In terms of total number of gifts given? In terms of total retail value of all gifts?
It’s my stepmom’s birthday, and my first thought was to stop by the flower shop and look for a little plant to give her, and I realized that in my lifetime, I’ve gifted lots of plants.
I very much doubt it. Unless you are counting cut flowers, I do not think I have ever given a plant as a gift, and have certainly never received one. Neither have I very often seen other people receive one. I am sure I have seen clothes, candy, jewelery, toys, electronics, money, gift cards, toiletries, food, and probably many other types of thing that are not presently coming to mind, given and received far more often than plants (even including cut flowers). If you have done it a lot, I should think that you are almost certainly a statistical outlier, probably an extreme one. In my experience, living plants would comprise a miniscule proportion of all gifts given or received.
Also, if you count Christmas gift-giving, plants definitely fall by the wayside.
Plants are often given to patients in hospitals to cheer them up, but sometimes the nurses will take the plants out of the patient’s room for a variety of reasons.
Plants are also sometimes given as housewarming gifts, but besides those two occasions they are rarely given as presents in the US.
You’re more likely to get a pet than a plant where I come from…
Flowers are plants, aren’t they?
Nope, flowers are cut from plants.
Not if it’s a potted lily.
I would guess that gifts for children are the most given gifts over all.
It depends on how thin you slice the categories. For instance, there are probably more gifts of toys than there are of plants, but there are probably more gifts of plants than of Optimus Prime with Trailer Playset.
The most given gift is a fruitcake.
[QUOTE=Johnny Carson]
There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other.
[/QUOTE]
Then it’s a plant, not a flower.
Know the difference between a hydrangea and a fruit cake?
You can eat a hydrangea.
World-wide, certainly, but in the USA, the custom is not widely observed.
I would’ve thought chocolates would be given more frequently than either cut flowers or plants.
Oh, and feel free to send any unwanted fruitcake to me. The richer and darker the better.
Are you saying plants are the most given gifts worldwide? :dubious: I highly doubt it. Cite?
I’m with you, jabiru!
Count me in too.
Easy answer: money is the most given gift worldwide. Good for any occasion and always the right size. I’d say at a wedding money gifts outnumber all other gift types by maybe 10 to 1. Greeting cards (where the money is put into) may be a close second, but in many cultures a card is not required nor wanted. In Asia, a red money envelope is used, which may outnumber the total number of greeting cards sold worldwide.
Yeah, I actually like fruitcake. But y’know…fruitcake joke.
I think flowers should count as plants by default, since they’re cut from plants.
But then, should we also count sweaters made from cotton or flax, wrapping paper made from trees, etc. etc.