karel: (han Solo ► here comes the party)

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posted by [personal profile] karel at 04:22pm on 01/01/2011
My family and I have both been broke for a while, so it's somewhat understood that many times, we may not give gifts. Generally, I handmake cards, and this seems to be acceptable enough to people, so in that way, I bypass gifts a lot. Any extra cash I have will usually go into either something with practical use or, much more likely, a gift card.

I do know that this year in particular, my parents sort of really went all out, and I felt more than a bit awkward, because 99% of what they got me, I just had no idea what to do with. I think the best gifts I got were a Home Depot gift card and a pair of nice headphones. Everything else honestly just seemed really tacked on, in a "we must have X number of gifts!" way. I'm sort of in the same boat of trying to figure out what to do with all of these extra things, knowing that if my mom comes by, she'll probably want to use some of them (especially the lap-desk).
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wood_elf: (Default)

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posted by [personal profile] wood_elf at 08:54pm on 01/01/2011
Everything else honestly just seemed really tacked on, in a "we must have X number of gifts!" way

I got that impression too - one of the things they'd got me was a hot chocolate and hot water bottle set. Came with a strange novelty mug with difficult-to-clean knobbles, 2 sachets of chocolate powder (which I don't really like) and a tiny-to-the-point-of-uselessness hot water bottle. This must have been fairly costly, not a cheap stocking filler type present. I will be sure to be using the stuffs if parents visit, but can see them spending the rest of the year in the cupboard. Just thinking, why? That's £20 that we could have spent on lunch or on any number of more useful things. Items that are sold as gifts and don't have any purpose beyond that suck.
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karel: (amaterasu ► consuming fire)

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posted by [personal profile] karel at 09:03pm on 01/01/2011
Items that are sold as gifts and don't have any purpose beyond that suck.

Oh man, do they ever. idk, it's for that reason that I'm usually amazingly picky when it comes to buying gifts for other people, because I don't want to get them something that they'll have to do the "awkward 'thank you'" about, you know?

I like getting coffee mugs, but the ones in novelty sets are almost never the sort that I would actually use due to their shape, not being dishwasher safe, or whatnot... I hate to complain, because then it looks like I'm being ungrateful, and I'd never complain to the recipient (unless they got me something that they know I'm allergic to or some other similar thing), but gift-giving can be a little irritating. I don't understand why there's such a stigma to giving money/gift cards, but I've heard a lot of people say that it's a really thoughtless gift. I just... don't understand that. If you give me money, well, then I can get what I really wanted. Or even use it for needs, like paying bills.
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