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godsend or cop
;)Generally I get personal presents for my parents, boyfriend, two best friends, and brother. My cousins, work colleagues, and a few other family connections get gift certificates.
Here in the west we live in a very materialistic culture. Often our family and friends have everything they really need, or they are really in need of everything! If you know something special that will delight them and fits your budget, get it. But getting trinkets or instant white elephants is no favor either to your pocketbook or their lives. A gift card can be marvelous then.
If they are in need of a lot of things, a gift card to a place like WalMart or Fred Meyers or something similar gives them the opportunity to get something they need from any department. For a student, a gift card to a grocery store or the college bookstore is terrific.
If it is someone who really has all they need, get creative. Although a gift card to an office supply store can be a great idea, consider also one to someplace different a unique gift shop, or a shop that caters to whatever their favorite hobby is, or, if they have animals, maybe the feed store nearest them.
Gifts are fun to unwrap and if it is something special that has obviously been thought about or handmade, there is nothing better. But a very close second is a gift card!
At the risk of sounding ungrateful, I prefer getting gift cards instead of gifts that sit in my closet or end up being given to charity. I also prefer to give gift cards if I know what store or restaurant the recipient likes to shop/eat at, that way they know I bought it especially for them. In the last 10 years I've been chastised only once by a friend for giving her a gift card, saying it was the most impersonal gift of all. but then that same woman derided her 7yearold son for a gift he gave her (he had picked it out himself and was so proud of it) so I figured she was just a rotten person and didn't take it personally. I also quit having anything to do with her. So bring on the gift cards! I think pleasant thoughts of the cardgiver every time I use it.
I think most of the time, for someone you're close with, it's a total copout, unless it's for something specific that you absolutely know they'll need or love, like a Blockbuster giftcertificate if they love to watch movies, or a Macy's gift card if you know they've been saving up for a new Coach purse but you don't want to spend enough to buy the whole thing. But even in cases like this, I think it's far more personal if you add to the gift with something else as well, like if you pair the Blockbuster card with a box of their favorite candy, or a movie poster from a favorite movie, or something else like that.
For the myriad gifts you have to buy for people you don't really know, I think gift cards are a total godsend. I worked as a teacher, so let me tell you that the last thing a teacher needs is another "1 teacher" mug, or a teacher ornament, or a stuffed frog. Not to say those things aren't appreciated, because they are, but anyone who has worked as a teacher has a zillion of those things.
I don't loathe giftcards, although I think they do denote a certain impersonality. So, by giving a gift card, I think you kind of say that you're not very close to a person. If that's true, then I think a gift card is a wonderful choice. But if you ARE close to a person, then a gift card with no personalization to it may be somewhat offensive.
It is so hard to buy a personal gift even for somebody you know very well.
Throughout my life I have received many gifts I had no clue what to do with or what where these specific item chosen for me.
Clothes I dare not wear in public and that is if they fit at all.
Music CD from performers I detest and that never fit my music collection despite it being quite eclectic!
"Art" pieces I couldn't wait to throw to the trash and the list just goes on and on,[url=http://www.holisteroutlet.cc]hollister pas cher[/url].
I think the worst gift I got was this ugly wooden newspaper and magazine holder. It had a really ugly dark color and did not fit the furniture at all. It's worth mentioning that I only read the web version of a newspaper and have no magazine subscriptions at all. I did use that gift for a while as a trash bin in my home office. As it happened, I got that gift about two days after my trash bin broke as I stumbled on it.
It's difficult to get something that would really satisfy the taste of the person receiving it. You have some chance of success with those you know very well, or for some specific occasions (like the birthday party of a 4 year old boy where every super hero doll would probably be greatly appreciated.) Otherwise, you are bound to miss most of the time.
Therefore a gift card is such a great option. You allow the person to select based on his own taste and without the usual budgetary constraint or at least the lack of some constraint. Of course the downside is that a good gift can seem much more expensive then it actually is while a gift card is blatantly declaring its true face value. Still, I say a definite YES to gift cards.