I love to give gifts. In fact, half of the Christmas fun for me is planning and shopping for the perfect gifts. I enjoy giving needed gifts, spontaneous gifts, Christmas gifts, birthday gifts. (though if you don't live where I do, your birthday gifts will probably be about six months late)
I think there's a sort of art to gift giving...figuring out what a person likes, what they collect, and what they want without really saying it. I'm not claiming I always get it right, but half the fun is trying. In some ways it's like writing...you wait for the thunderbolt of inspiration to hit, and then you go crazy.
But I think the well of inspiration is currently dry. I have a birthday gift to buy and for the life of me, nothing seems very interesting. I can think of plenty of appropriate gifts or decent gifts, but the right gift keeps eluding me. And the other thing is that I just can't be bothered. I mean, I have to come up with something, and quickly, but without the inspiration? Well the wallet is staying in my purse. I don't know if the problem is summer, the 40 Day Fast, or what, but I think this is going to be one failure of a gift.
How about you? Do you shop for the perfect gift (or wrapping paper, Jen!)? Or does your spouse do the shopping?
Friday, June 29, 2007
The Art of Gift Giving
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I love to give gifts too. I like to tear out things in magazines that would seem like a good gift for someone and put it in a file, and that way I can browse that for ideas.
uncommongoods.com is a good website for unique things too!
I will check out that site, thanks!!! Good idea about the magazines, too.
I love to shop for the "greatest" gift, as well as the wrapping. Amy, you remember well! I almost put the same effort into the gift wrap selection as the gift! Yes, I still obsess... one thing about me that hasn't changed a bit :-)
Seriously, Jen, how could anyone forget you?
I don't know whether or not I'm typical for a male, but I totally suck at gift selection. I mean totally.
I honestly try to put thought into it, but no amount of effort changes the fact that I just don't have a clue.
I am married to the world's greatest wife, in that she knows this about me, and has removed the stress from it by being gracious about it. I'll tell her that I want to give her something really nice for her birthday or our anniversary or whatever, and that I have no clue what would be nice. So she goes with me to the store, and picks out something she really likes, and I buy it for her. She's happy, I'm happy, everything works out.
Similar techniques are used for all sorts of occasions (we don't buy Christmas presents for each other at all, I ask before making a Valentine's Day purchase to make sure I get her what she wants, etc).
I know this sounds totally unromantic and unspontaneous and stuff, but that's not a problem either -- we simply channel the spontaneous and romantic energies into... ahem, other things... and everyone is happy.
When we are giving gifts to other people, she picks them out. Like you, she's got "the gift" for picking out really great things. :-)
Post a Comment