Economists have long argued that gift-giving is potentially wasteful. The problem is that a gift that costs $100 may bring less than $100 worth of value to the recipient. In all cases, it would seem that giving a person $100 cash is at least as good as giving the gift itself--after all they can always buy for themselves the gift you would have bought with the $100. There is considerable academic debate however. The Economist summarizes the debate.

In my household, we minimize the problem by having my wife buy gifts for herself. She wraps them and labels them from me to her and opens them on Christmas morning. She gets what she wants and I am not bothered with shopping. We think it's a win-win all around.

This year I did get her James Lileks' two books (1 and 2) and she liked them a lot. He's one funny dude.