The ABC of Gift Giving This Christmas

Wendy came rushing to the office exuberantly one morning when she heard that her boss was giving Christmas gifts to everyone on this day. Then the most awaited moment came. Her boss started distributing small gifts wrapped in a red colored paper tied up in a golden ribbon. Her curiosity has started to kill her, so she impatiently opened up her present untied the ribbon quickly and ripped the red paper until an image of a small wooden angel attached to a glass candle holder stood before her eyes. With a gaped face, she mumbled frustratingly, a candle holder again! Of course she made sure that no one in the room heard her silent sound of protest.

Christmas has been known as the time for gift giving and receiving expected gifts from the people we work with, close friends, shopping chums, smoking or drinking buddies, lovers and members of the family. Choosing gifts for the people to be the lucky recipients of our generosity is a harder than we thought. Picking a gift at this time of the year for somebody we consider important in our lives seem to be taken for granted these days.

Sometimes we think that picking dainty small items such as snowman figurines, candle holders and candles in various forms, sizes and colors are worth more than just gathering dusts on top of our tables and shelves. We assume that these items would wind up a beatific smile on the receiver. It baffles me why women continue to give away these most popular but not necessarily most likable gifts wish list items for Christmas.

Is it because of its affordable low price or because you feel compelled to join the bandwagon of "I'll buy what everybody commonly gives". I hope I will not be misconstrued here. I still believe in the good old cliché that it´s not about the gift but it´s the thought that counts. Yeah, yeah, but how about the practical side of gift giving?

It does not make sense when we take time and go out of our way to shop to give to someone something and yet ending up giving a run-of –the-mill kind of gift just for the sake of giving on Christmas day.

In the early 90´s when heaps of cheap photo albums were sold in every local stores in Manila, everyone gave photo albums as Christmas gifts. You could just imagine how many photo albums wrapped in all sorts of gift wrappers were sitting beneath my Christmas tree. Don´t even ask but let me tell you that it was enough to open up a small stall for a Christmas bazaar.

I agree that gifts should not necessarily be expensive or branded products but they certainly have to be something meaningful to the receiver. Ergo, gifts would be ideal if tailored suited to the person you intend to give it to. If an avid reader, why not buy a book suited to his taste. A novel that he can surely enjoy during the holiday season or a self-help book that could change his perspective for the New Year would be a reasonable present. A friend who´s busy or pretending to be busy juggling his time with work, family errands and social life would be delighted to get an appointment book or a personal organizer. A sport buff would enjoy a pair of light weights, sports socks, sports book or any kind of less expensive fitness gear. A girl friend who struggles with curly frizzy hair would hug you tightly this Christmas with $ 12 anti frizz serum. You can make a happy camper happier with a small Swiss army knife or a portable camping tool set.

Gift giving is a heartfelt and time consuming effort. Therefore it takes your creative mind to figure out what would make the receiver smile or at least make them feel lighter, loved and thought about. Avoid sending the special person trendy non-sense generic useless gifts like tons of candles not unless you want to make a statement that you´re a candle wax wholesaler. Lastly, it´s a no–no to recycle old or left over gifts that you may have given from last Christmas. You wouldn´t want to wish the floor to split open for you to sink underneath when you remember that you had given the same Christmas gift to the same person for the past two years because you just gave a left over item in your stock room.

It is always good to remember that the gifts you give, tell a story about the sender than the receiver. Don´t make your receiver label you as a modern day Ebenezer Scrooge and make your receiver´s Christmas…... a nightmare.