We had this ''problem'' with my mother. As we grew older (brother and I), our list got thinner every year. She felt she needed to find stuff we would like but didn't know we wanted, so we ended up with a lot of expensive, unwanted stuff. After a talk with her, we understood that it was the ''challenge'' that she liked, not so much the giving (i.e, finding THE thing that would make us happy).
So now, we each set up a ''challenge''. The one I have for her this year is to find me the ''best of'' album that my favorite band will release in December, but in the super deluxe collector edition (with book and DVD) and with the face of my favorite band member on the cover (there is six different cover overall). I showed her the picture of the cover I would like as the ''hint''. I would never buy that for myself because of my limited student budget but since she has the financial means, she also told me she would pay my ticket and hotel room for me to see their show later next year, to make it even with the amount she will spend on my brother.
In the end, it's all psychological, but I know I will receive something I'll really like, and she'll be even more happy because she will have find THE thing that I absolutely wanted. The challenge my brother set up is to find him a pair of floor ticket for a sold-out show he would really, really like to see. Now, our gift are always a single big-ticket item that feel like a real gift because we would not had buy it for ourselves.
