Questions to Ask Yourself During the Giving Season
The gift-giving season is upon us. As you think about what to get your loved ones, a series of sometimes difficult questions will emerge. Will this gift show them how I feel?
How can I stay within a reasonable budget while recognizing how special this person is? Is there any gift out there unique enough to ensure that no one else will get it for them?
It’s hard to choose the right thing even for someone you know well. In this article, we take a look at questions you can ask yourself as you prepare to choose the perfect gift.
What is the right amount of money to spend?
The answer, of course, will wind up being subjective. You don’t have to spend $200 per person to make the holiday season meaningful. If you don’t have a lot of money to spend, consider looking for unique items. This could be something handmade. A hand-stitched Christmas stocking. A few jars of your famous tomato sauce.
Maybe an awesome vintage thrift store find.
If your budget is tight, but not so razor thin as to prohibit purchased gifts, try buying one high-quality item instead of two or three cheaper ones. If your plan is to spend $90, you could get a gift basket full of things that your special person will look at once and then forget about or you could get one high-quality item that they will use forever. Pretty simple choice, right?
What are they passionate about?
You won’t be reinventing the wheel when you start asking yourself what this person enjoys but it’s still a great place to start when crafting a list of potential gifts. Try to go deep cuts. Maybe everyone knows that Alex loves the St. Louis Blues. Do they also know that he is a passionate cook? Or that he became extremely interested in women’s basketball over the playoff season?
The better you know someone the easier it will be to tap into their more obscure interests. That’s where you all discover gift ideas that simultaneously thrill and surprise them.
What does this gift say?
There are nice gifts that a person will enjoy, but that are also impersonal. Nice shirts. AirPods. Even a tablet. It doesn’t really matter how expensive the item is. It’s a good gift because it will be enjoyed and it has a high monetary value, but it isn’t a personal gift. It communicates that you value your relationship with a person, but it might also signify that your connection is superficial.
Nostalgia-based gifts, on the other hand, can say that you think about a person a lot. That you care about them on a deeper level. Fans of The Office might recall the teapot that Jim buys Pam in an early season. The teapot is full of small inside jokes that the two of them have shared during their time on the job.
During that same episode, their boss Michael has put an iPod in the white elephant gift exchange pile. Pam ultimately chooses Jim’s teapot over the iPod. The message? A really thoughtful gift will often be valued more than a really expensive one. The other message? You can say a lot with a well-thought-out item.
What will other people be getting them?
Your mother probably told you that you shouldn’t base your decisions on what other people will be doing. That was probably great advice when you were in sixth grade and trying to avoid getting in trouble for participating in a food fight during middle school lunch. There are probably even times you’ve used that wisdom as an adult. This isn’t one of them.
Within family structures, there are often predictable gift patterns. Aunt Susie always does baked goods. Grandma Helen is famous for handing out puzzles. Your brother-in-law loves to give books from the local shop down on Main Street.
You may find your gift-giving sweet spot by looking into the gaps and seeing what is left.
Is this item unique?
Well is it? Is it something they never would’ve thought of themselves but love on sight? Those are the sort of gifts that we specialize in. Our flagship products are gold-plated roses. However, we have an entire catalog of unique gifts that are great for holidays or commemorating special occasions.
You’ll find, as peruse our selection, that there are items available for both men and women. Some of the gifts are romantic while others are simply a great way to give a special person in your life an item they wouldn’t find anywhere else.