So with the holidays coming up, there will be ample opportunity to buy gifts. But the question is, what do you buy? Well that depends on a variety of factors. First of all, how well you know the person. Now, this has happened to nearly all of us: when you get invited to some party for some person that you know (and like), but that you don’t know well enough to know what kind of gifts they prefer. Sure, you may know their general preferences: sports, electronics, clothes, movies… this is where the gift card comes in. Once you’ve figured out their general area of interest, it won’t be too hard to find a store wide enough in variety to please even your sort-of-close friend.
However – and yes, there is a however. Gift cards, in general are not acceptable for close friends. We’ve all done it – in fact, I’m notorious for this – but giving a gift card to a best friend is, frankly, a little unimaginative. Of course, this all depends on the reason: for instance, if you know for a fact that your friend loves origami, but you know nothing as to the preferred/higher quality textures, colours, or styles of origami, it makes sense to just get her a gift card to an art store with a good variety of origami paper. In this case, let her know your reasoning, so that she knows that you remember her likes and dislikes, and that you care.
But for other circumstances, you need to find a more specific gift. Different methods work for different people. Some people like to brainstorm gift ideas before getting to the store. Now, a good way of gift-giving is a combination gift: one or more small item paired with a larger item. Small items can be anything; to think of these, think about inside jokes that you may have had with your friend, and buy a little something to make him or her laugh. For example, a friend of mine always said that she wanted a yellow Lamborghini, so we bought her keychain with a yellow sports car. These little things are what make him or her laugh – sort of like an appetizer of what’s to come.
The key here is to get a gift that you know they’ll like. This may mean that clothes are out of the question: I for one have very different tastes from my friends, so they would never like any clothes I would buy for them. The (ideal) main gift has to be something that they’ve mentioned that they like, but that they won’t necessarily expect you to get if for them. For instance, my friend loves vanilla. But she only really mentioned it once: but I remembered, and bought her a vanilla bath kit, which she loved. Personally, for their main gift, I find it much easier to puruse the stores before making a decision. Odds are, there’ll be something that you see that you know they’ll love.
Yes, it may be a bit more effort, but you’ll be surprised how great it feels, knowing that you just made someone’s day.
0 comments:
Post a Comment