A neighbor wanted to up the uniqueness quotient of her gifting this year. I handed her the PennState catalog and asked her to tell me a bit about each recipient and what item(s) she wanted for them. I hear they have been well-received.
Yeah, I much prefer building to order -- but most folks don't seem to want to think that hard about it. Someone who wants to get "something" for Aunt Janet will pick something from the table. Once in a while, someone wants "that, but in purple" (no worries, I'll need a few days). Every once in a while we get to play Build-A-Thing with the PennState catalog.