5 Of The Worst Gifts To Give Your Loved Ones This Holiday
After this one, I think I'd rather be single...
CHRISTMAS! My favorite holiday. We all love the family and friends gatherings, the chitchats and innocent holiday games, BUT let's be honest here... to many of us, the exchanging of gifts is probably one of the biggest deals on this festive day. Some people even get up out of their sweet warm beds early just to do what many would consider a vital tradition. So, while we get all hyped up about what gifts you are receiving from your loved ones this year, maybe we should be equally, if not more, concerned with what we are getting them. After all, gift giving is a two-way street, most of the time anyway. Here are 5 gift ideas to avoid when thinking about what to and what not to get your sweetheart.
Bad Gift Idea #1 - Gym membership
First of all, nobody likes to be reminded that they need to exercise during the last holiday of the year. I mean it's winter and cold outside for God's sake! We are all carrying a little extra holiday weight and we love that. Secondly, if they wanted to join a gym, they would and could have done that themselves. Certainly many of us like working out and staying fit, but we don't need nobody telling us what to do. Worse yet, if you are thinking about gifting it as an encouragement for losing weight, you have another idea coming. Giving your sweetheart a gym membership so as to push them to work out can easily backfire and in turn, they might just push you far far away instead. So it's really best to leave the decision of whether or not to join one to themselves. You don't want to waste money on something they might or might not use and quite possibly would not appreciate.
Bad Gift Idea #2 - Household supplies
You look around your house and notice the vacuum cleaner bags are totally out, and maybe your old cookware could finally use a replacement. So you think to yourself, maybe it's a good idea to buy them for your sweetheart. I mean after all they do most of the cleaning and cooking, it would be like killing two birds with one stone... this is something they would appreciate, right? Well, you couldn't have been more wrong. If they need any daily necessity things like vacuum cleaner bags, they would buy them now, there's no need to wait for you to get them, wrap them up nicely in a box and present it as a gift. Same with cookware, just because they enjoy preparing your everyday meals for you, it doesn't mean they want to get rewarded with "The Best Home Chef" award as a Christmas gift, that is unless they are into culinary arts and you gift them a good quality set.
Bad Gift Idea #3 - Calendar
You see them for sale at the mall all the time, especially around this time of the year. You look at all the pretty covers and think: "hmm, this is it, a great gift for my sweetheart!" Let me tell you something, almost no one wants to receive a calendar as a gift for any occasion, not only Christmas, unless they are some kind of a calendar collector (do they exist?). Giving your sweetheart a calendar is like giving them a stack of useless printer paper, the best they could do is put it on a corner of their desk and forget about it. We all have phones and tablets nowadays to tell the time and date. Plus you should really ask yourself, would you want that for Christmas, really? Maybe save that idea for your grandparents, which would still be a long shot.
Bad Gift Idea #4 - Freebies
Your company's giving out a free t-shirt as an appreciation for meeting your yearly goal. Hooray! Free stuff! Everybody loves free stuff, right? Sure, only if they DON'T count as a gift. Especially when it has that big company logo printed on it. You find nothing wrong with that you say? Okay, then you keep it. You probably feel much more proud of and connected to your own workplace than your sweetheart anyway. Gifting something that was given to you in the first place is always a bad idea, even if it's not obvious. Now of course, if that free gift was an iPhone or an expensive watch, something fancy like that, that COULD be a different story (I don't mean to sound materialistic but it is what it is). Still though, would it kill you to spend a little of your own hard-earned money to make your sweetheart happy one day (well two) of their life?
"You don't want to waste money on something they might or might not use and quite possibly would not appreciate."
Bad Gift Idea #5 - Festive anything
Everybody loves an ugly sweater every now and again, and we can all use a pair of funky holiday socks if you ask me. BUT, receiving them as a gift is a different vibe entirely. I mean, no one wears festive anything the day after the holiday. Okay... maybe the day after is still fine but no more after that. Because of its shortness of usability, gifting anything with a Christmas theme is generally frowned upon. The best it could do would be a side gift you give out as a joke. So if you decide to give your sweetheart that candy cane tie or that Rudolph knit hat, you might want to make sure you have another gift on your list to get them in case they get disappointed.
Final thoughts
Nobody wants to receive what they need on Christmas, but rather what they want. So if your sweetheart's smile goes away soon after opening the gift you gave them, or if they got quiet all of a suddenly, you know you should hug them, give them another gift to make up, and maybe study up for next year! Because gift giving is all about making them happy.
Julie Y. Barris
Founder | Chief Editor | Advice Guru of Moody Melon Magazine
I am an author, artist, entrepreneur, and a graphic designer with a unique vision to contribute to the world one idea at a time. Besides creating and inventing things, I’m also fascinated by the human mind. I enjoy helping others help themselves by giving them advice on family and relationship matters.
