The Gift Economy

The buying season is that special time when our consumer culture really comes to the fore front. Magazines that just last month came out with a special “green issue” highlighting the state of the environment are now presenting detailed instructions on how to deck one’s home out to maximum splendour. Many of us want to scale back and realize we can’t afford all this decadence, but we don’t know where to start.

But there is hope! (Without you coming off as a modern-day Scrooge).

Budgeting. It’s the only way to avoid winding up flat broke just as Dick Clark is gleefully cashing his cheque for his big gig the night before. This does not mean tallying up how many people you need to give gifts to and then figuring out how much it will cost you. Rather, it means calculating your expenses over the next two months and subtracting that from your earnings. Voila: your Christmas gift-giving budget. Most likely, it will be less than you would like it to be. Considerably less.

In fact, the average person massively underestimates how much they’re spending if they go out shopping without a plan. Doing so leaves you wide open to impulse buys, useless trinkets, and guilt purchases (gifts to reciprocate for a gift you weren’t expecting, or to make up for your initial purchase being less expensive than what they bought you).

Preparation is the key.

To reduce your gift list, agree with relatives and friends with children beforehand that you want to reserve the presents to kids this year, and to ensure you don’t end up spoiling them, impose a limit on those gifts. For large families of adults, draw names rather than have everyone buy everyone else a gift.

In case you can’t stomach not giving “something”, but want to lesson your compulsion to buy unnecessary trinkets for relatives that have-it-all or that are outside of your immediate family, consider homemade gifts that are made with love. Gift baskets packed with jams and preserves, boxes of home-baked delectables, knit or embroidered crafts… the list is endless and Martha will undoubtedly set you in the right direction on her website. In fact, anything that can be consumed (wine, food, gift certificates for a service at a spa, salon, car wash, theatre, etc), is always a better choice than a knick-knack that the recipient may discretely drop off at the Barn after making sure you see it on display at their house once or twice (or worse, re-gift the following year to yours truly). Or give to a charity in the recipient’s name if you know that they are of that spirit.

For all those “somethings” you do buy, ask for a gift receipt (a receipt that encodes the price so the recipient need not know how much it cost you) to include with the present in case the recipient needs to return or exchange it. Test electronics before you wrap them, because if the product doesn’t work than it will be disappointing for the recipient when they open the gift and difficult to try and get remedied after Christmas. Check the store policy to ensure that the recipient can return or exchange the product if they need to (some stores do not allow for returns simply because you don’t like the product). For gift certificates check that the expiry date to be well-noted on the card so the recipient doesn’t fail to use it in the allotted time.

Because the only thing worse than a thoughtless gift is a well-intentioned gift that they can’t consume, exchange or redeem in time!