Day 13: G for Gifting

Amongst arts requiring the highest of skills, there is one art that gets less spotlight. None other than gifting. Buying the perfect gift is nothing less than a sophisticated art. 

One of my most favourite episodes from Seinfeld is the one where the ever devious George hands out cards instead of Christmas gifts. The card says that a donation to the "Human Fund" has been made on behalf of the recipient. Needless to say, the Human Fund was fake. 

But, the ingenuity in George's thought is the fact that very few people would ever break the social convention to verbalise how much they hated the gift. And that's the basis of this art of gifting. Anticipating the worst possible and best possible reaction and gifting for that.

I have worked out a simple 2 by 2 matrix for this, but of course, this is not exhaustive. Please feel free to think of more dimensions to this art form.

Here's what I think is the ideal gifting pattern:

Category 1: The Begrudgingly Accepted Gifts

These are gifts that the recipient dreamt of, for a good period of time. They have made lists of what features, they have seen Youtube videos of comparisons, they have seen unboxing videos. They know what they want. There are two ways this category of gifting can end up - 

One, when the recipient hates you because you got them a brand they did not want and now they cannot buy what they want, because you gave them this. You can't do much. Don't beat yourself up.

Two, when the recipient gets exactly what they wanted. The best way to make this happen is to keep your ears open for all kinds of hints. For instance, when I wanted a Fitbit for my birthday, I was subtly priming my husband to the idea. Leaving my phone open on an e-commerce site, searching for Fitbit, making an obvious frustrated comment about how no fitness app is accurate. It works. Ask my left hand wrist.

Category 2: The Grocery List Gifts

You would not believe the number of times this gifting happens. Sometimes, unknowingly. Getting gifts that people consider as "have to buy" items.  The only way to get out of this trap is to look around into other's shopping carts before paying. If its lying in a family shopping cart, don't gift it.

Category 3: The Recycling Gifts

When you gift something that the recipient does not want and would never pay for, assume you will get this gift gifted back to you in a few months. After some recycling. There's no verbal cues for this. Just the silent reprisal of a gift that never deserved to be a gift.

Category 4: The Perfect Gifts

The trick is to find things that people want to own, but would be guilty spending money on. When they get it as a gift, it's perfect. They got it without spending money on it. And this list is narrow but has high scope. Amazon Alexa. Passport Cover. Tickets to a concert. One of those beautiful notebooks. Fun beer glasses. Coffee Mugs.

You know the pattern now. Think of all things around you that you got as gifts but didn't throw away. That's it. That's the perfect gift. They lurk around forever. You cannot get rid of them, because you wanted them.

Anyway. That's just my 2 bits on gifting. Anticipate needs. That's all.

Just fyi, I want to own a house on the beach and I feel it's a waste of money. Just saying.

Cheers

Preeks