Tuesday 23 December 2014
The holidays are within us! A
time for wonderful moments. A jolly gift giving season. So, what kind of gift
are you expecting? Would you want money-gifts? I wouldn’t, so I’ll explain it,
I’d rather share someone’s time. Why? I’ll explain my principles for gift
giving.
· Sentimental Things - cause true, genuine, human EMOTIONS, and they strengthen BONDS.
· Luxury Items - anything you don’t necessarily need. Something you’d WANT but can’t easily BUY.
· Functional Stuff - the USEFUL and COOL stuff, the gifts that creates life IMPROVEMENTS.
· Money and Cash - anything that can be SPENT. I absolutely dislike this option, but I might consider it if I need, not want, something from the HOLIDAY SALES.
To start with, the Sentimental Things are always my favourite,
except when they are too sappy. They give you the best emotional reactions to
gifts. Sometimes, they might not even look like material gifts, but they exist.
Also, they also mean that you care more for the other person receiving this
type of gift.
· Any custom-made gift made by you. Works well if you’re artistic, musical, or crafty.
· Anything that involves one of the person’s most valuable interests. Tickets for movie lovers, a sketchpad for artists, a fancy pen for academics, a chessboard for thinkers, etc.
· Finally, what other thing beats sharing your time? Spending your time with a person beats any gift; discuss intellectual ideas, talk about the past and the following year, go around town visiting holiday hotspots, and get a cup of coffee. Make people appreciate you, not your wallet.
Remember that thought does count. Gifting anything expensive
without putting thought into it makes you seem materialistic and egotistical.
Then it puts guilt and a feeling of awkwardness on the person if he/she returns
a “cheaper” gift.
Examples of Luxury Items:
· What a child typically wants, the latest PlayStation/Xbox/Laptop/Apple/Android. Gaming consoles, stationary and portable. Enough said.
· He buys Bvlgari jewellery, Louis Vuitton shoes, and the priciest Gucci bag. Then grandpa gives them to hermit cousin who does not care whether he’d taken a shower or not … seriously, think before buying senselessly.
Not all gifts over $100 are considered luxury, thoughtless
freebies. Some of them actually are bought to add interest and practicality to
gift exchanges. Additionally, some of them might be liked by others depending
on their functionality.
Examples of Functional Stuff (That Are Actually Cool):
· iPhone lens. They are absolutely awesome. Photographer or videographer, both would agree that those glassy attachments are the best things ever since Converse Chuck Taylors.
· A year of Netflix, eBooks, a fitness watch, or a flash drive (USB) are all possible picks. This is the 21st century, better adapt to it rather than stay traditional in the past.
· Clothing will always be in someone’s must-have list. However, not all kinds of clothing should be gifted. Usually, scarves, earrings, hats, belts, sunglasses, and other accessories are the safest categories to pick from.
· iPhone lens. They are absolutely awesome. Photographer or videographer, both would agree that those glassy attachments are the best things ever since Converse Chuck Taylors.
· A year of Netflix, eBooks, a fitness watch, or a flash drive (USB) are all possible picks. This is the 21st century, better adapt to it rather than stay traditional in the past.
· Clothing will always be in someone’s must-have list. However, not all kinds of clothing should be gifted. Usually, scarves, earrings, hats, belts, sunglasses, and other accessories are the safest categories to pick from.
Money and Cash:
Should you even consider it as a possible
gift idea? Think about gift cards, cheques, Christmas money. Do you sense the
“I-don’t-have-time-to-do-something-thoughtful” feeling when receiving or giving
money? The problem is that the gift card or cash has a limit attached to is,
$25, $50, $100. Why must you be bought, treated like an object, like you’re
just some kind of businessman’s business? Why not be treated as a human whose
emotional response is more valuable than temporary feelings of power from
having $50 to spend at Walmart? Two answers: the person does not care about you
or the person just does not know enough about you, so buys a gift card or gives
money to be safe.
To end this, why not think about giving someone a
combination of the three? Let’s say, your time and company, something useful
but valuable and hard to get. For example, spend the holidays together, give
the techy person- a smart-ring or a smartwatch, the gamer- a newly released video
game, the fashionable- a beautiful scarf, the artist- sheet music or an arts
book, the intellectual- something new to learn.
I have skipped many types of people, you can probably find
out the type of person you’d gift yourself. Remember, thought over price. The
value of a gift is better found by the reactions of the receiver, not on the
price it displays in the stores. A present can be as rare as life, friends and
a future to look forward to, or it can be as simple and lovely as a nice
conversation under the winter atmosphere.
- Angelo
