Christmas gift ideas: get what Jesus got

If you’re in the business of giving presents at Christmas, then you sure as hell better start now.

(Yes, I did think about whether it was wrong to put hell and Christmas in the same sentence, but is just a figure o’ speech, yeronner!)

You might take the path most beaten and take the top box off the Christmas specials stack at a department store and then line up for the gift-wrapping service, all the while wondering how come they don’t save everyone’s time and gift wrap everything first.

Or, you could follow the star that led the three wise men (or kings, depending on which DVD zone you bought your story from) to stop by the perfumeries and jewelers on their way to the little manger.

The good news is you don’t have to travel to the Holy Land for that.

Because this is Singapore, and Singapore being the crossroads or East and West and all that, you can purchase a bit of the three things these wise men three gave as gifts to the baby Jesus.

Well, just gold and frankincense. I didn’t see myrrh anywhere in the Arab Street area (where we returned for more ribbons).

It was the first time I had seen frankincense. In resin form, it looks a bit like rock sugar, but has the most powerful fragrance ever.

I suppose living in the desert and all that, you’d need powerful perfumes to mask the smell of camels and not enough water to bathe.

So, Jamal Kazura Aromatics on Baghdad Street sells jars of Omani frankincense resin for $15-18, so you’d be quite the wise man to buy one as a prezzie for a friend.

I asked the salesman – who’ll whip you up your own signature fragrance from the dozens of alcohol-free scents on display after asking you a dozen questions (do you smell like camel?) – what one was to do with the resin if one were so inclined to buy a jar.

The salesman very kindly demonstrated how to burn the resin, as one would burn the stuff they smoke in a shisha – with charcoal.

Cute. But I wasn’t too convinced about getting an entire jar until he told me that this fragrance could be had on the go – you can burn the resin as you would in a charcoal incense burner, only in a special, purpose-made 12v car socket incense burner.

Now you can get rid of camel odor in your car while you bear gifts and traverse afar.