I beg to differ ...
I just finished reading (ok, I'll admit; I skimmed) Gift Cards are Not Gifts on the Money section of the MSN site. It's a topic that comes up a lot this time of year, and Emily Post and Miss Manners both concur. Gift cards aren't gifts. Everybody knows that.
Aren't they? Do they? From the article:
A gift, ideally, says, "I thought about you. I considered your likes and dislikes, your needs and wants, your dreams and desires, and found you this token of my esteem that I hope will delight you."
A gift card says, "There! Checked you off my list."
And here's where I feel confident in my disagreement. You see, if you knew me, if you thought about what I like, what I don't like, my needs and wants, and what would delight me; you'd know that my heart's desire is a Starbucks gift card. I'm not kidding.
Here's the thing: I love Starbucks. I really do. With an unholy and sometimes embarrassing passion. But let's be honest: it's not cheap. And I'm not loaded with disposable income. So Starbucks is, for me, a Treat. With a capital T and that rhymes with G and that stands for GIFT! And as a Treat, I rarely spend my own money on it. So how can I get it? By the lovingkindness and generosity of people who know me well and have chosen a Starbucks gift card when there was an appropriate gift-giving occasion. Look at it this way: I have very few material needs. And quite frankly, if they're actual needs, I will probably figure out a way to work them into my budget. And I have very few material wants that I actually need. In fact, one of my main wants is an anti-gift (or something). That is, I appreciate a gift that I don't have to dust!
So I ask Miss Manners and Emily Post and their friends in the financial industry what's so awful about a gift card that you know someone would love? Isn't that better than wasting money on something they don't want or need, that won't be donated to Goodwill in a year (or less)? Isn't that a more responsible ecological footprint?
OK, so maybe I got a little carried away, but I had to chuckle when I read that article. And the fact is that I'm thankful for any gift anyone gives me, because it's from them and chosen for me. But this has been on my mind quite a bit because Unk's family actually makes out Christmas lists for each other to shop from, and every year I put this on mine. It worked one year for my birthday, because I didn't put anything else on the list (LOL), but I don't think I can do that too often :)
I don't argue with some of the more valuable parts of the article, such as "it shouldn't be difficult for the recipient to spend the gift". That is, I'm a big girl. A gift card to a 5-7-9 store won't help. There are other things like this (no, I don't want a gift card for Valentine's Day, but then, we don't usually exchange gifts then anyway), but the author keeps going back to the overarching theme that gift cards aren't gifts. Oh well. That's their two cents, and now you have mine. And no, I'm not asking anyone to send me one. That wasn't my point :)
Aren't they? Do they? From the article:
A gift, ideally, says, "I thought about you. I considered your likes and dislikes, your needs and wants, your dreams and desires, and found you this token of my esteem that I hope will delight you."
A gift card says, "There! Checked you off my list."
And here's where I feel confident in my disagreement. You see, if you knew me, if you thought about what I like, what I don't like, my needs and wants, and what would delight me; you'd know that my heart's desire is a Starbucks gift card. I'm not kidding.
Here's the thing: I love Starbucks. I really do. With an unholy and sometimes embarrassing passion. But let's be honest: it's not cheap. And I'm not loaded with disposable income. So Starbucks is, for me, a Treat. With a capital T and that rhymes with G and that stands for GIFT! And as a Treat, I rarely spend my own money on it. So how can I get it? By the lovingkindness and generosity of people who know me well and have chosen a Starbucks gift card when there was an appropriate gift-giving occasion. Look at it this way: I have very few material needs. And quite frankly, if they're actual needs, I will probably figure out a way to work them into my budget. And I have very few material wants that I actually need. In fact, one of my main wants is an anti-gift (or something). That is, I appreciate a gift that I don't have to dust!
So I ask Miss Manners and Emily Post and their friends in the financial industry what's so awful about a gift card that you know someone would love? Isn't that better than wasting money on something they don't want or need, that won't be donated to Goodwill in a year (or less)? Isn't that a more responsible ecological footprint?
OK, so maybe I got a little carried away, but I had to chuckle when I read that article. And the fact is that I'm thankful for any gift anyone gives me, because it's from them and chosen for me. But this has been on my mind quite a bit because Unk's family actually makes out Christmas lists for each other to shop from, and every year I put this on mine. It worked one year for my birthday, because I didn't put anything else on the list (LOL), but I don't think I can do that too often :)
I don't argue with some of the more valuable parts of the article, such as "it shouldn't be difficult for the recipient to spend the gift". That is, I'm a big girl. A gift card to a 5-7-9 store won't help. There are other things like this (no, I don't want a gift card for Valentine's Day, but then, we don't usually exchange gifts then anyway), but the author keeps going back to the overarching theme that gift cards aren't gifts. Oh well. That's their two cents, and now you have mine. And no, I'm not asking anyone to send me one. That wasn't my point :)