I can’t wait for “Just get shit for yourself instead and we’ll call it even Day” and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
My family decided years ago to not get presents for the adults, except maybe token items. Kids get Christmas gifts, adults gets a bottle of wine or something home made.
My wife’s family on the other hand exchanges hundreds of dollars worth of gifts, mostly in the from of overpriced “Harry and David” type gift baskets that take about 5 minutes of thought on the part of the giver. If my wife had her way, my family would “get in the spirit of Christmas” like her’s.
Many years ago my mom instituted an experimental Christmas policy. My sister and I were to buy our own gifts (from Mom and Dad to me) up to some dollar amount. We were to gift wrap them, then on Christmas, Mom and Dad opened the presents to see what they bought us. I thought this was great fun. My sister did not.
We no longer do this, but I thought it was neat and was a pretty good flip on traditional giving, especially since at the time my sister and I were in our early 20’s so giving Mom and Dad a break and turning Christmas around to amuse them was kind of nice.
I also got stuff that I really wanted.
If I want it I probably already have it, or I would have said this is what I would like when somebody asked me what I wanted for Christmas.
IMO giving gift cards is a cop out. I’d rather have the cash if it comes down to that because at least with cash I can spend it where I want. I especially love was-mart gift cards :rolleyes: when anybody who knows anything about me knows I detest wal-mart. It makes other people happy when I get them because I just give them away to whoever wants them.
When it gets to the point that the gift exchange is nothing more than me handing you a $25 gift card and you handing me a $25 gift card, or exchanging envelopes with cash in them then there is no longer a reason for the gift exchange.
I’m not totally against gift cards, they do have a purpose. I get my nieces gift cards to nice restaurants because they are young with children and I know they like to eat out but can’t justify spending the money. This way they can go out to a nice dinner without feeling guilty. If I give them cash it’ll disappear into the budget somewhere. My mother is elderly and has everything she needs. I’ll get her a gift card to something I think she will enjoy, to a spa or for a massage, something she wouldn’t think of doing for herself.
For me, part of the fun of giving is shopping around (online now) and finding something unique and special for that person. It can be frustrating with some people but at least it feels personal and that is part of the gift.
Everyone on my very short Christmas list gets a $50 gift card to the same place. Everyone knows what’s coming. My brother has on more than one occasion given me a gift card to the same store, in the same amount. My sister and brother in law have, knowing exactly what I’m spending on them, given me very expensive stuff.
Whatever.
Shopping for other people is usually sheer torture for me, not because I resent spending the money but because I end up agonizing over what to buy and get too stressed out. Gift cards are quick and easy.
Last year I pushed for pooling our money and giving a big donation to a local charity but that was a total non-starter.
Gift Cards! That’s what you get from me. Use 'em, sell 'em, give 'em away, throw 'em in a drawer and forget 'em!
I have an Amazon Wish List, but I really, really hate it. There’s just not that much stuff I particularly want, so it’s hard to come up with stuff to put on it, and my family REFUSES to accept that I’m not het up about getting this exact particular model of exploding space modulator, so if they run across a deal on the XP3C9 instead of the XP4D3 on my Amazon list, that will make me every bit as happy. And then, of course, there’s the list related whining that happens every. single. goddamn. year.
There’s not enough stuff on the list. I haven’t prioritized anything on the list and they don’t know what I really want. There’s too many things of one type on the list. This one item they were thinking about buying isn’t eligible for the free shipping and will cost a fortune. Or, and here’s the one that truly drove me up the damn wall, there’s nothing on the list they want to buy me, so I need to come up with more options for them.
Of course, not a single one of these people will give me even the tiniest hint of what they might like to get. I’m fairly sure there’s a special place in hell for folks who act like that.
When I can afford to get gifts (which, believe me, ain’t every year), I just straight-up ask people what they want. If they don’t tell me, they don’t get nothin’.
I started buying gift cards instead of presents a few years ago and I’ve never gone back. No hassle, no gift-wrapping, takes up very little space in the car, and they come in exactly the price you want.
My family’s taken the path of doing a “Yankee Swap” each year. We’re at that age where the old generation (my parents, aunts+uncles) are all newly retired or about to retire and looking at downsizing their respective houses, so they don’t want any more “crap”. My sister and my 3 cousins (who we traditionally celebrate with) are all in our 20’s and early 30’s, a couple married, a couple still dating, a couple not - but no younger kids yet.
So for the last couple years we’ve done a swap where there’s a definitive price limit ($20) and the goal is to come up with a gift that’s as funny as possible. Since there are like 15 of us (give or take depending on the dating ones) celebrating, it’s a great get together, its hilarious and overall a lot of fun.
We’d tried the “charity” thing and the “pick a name out of a hat” thing, but they really didn’t work out for various reasons. The Yankee Swap thing returned the joy and laughter of gift giving/opening and removed a lot of the annoying at the same time.
The only other thing I’ll add is that on top of that - my wife and I usually get a gift for my parents, and what I’ve done the last couple years is to get them a gift certificate to a really nice restaurant, like a Ruth’s-Chris-level steakhouse or something similar. My parents would pretty much never go to such a place on their own (father tends to be too cheap), so I think they enjoy it.
I’d even so go far as to recommend to anyone who’s in that kind of iffy place between getting a gift certificate for someone or buy a real object - get a gift certificate for a service. A restaurant, spa treatments, a massage, whatever you think the person would like, especially if it’s something you think its something they wouldn’t necessarily do on their own.
I love gift cards. Love getting them, love giving them. It’s not quite the same as opening a “real” gift, but I have a bad habit of buying the grandkids the same cute toy three years in a row, so I figure it’s probably better for them to go to the bookstore and pick their own goodies now.
Gift cards are great for the young and broke, too. Does my adult son need new clothes more than he needs gas for his car, or does he need groceries even more than that? A gift card can meet the most immediate needs, even if it means he can use it to buy gifts for his own kids.
My family competitively wraps gift cards. We decided a few years back to have a gift card swap rather than buying presents for everyone, since we all have obscure hobbies and think picking out the stuff we want is way more fun than trying to guess what other people can use. But wrapping a gift card the conventional way is boring.
Last year my aunt took some architecture modelling classes, so she bought a Home Depot card and built a very elegant wood and metal wrapping for it. Someone always brings a craft store card decked out in ribbon, beads, or whatever other scraps of shiny stuff they have to hand. I completed a book binding internship this year, so I’m going to make a small book and tuck a Barnes and Noble card in it.
