Anyone having ideas for nice music related gifts for flutists? I was thinking of something small/not too expensive and fun. I've been looking around, but it seems to be harder than I thought to find something interesting. When I was in the local music shop they suggested slidewhistles.

something personalized would be nice you can try a froogle search

You could always do a gag gift like I did for Suz. I think that she is going to post some photos of it soon.
Get a flute crown and decorate it really funky. Use your imagination with it.

Nice idea! Do I need to know exactly what flute it is to buy a crown, or would it fit any flute? Can't wait to see the pictures!

It's to late for me to order now, but I found some t-shirts with composers names written in a "hard rock" font. Quite funny! The pictures on the web are not so great, but you can see a Mozart, Beethoven and Bach t-shirt. (You see them to the right if you scroll down a little)
http://www.opuspress.se/tshirts.html

You would need to know what flute the person has because not all crowns are universal. If it is meant completely as a gag gift then chances are they would never want to put it on their flute anyway, so you could still just buy a cheapo crown.

I might be too serious or practical, but what I would like to receive are accessories for my flute.

Depending on the person's level and activity it could be from easy to almost impossible to choose, but some ideas could be (in order of increasing price):

- a flute stand
- a light for music stand
- a new smart tuner/metronome
- an ethnic flute (Indian, Armenian, Turkish, so many others)
- a new microphone for recording his/her music
- a microphone support (boom, other)
- a good quality digital recorder

For some ideas for flutes accessories (and eventually buying), you can visit http://www.thomann.de/gb/index.html

On the funny side there are some calenders and the like and for culturally minded, many books on the history of music, of instruments and a long etc.

I am pretty sensible too...but I love 'Flute Flags'. You can order them at www.fluteworld.com . They are amazing!!!

Oh, Jose, I wish someone would give me that stuff!

Sorry, maybe I pointed too high. Of course it is my wish list also. Not much chances it gets fulfilled, I'm afraid. Fortunately, a few of those I already gave myself as gifts, in past opportunities.

The first three items should be at or under 30 US$, ethnic flutes go from about 20$ to some 100$, but I have no idea of what budget you are considering.

The last item (a good digital recorder) should be about 350$+, not much appropriate as a Christmas present, true, but I put it there for my own inspiration.

What we do here sometimes (though not so much for Christmas season, more for wedding gifts and the like, is to consolidate the smaller gifts of several friends or family members into a single, more valuable gift.

If you very low on budget, spending some personal time and showing your natural good sense in your own craftwork could be an elegant and cheap solution.

For example, you could make a Notes book using hand-made paper or easier, you could print by hand (or with colour printer, depending on your drawing skills, but always tenuously to serve as a background only), different flute images on each page of the future note book and then put them together by hand-binding.

I believe there may be almost infinite ideas of this sort, another would be preparing a 2010 calendar (there many free applications for that on Internet) and use flute-related designs to personalize it.

Good luck und viel Spass!

I loved the stuff at flute world, but it would cost 35$ to get the gifts on time. I'm sure I'll try them out some time.

Ended up buying a very nice and fun painting with musician ducks from a local artist at a handicraft market. The paintings are based on word puns and he makes sheep (=får) items too. They don't have the large painting that include flutists on the web, but here is an example of a smaller painting of a duck cellist:

http://www.andmade.se/Produkt_tavlor_69.aspx

I bought these Yamaha Fifes for my students this year:

http://www.wwbw.com/Yamaha-YRF-21-Fife-460076-i1142371.wwbw