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I would just say "thank you for the suggestions, but we've already finished Christmas shopping!" and leave it at that.

I mean... it's rude to just send someone your gift wish-list without them asking for it, but I'm a BIG fan of lists! I hate that my in-laws refuse to take the bait I give them every year and tell me what they want! But a wish-list have a variety of items ranging in costs so you can get what you want within your budget.

As for your SMIL - did you ask her what she wanted and she asked for a gift card? Or did she offer that info unsolicited? If it was the latter, then again, rude. BUT I personally wouldn't be put off by this. Every year my grandparents write me a check for Christmas and I get them a gift card, so we're basically just exchanging money. But I don't think either of us mind the arrangement! It would be weird to just not get each other anything.

@gingerbebe: agree

@Meowkers: Yes that's what I was assuming. I still don't think you need to acknowledge it.

[edit] I completely agree with you about the gift cards, I would hate it if I ended up just exchanging gift cards with a close relative every year. Gift cards are okay for daycare teachers etc. but for people you're close to, picking out a thoughtful gift is the whole point.

[edit 2] The reason I asked if FIL's gift ideas were more useful is - I'm wondering if the two of them maybe decided it would be helpful for them to provide wish lists, but MIL had a hard time coming up with anything specific, and they just decided to send the lists as-is rather than delay getting them to you any longer. Since, yes, it is absurd for a wealthy adult woman to ask her DIL for a gift card.

@Meowkers: Yes, I would be irritated. That is weird - both sets of parents say NOTHING when we ask them what they want, or pictures of DS or something. I would laugh out loud if they sent us a wish list for gift cards!?!

Although, I completely understand where you're coming from, I dunno... Just to offer an alternate perspective... I know personally my mom could also buy herself anything she wants whenever she wants it, but that doesn't mean she actually does. For some reason she hates spending "real money" on kindle books but LOVES getting Amazon gift cards to use on them. It makes absolutely zero sense to me, but she gets so excited when she gets an amazon gift card so she can buy one of the books on her list.

ETA. I also think this may have something to do with incompatible Love Languages. Being that you like to give gifts with thought and attention, you probably have a gift giving love language. But it sounds like maybe your MIL doesn't really have the gift receiving love language. It may make her uncomfortable to receive something that isn't EXACTLY what she wanted especially knowing that you put a lot of thought into it. I dunno... I'm not saying that one way is better or one way is right and the other is wrong. It just is.

After receiving that list I'd send a fruit basket and a generic card along with a massive amount of eye roll.
I think parents telling their kids what they want (essentially cash) for Xmas is incredibly weird. Unless there was significant financial hardship.

I think sending someone a gift wish list without being asked for it is over the top tacky regardless of what is on the list. I really like @gingerbebe: 's suggested response.

Regarding gift cards... I am not opposed to gift cards for certain people. My husband and my mom's husband are both golf addicts. They only thing they request every year for every gift-giving event is gift cards to one specific golf store. So, that's usually what I give, or a pick out an item from that specific store and give a gift receipt so they can return if they want and pick out what they want. Sometimes I give my BIL an amazon gift card as a supplemental gift. And I personally would be happy to receive a gift card. All that being said, I don't think I would ask someone to give me a gift card. Seems tacky to ask for it. (Unless you are a golf-addicted man, I guess! )

@Littlebit7: Laughed out loud at your response!

Hmmm... so after reading the responses I'm so torn on my response! On one hand, I think it's weird to send a gift list around unsolicited, especially if the gift list is useless! On the other hand, I am SO that cheap person who won't buy myself something that I can easily afford but will totally buy it if I have gift cards (like so many others have said - books, fun stuff at Sephora, cozy new jammies, etc.)

I think it depends on the relationship you have with SMIL. If she's a money grabber who annoys you, then read the situation as that. If she's someone who doesn't splurge on herself, read the situation as that.

Came back to this thread just to say as much as a GC is the best gift ever, I would dare not ask someone to give me one the same way I wouldn’t ask someone for the actual gift I would use the GC for. Case in point: like @foodnerd81: sometimes thoughtful gifts miss the mark. MIL likes to gift. She finally wore me out and I told her something I would use- travel coffee mug. Well she bought a travel mug that doesn’t hold hot liquid and has some weird saying on it. She tried.

I don't think it is horrible to receive a wish list from people you are exchanging gifts with. I like to get ideas of what people I'm gifting to want, it doesn't mean you have to get those.

I ask for gift cards for certain stores. Either it is for something I don't want to spend my money on or to go towards a bigger ticket item.

I don’t have an issue with lists (we do them in my family) or asking for gift cards (just because she CAN buy anything doesn’t mean she DOES. I can too but I feel guilty buying whatever I want all the time).
The unsolicited part would irk me if we’d never done lists before. But at the same time it would be sort of a relief. Because I like to get people something they want and if they tell me then who cares? I’m currently stressed about what to get my inlaws.
Gift giving isn’t about ME feeling good about finding the perfect gift. It’s about the recipient getting what they want and feeling good that they got what they want and me knowing they’ll enjoy it.

Here’s an excellent article about it. An excerpt first:

“One of the best gifts I’ve ever received came from my wife, Jessica, on Christmas in 2011: a pair of black Ralph Lauren jeans, made of an overdyed, heavyweight selvedge denim with a polyurethane coating that gave it a slight luster. As I tore off the paper, I knew exactly what I was unwrapping, and that they would fit just as I hoped, slim but not skinny. They were exactly what I wanted—which came as no surprise to Jessica, because I had told her just that, several weeks earlier.

Was I surprised by those black jeans? Not at all. Was I delighted? Deeply, and I continue to be, six years later, when I pull them on and pause to remember who gave them to me.

It’s common to think that giving someone a gift they’ve asked for is somehow less thoughtful than coming up with an idea on your own. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and Indiana University found that gift givers often focus on the moment of exchange, and define their success partly by their ability to surprise the receiver. But that moment is fleeting. A good gift, one that the recipient will use and appreciate, is not.

When it comes to gift-giving, the research shows, surprise is overrated. And as my black jeans prove, the agonizing labor of trying to figure out what to buy a loved one is completely unnecessary. We can just ask—and then give them what they ask for.

Why, then, do we obsess about whether it’s Grinch-like to just buy someone a present they asked for? Because we’re making it about us. In 2011, a series of studies in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology determined that givers often focus on finding gifts that demonstrate how considerate they are, rather than just considering what the recipient actually wants.”

https://quartzy.qz.com/1128441/theres-a-simple-selfless-genius-to-gifts-that-dont-aim-to-surprise-or-impress/

@Adira: My husband has thought that my family is weird for doing lists for years, yet he’s always annoyed by what his parents get him (and his mom is deeply hurt if we don’t use/like what she gets us which we NEVER like) or trying to think of what to get them. And I always said “why do you all torture yourselves???? Just exchange lists!” It can still be a surprise! If I give my mom and sister a list with 10 things, I don’t know which of those 10 things they’ll choose. But any one of them would be so exciting for me because it’s all things I want or need.
I guess just like some people don’t get why you do lists, I don’t get why people are so opposed! Seems like such a win win all around.

It could be worse - my MIL says all she wants for Christmas for DH to install a new mailbox post. While this may not sound bad, it will take HOURS, especially including that she's 45 minutes away. And it's never just one thing with her. She'll have DH out on the roof doing something crazy like last time.

I wish she'd just be happy with a fricken gift card instead of DH having to burn almost an entire day to replace something she already has.