Jan 15, 2011
All of us have heard the saying buyer beware – however in this situation, the old saying now becomes gifter beware. A lot of us give with the very best of intentions, but don’t realize that unless we are sensitive to what other people like or want, our gifts may help them feel bad instead of good. Nobody ever intends to make this type of mistake, however this happens and that is why we have written this article. Following are the 6 worst types of gifts that you can give so you try to avoid them.
The foremost and biggest of the six worst presents ever is to give an item that attempts to provide a subtle hint for how you feel a person needs to change, usually to live up to your standards! Some good examples of these kinds of gifts are things such as books for losing weight fast, a book to help someone who’s losing their memory, or perhaps a book on choosing the best man or woman. For that recipient, all they experience is discomfort and depression – the opposite effect of what you intended.
The 2nd worst present ever given is giving something which shows how little, if any, thought you gave to your gift or person it was intended for. This occurs more frequently than people prefer to admit to, and for this reason it’s # 2 on our list. Some good examples of those gifts could be giving an earring to a person who does not have pierced ears, an ‘I have confidence in Xenu” T-shirt for any Christian, or perhaps a box of chocolates for a diabetic. If you don’t do a little research into the person you will be giving a gift to, then don’t even bother.
The 3rd worst present is the very large coffee table books. The usual train of thought when giving these books would be that the large wrapped item will make the individual a lot happier – but upon opening the book, more often than not the individual is not happy. It might be that they don’t have the space if they live in an apartment or don’t have a coffee table to display it on and it becomes a burden. Books could be a great gift, but don’t forget that in cases like this, regular sized as well as pocket sized books are preferable to extremely huge unless you know the person really well and their living conditions.
The 4th worst present is giving a present to the person which she/he cannot exchange. Everybody wants the recipient to like our gifts, but we cannot guarantee that especially if it is something totally out of sync with the person, or that doesn’t fit. So please, don’t provide a gift from a niche shop out of state that she/he will never be able to exchange. Your gift will probably be recycled.
Image by Marie the Bee via Flickr
The fifth worst present ever to give is a recycled present. Maybe we didn’t have time to research and go out and get them a present. 90% of the time, this will be unusable for the person that receives it. After all, didn’t we recycle it? It probably was not useful or attractive to begin with. If not, we would have kept it. The issue is the immense guilt you are feeling afterwards for doing this. Remember, even products that appear-as in a recycled gift- carry a burden. In this case guilt.
Finally, the sixth worst present ever may be the one in which you purchase the item, really wanting it for yourself; however, you give it to someone else. You figure the recipient won’t need it and will offer back. Please know this: this kind of plan will invariably backfire on you, and it is horrible to begin with! If you would like the product, purchase it for you personally – or else you will be winding up purchasing two when you might have only purchased it once.
Remember the golden rule: Do onto others as you would like them to do unto you! Happy gifting!
It’s very important to do your research to find out what the recipient likes, so you can gift something that’s valuable to him/her.
The key is to know the person’s tastes and to put some thought into the gift