to be something there with my name on it. But the best present this year was the black Labrador pup that arrived two weeks ago.

All unwanted prezzies can be donated to the local oxfam (eg) shop. Monaghain, which never had such a shop before, now finds a steady cleintele. Prezzie, esp clothes, still in the wrappings are like gold to such shops. gl all.

Well there's always charity. Or you could sell them off, or in the case of whiskey give them to me (for Jameson or Bushmills I'll give you, oh, 60% retail price). Me, I always keep presents, wanted or unwanted. I have this inescapable fear that the giver will one day show up at my door and demand evidence that I enjoyed and appreciated the gift.

I suppose I could open a Sibín...

cactus flower wrote:

I suppose I could open a Sibín...

How dare you!? Donate them to an Sibín Reoite anseo!

evercloserunion wrote:

Well there's always charity. Or you could sell them off, or in the case of whiskey give them to me (for Jameson or Bushmills I'll give you, oh, 60% retail price). Me, I always keep presents, wanted or unwanted. I have this inescapable fear that the giver will one day show up at my door and demand evidence that I enjoyed and appreciated the gift.

I used to do that, but we had a pile of horrid Ainsley china in the attic, half a dozen lamps we didn't like, a couple of deepfryers and a couple of microwaves after we got married. We traded in the deep-fryers and all but one microwave immediately and bought a deep freeze, I think. The china I gave to those who love these things and the lamps adorn my sisters' homes. That's not to say we didn't enjoy the gift or the sentiment of those who gave them, but seeing unwanted, unloved gifts winging their way to those who love them, makes the world a happier place.

But it does bring up an interesting point: what are people at when they buy presents? Over the years I've been lucky and loved enough to get lots of lovely gifts, many of them from people who know and care but still buy me things I will not use in a month of Sundays - such as pyjamas, perfumes other than the one brand I wear, a duffle coat two sizes too small, even though I'm not built for duffle coats, even if they did fit - and more of the ubiquitous china - a Mason's bowl, for example that might be at home in a stately house but not in our farmhouse-type house. I deeply appreciate the sentiment and am happy for that to completely overcompensate for the apparent lack of thought, when apparently, it's the thought that should count.