She isn't going to get a gift because she's the one starting this whole thing. But she knew that.

She places a three-strand braid bracelet in the box, of black fiber. The ends of the braid are sealed by small wooden beads, and there's a larger bead where they connect.

This braided loop is made of my own hair, which I have artificed with the Way of Flowers. It increases strength and endurance slightly while you wear it — wear it on the wrist or ankle. In general, it makes you more energetic. It is unlikely but possible that it might cause you to have trouble sleeping — if so, remove it before you plan to go to sleep. You can adjust the size of the loop by drawing more or less of the rope through the central bead, and then tying a knot to secure it.  

- Marina

She closes the box.

Time is normally supposed to be paused in your home dimension while you are in the Milliways, but his home dimension and method of entry are both kind of outliers.  He reads the instructions carefully.  There are all sorts of ways he could try to game it, buts he’s learned not to try to game the few actually benevolent phenomena out there.

He thinks it over… Yeah, hopefully someone can use it, and he could use something useful himself.

He opens it up and takes out the gift and message.  He thinks about it carefully.  yeah, he really could use some extra strength and endurance.  It could be very useful to him.

He places two pens in the box.  He copies a message out twice:

This pen can switch the "names" between two inanimate nonliving objects.  Uncap the pen, tap its point on the first object, and within 5 seconds tap it on the second object.  Switching the names causes everyone to by default perceive one object as the other if they think about the object verbally or textually.  I.e. if you have a stone and a pillow and tap one then the other, naive observers dependent on verbal or textual thinking will think the stone is a pillow, even to the point of trying to rest on it, although they will notice it as unusually hard and uncomfortable for a pillow.  Switching names shouldn’t work on living creatures, but it is strongly recommended not to even try.

He isn’t sure if the box can multiply or pay the extra back to someone or whatever, but he can make the pens without too much hassle so it probably doesn’t hurt?  Worse case someone gets a pair.

He closes the box and it disappears.

He gets going, he needs to get back to the library.

While not letting the narrative linger too long on just why she's in milliways and what else she's doing with the opportunity, this kind of thing screams trickery. She doesn't know what she wants to use it for yet. Some kind of espionage plot. Hiding cursed objects, or obscuring things from monsters? Or just pranks. Hopefully names can be turned back or wear off?

She just takes one of the pens, and leaves in its place a shimmering deep midnight blue cloak. The note is simple.

Invisibility and silence cloak. Covers all of whoever is wearing it, and anything they are carrying. Recharge under moonlight. Might break permanently if it goes too long without recharging. 

Invisibility cloak? Yatta! She wishes she had something that good. She'll take a pair of scissors and put them in the box.

All in one scissors. Includes a hook knife, hex wrench, rasp, straightedge / ruler (1 x 10^33 plank lengths increment) , protractor, nut cracker, bottle opener, can opener, screwdrivers ( flat and Y), nail puller, hammer, and magnet. Case is magnetic with built in whetstone and paracord belt loop. 

After some thought she takes her other scissors off her belt and throws it in there too. It's not much compared to something literally magical but it's as close to a fair trade as she can make. 

This bar is confusing but this box and the instructions are less. She will participate.

A new tool! And a quite intriguing one at that. The mentioned increment of the ruler is hard to parse. Paracord is also unfamiliar. But all the understandable parts seem clearly useful. For research, and for practical matters. A very concrete gift, it is.

 

And then their own gift for the box. A book would fit.

Mayhaps a book of Lanterns; to shine light to these wintery times, to illuminate.

So she lays the bright-yellow book, Gospel of Nicodemus, in the box, along with a note, and a stack of older notes:

This book provides an account of the works done by the Shepherd Illuminate, from one of his supposed companions. It may shine light to your path, let you notice something that you could not previously. The translation is my own, as no published ones exist. If you wish to study the book you would do well to scribe one by your own pen, to notice, to recognise. 

Good luck. If you pick up the Work, you will need it. But it can be worthwhile.

Glint has never been terribly academic (he went to trade school)  

But a text meant to aid in the uncovering of secrets is basically exactly what he needs and he trust that the boxes protections against curses will stop him from ending up like Jasskca

 

One of the artifice projects he's been working on while in the bar 

 

A a pair of metal wings worn using leather straps 

 the wings wings resize to any person  wearing them and allow them to fly at a speed of 40 feet a moment*

Additionally the person wearing them can fire off feathers as projectiles acting as a +1  weapon with a range of 60 feet 

 

He adds a note explaining the itemss use

 

*Approximately 6 seconds

The governor of Ira Sani is loosely familiar with Christmas, though he didn't know it was Christmas anywhere today. This specific tradition is new to him, but it seems like a good one.

The wings are one of the most impressive works of magic he's ever encountered. He would love to be able to fly under his own power; usually that calls for a completely different kind of magic.

He gets a few plain necklace chains and a scented candle from Bar and sits at a booth for a while to work on a present. At one point when the candle's been burning for a while and the smoke swirls particularly nicely, he plucks a sphere of thin air out of thin air, visible only because of the smoke frozen within. Then a star and a cube made by a mostly similar process. He attaches each of them to one of the chains using plain, smokeless air, so the smoke pendants will seem to hover (when viewed through an atmosphere with the same index of refraction as this one and as long as they're clean).

While you're wearing or touching the necklace with the spherical pendant, no new magic can be cast on you (true of all magic in my world and several others but I've never tried it against a god). It won't break old spells that were in effect when you put it on. Spells cast on things other than you can still affect you (for instance, a spell that heats something you're touching can burn you). While you're wearing or touching the necklace with the cube pendant, you won't become colder than 36 Celsius unless you already were when you put it on. Several types of sedatives that work on humans can't be brought within a foot of the star necklace. None of the necklaces can transfer heat. The magic will break if the chains do, except in the case of the star necklace, where the chain and pendant both have the same enchantment. The cube and star necklaces can usually be used with other magic items, including magic necklaces. (The sphere necklace needs special care, such as being put on after the other magic items.) The cube and sphere pendants don't do anything and I just made them so I could have something to call the necklaces.

He has to actually shut the lid to be sure none of that counts as cursed. Someone could be really inconvenienced by wearing one of these necklaces.

This place is entirely, absolutely, delightfully absurd. Betriz keeps expecting to blink and discover that no, obviously this was all a joke, but that doesn't even make any sense.

None of these necklaces are going to help Iselle with the curse, are they. Protection against cold would have been grand to send along with Caz but he's long gone, possibly even in Ibra by now. It'll be nice to have it in the future, but hardly life-changing. The sedatives one will come in useful for Iselle sooner or later, given the lives they lead. The sphere one... she's tempted to leave in the box. She gets the sense magic is much more common some places than it is in Chalion, and it would just be a waste if she took it, it would never be useful in a place where no magic gets cast.

She doesn't have any magic of her own to leave behind, either, or much of value in general. She's decent with a pencil and a paintbrush, though, and Bar is happy to lend her both, to sell her paper and watercolors, and to offer cultural consultation.

I have left the necklace with the spherical pendant in this box, as it seems a powerful gift for one very different than myself. The painting has no magical power save that of faith: it depicts the Daughter, the Lady of Spring, the goddess to whom maidens like myself owe special fealty. She is blessing a tired traveler, and I hope that thus she may bless you, and me, and all those on the road tonight. 

I do not know if her power stretches beyond the borders of the world I come from. Even within it, it is known that the gods cannot fix all ills. But if she cannot reach that far, then I hope the piece will at least bring you a measure of joy with what beauty I could put into it.

The painting itself is lovely, but also a great source of mana (JJ is so glad he took Charge Swap from Wulong). He also loves the spherical necklace, both as a practical thing and a source of foreign magic to analyze and possibly replicate.

JJ ponders what to give, and finally decides to be thematic. He also does some last-minute tinkering with the gift. It was a rather frivolous side project of his. And not exactly optimized.

In the box goes: A red conical hat, with soft white fur. The only thing non-traditional about it are the many runes stitched in golden thread.

A friend of mine really cares about Christmas, and this has some magic based on him. So it felt like the most appropriate gift, I could give. It has three main effects when you wear it:

1) You can focus on a person you can see and have a sense if they are best classified as "Naughty" or "Nice" based on their actions from the past year.
2) It provides protection from non-magical heat and cold, regardless of what else you are wearing, it reduces magical heat and cold to 6% of its strength.
3) If Someone reach inside, it can create a plate of cookies and/or a glass of milk. There is no limit to this, except by the speed of your hands.

I added some minor effects after deciding to give it here: a courage effect that prevents mindless panic; a luck effect that doubles the good outcomes of events that rely on randomness; and a cleaning effect that sanitazes germs in a six-feet radius.

Merry Christmas! - A Friend of Santa
P.S.: I almost forgot, I couldn't for the life of me figured out how to make the milk not spill, so the "glass of milk", has a lid, which kinda makes it a jar? You can use the lid as a coaster.

Oh, wow, what a cool solstice celebration. You can't feed an army on just cookies, obviously, but this'll be great for morale. Not to mention the approximately Endure Elements effect. 

Lusilla places in the box a circlet composed of lanthanide-series wires, braided cleverly with the stems of still-living roses in such a way that it looks to all but a very close inspection like just an ordinary flower crown. Inside it she sets a cloth pouch full of mushrooms and berries. 

In theory, she shouldn't ought to have known in advance to prepare the gift, but she's been empathising with the clergy of Nethys more and more, lately. 

The flower crown has the magical effect of boosting the wearer's social skills and force of personality by one standard deviation (relative to my home planet's population). Additionally, the roses were sourced from a gift from someone I hold very dear. The foodstuffs inside the bag are from species that are natively extremely poisonous, but very tasty, and have been magically cleansed of all toxins. 

It would make excellent merchandise, this kind of permanent mental enhancement, but something seems wrong about taking what seems to have personal significance, and is intended as a gift, and putting it up for sale.

That's how you get fey on your behind, making a habit of such things. It's just bad juju.

The snacks, after he tests them himself, prove to be exceedingly novel and quite yummy. The headband he will dither over for a while longer, then receive Bar's guarantee that it is safe- "safe", apparently people occasionally make dramatic realizations about themselves under the influence of such things- And then he tries it on.

Well, that certainly is a thing. He thinks he'll wear it when talking to customers and leave it off when he's alone. The pretty flowers are a nice disconcerting touch, and the enhanced confidence allows him to delight in the deliberate juxtaposition with the rest of his aesthetic.

For himself he leaves a large round cake smelling sweet and faintly herbal, covered with berries and seeming somehow fresher than fresh, in a stainless steel cloche-

This is an Immortal Cake. It is a magical body-tempering food that is also extremely delicious. It will strengthen one's body towards a general, conceptual state of "perfection" or "immortality" as part of a process known as "cultivation". If you are unfamiliar with cultivation, you will still find it useful- Such knowledge and practice is not necessary to benefit, and would only eke out a bit more effect. The cake is perfectly safe for almost everyone; Ask Bar if you are unsure about it.

It may sometimes repair muscle or tendon damage, remove scars, repair hearing or sight damage, alleviate chronic pain, resist the effects of aging, etc. But will not restore entirely missing parts. 

Each person can only benefit from an Immortal Cake once, and you must eat as much as you are going to eat in one sitting. It can be safely shared, though of course the effect will be lesser on each individual partaking. 

For best results, perform intense exercise and body training for as long as you can stand, rehydrate, meditate or pray or perform other focus exercises, then eat the cake, and then exercise some more.