I used to kind of hate giving gifts. Well, let me backtrack: I hated the idea of knowing I need to find great, perfect, wonderful gifts ahead of time before ending up at the mall (why why whyyyy the mall) three days before the day-of, floundering around with everyone else who procrastinated, struggling with coming up with anything that’s actually worth spending money on for anyone that I know.
Getting myself out of the mall and on the Internet helped tremendously: having infinitely more gifts all at my fingertips is dreamy. We’ve also learned to budget ahead of time for gifts, and buy a handful this week, a few more two weeks after, and so on. That way the need to purchase gifts doesn’t coincide with the lack of funds to do so, and no one (read: me) gets stressed out. Somewhere along the way, I’ve started to downright enjoy the process of picking out things that will be genuinely appreciated and loved, instead of grabbing the first generic candle I can get my hands on. People giving one another gifts because they just… want to? Good vibes and warm tidings and all of that? That I’m into.
Of course, the pressure to find a million unique, cool gifts for the million unique, cool people you know can cause even the most hardcore gifter to buckle. For the first time ever, I’m practicing gifting with intention this year—instead of grabbing what I think might work, I’m spending a little bit of time to really brainstorm on what each person will really love (and actually use).
Since I’ve been spending time sitting down and thinking about each of them as individuals, I’m finding that gifting for the adults in my life is turning out to be significantly easier. Darth Vader cookie jar? My sister’s covered. Super chunky scarf that will keep my husband warm while he insists on biking everywhere he goes this winter? Done. Kanye West cross-stitch for my friend who finally has a place to hang it? Girl, you know it’s been purchased. Gift ideas get a little tenuous as the circle of relation widens (in other words, I still have no idea what to get my father-in-law), but taking an extra few minutes or hours to plan the gifts before I buy them is turning out to be a reasonably cool thing.
What are you excited about gifting this year—for your partners, kids, family members, and yourself (because heeey: you might want to do that, too)?
