When I’m writing about gift-giving and gift ideas, I often focus on either products, cool websites, lists & resources, and some occasional advice. After all, the mission of the site is to help you find gifts for people, while making your life easier and helping to find the occasional “wow” gifts.
That said, even when you’ve taken the time to think about a special gift for someone, there are times when you may accidentally take away from the pleasure of receiving the gift through some common mistakes (“faux pas”). Here are 10 that come to mind:
#1, Bragging About The Deal: Try not to get so excited about the deal you got when buying the present! Don’t talk about the sale, the discount, or that you actually found the gift at Costco’s or BJ’s. It’s not as special to receive a gift when the giver is telling you how much money they saved when they bought you the present.
#2, It’s Just A Little Something: OK, it may be true, but telling someone you just “got them a little something” doesn’t help make them feel special. That’s probably just your guilt coming through about what you spent on the item. Remember, this is about them, not you! Just say something simple like, “when I saw this I thought of you.”
#3, No Wrapping, No Presentation: Try not to just hand a present to someone, without any wrapping or a gift bag. Do something! Even if it’s putting a bow around a hard-to-wrap present, or doing something silly like covering it in multi-colored sticky notes. Your gift recipient will feel so much more special when they know some effort has been put into making it a special moment.
#4, The Generic Gift: This is one of the hardest parts of gift-giving. In fact, it’s the part of giving presents that inspired this blog. If you haven’t thought about anything that the recipient might enjoy, then you may make them feel worse at a deeper level than if you gave them nothing at all (maybe), or if you are a couple days late with a present. After all, it’s not that hard to take a few minutes and think about what someone might enjoy. In the case of gift-giving, it truly is the thought that counts. Check out this raw list of gift giving ideas for some possible inspiration.
#5, Buying For Yourself: This is similar to the “Generic Gift” faux pas listed above. However, instead of just buying something that seems to be OK for the situation, you took some time to think “what would I want?”. Spend some time thinking about what they might want.
Ways To Find A Better Gift -Here, are some quick ways to think about them!
- What are their hobbies?
- Do they have any collections?
- Do they have a favorite place to go on vacation?
- Do they drink wine, eat cheese, or love gourmet foods?
- Favorite sport? Favorite sports team?
- Is this an occasion where a personalized or engraved item would provide memories down the road?
I’ll be writing a much more comprehensive brainstorming list very soon!
Can you think of any other common gift-giving mistakes? Comment below!
