Many of us are faced with a time in which some of our close friends and family are enduring tough economic times. Especially in those types of cases, we want to be sure that the gifts we give them for special occasions are put to good use, needed and enjoyed. I have a few suggestions:

A fruit basket is healthy, beautiful, yummy and always enjoyed. If you live near your gift recipient, you can find a lovely basket or other attractive container and fill it with fruit that is in season in your region of the country, obtained at a farmers market, and then fill it out with a few exotic fruits picked up at your neighborhood specialty store. If your loved one is farther away, you can arrange for any of a large range of beautiful fruit gift baskets to be delivered directly to the person’s home. It will help them to reduce their grocery bill that month.

A unique meal is another way to remember a special occasion. One alternative might be to take the friend to a special restaurant. If price is no object to you, be sure to suggest some of the pricier entrees on the menu, so that your guests know that they should not worry about ordering whatever they prefer. For example, you could say something like, “The crab legs are perfect here, but, if you don’t like seafood, try the filet mignon.” If they live too far away for that, you can actually find delicious, gourmet, chef-prepared meals online that arrive frozen and can be heated in almost no time. (I actually keep my freezer stocked with these.) Or you might send a gift certificate to a special place in their town.

A final recommendation is a scrumptious dessert. Now, lets face it, nobody should indluge in too many desserts, but on a birthday, anniversary or holiday, everyone deserves a chance to feel a little pampered. Bake cookies, if that is a skill of yours, and hand deliver or have them delivered. For something a little more special consider giving them a delicious pie or a New York cheesecake. Whether you make it yourself or have others do the work for you doesn’t matter. It will be appreciated and definitely enjoyed either way.

You’ll notice a common feature in these suggestions. They all involve food. Someone who is going through a difficult time may not want to accept charity, but nobody can reject a genuinely special gift. If it reduces the grocery bill by a bit, so much the better.

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I am not a shopping enthusiast! Except around the holidays, I hate the parking problems, I don’t enjoy browsing aisle after aisle looking for something that would be honestly appreciated by Grandma or Uncle Arthur. I certainly do not like standing on line with frustrated people waiting for the lone employee to handle yet another exchange. During the holidays, I enjoy meandering through stores simply people watching, without being weighted down with bulky packages. The experience for whatever reason puts me into a holiday mood, but I do my actual shopping and buying almost entirely online. That’s a practice I developed in the very early years of the Web.

Online shopping didn’t save my life all by itself. Just because I started using the Web before any of my friends, I still had to make the decisions. And then, around five years ago, or so, I discovered food.

Of course, I actually discovered food when I was still an infant, but it didn’t occur to me as a great gift until I had suffered through many rounds of birthdays, baby showers, and countless other events that seem to always pop up. I received a gift basket of little sausages, spreadable cheeses and plain crackers. It was terrible! At the same time, though, I thought what a great gift this could have been. All they had to change in the gift was the quality of the contents!

Since then, I have been busy conducting research (that’s just my word for “sampling”). I have found online vendors who offer genuine quality for about the same price that you can get that synthetic stuff at the mall. (You know the one I mean, but I’m not about to open myself to a libel or slander charge by naming the brand.) Just like the mall kiosks, the online shops handle all the shipping, gift cards, everything. I know that my gifts will be exceptionally pleasant surprises for all of my gift recipients.

The wide selection of quality gift foods available is truly remarkable. It ranges from live lobster dinners to a gourmet fruit basket; from cookie bouquets to live lobsters; from wine gift baskets to imported caviar or fine Wisconsin cheeses.

I do keep gift foods around the house, beautifully or cleverly arranged, for my guests who come to my house or for those whom I visit in person during those gift giving times. The Internet provides assistance to me even in these cases, because it is packed full of great ideas for arranging and wrapping gift food.

So join me in thanking the Internet (maybe Al Gore?) for teaching me how to walk through an aisle of a store, empty handed, with a huge smile. I can do that, now, just to soak up the spirit of the season, whatever season it happens to be. I’m a tourist when I’m there instead of a harried shopper.