Yesterday on 680 News there was a story on the most popular gifts for the Holiday season. Voted #1 was the gift of gift certificates. I can understand why they are popular, I mean people don't want to get others bad gifts, or spend the time finding something that is good, while at the same time in their price range. So the gift certificate satisfies all needs except the criteria of being thoughtful.

I have never been a fan of giving gift certificates. They are not a thoughtful gift by any means. I might as well give them money, since that will not restrict them on the use of the money. It also does not satisfy any of the "ohhhh" factors. Meaning it does not stir any reactions. If one were to get a gift certificate, they would just be like "oh, it's a gift certificate, thank-you.". Rather than if some thought was put into it, and it was truly a good gift, you'd get a reaction like "ohhhhh, this is so nice. thank-you so much".

There are many gifts that I refuse to get people, no matter if it's birthdays, holidays, or any occasion. CDs is one of them. Back in the early 90s, cds were so hot, it was like the most practical gift, get someone a cd, fits the price range, is a nice present, how can you go wrong. I think it is this "comfortable" idea that has made me dislike giving cds. Plus with the age of mp3s, the cd industry is going down, nobody buys cds anymore. But even if that's not true, I don't like giving "ideal" gifts, or "typical" gifts. This is because they become so typical, that some may start thinking they are not thoughtful anymore.

Another one of those gifts is Body Shop things. Soap, maybe it's because I'm Chinese, and I don't think many Chinese people take baths. Body shop gifts always become recycle gifts anyways, so why bother?

One of the most popular gifts these days are picture frames. And I don't blame this. There are some really nice picture frames out there, expecially the ones made by Umbra. Now some people like picture frames, but they have become increasingly ideal as well. Now I might still give this type of gift, however it's on the border of being bad now. The thing is there are so many nice ones out there, and the price has become so that it's not worth it to buy for yourself, but giving away as a present it's okay.

There is this stereotype that if you have money, and lots of it, that it becomes so much easier to buy a gift. This is because nice things do not come cheap, and if you have money to spend, then there is no reason to pinch your buck. But the only problem is, if you have money, your friends may have money too. And the richer you are, the more things you have. Thus making it harder to get a gift, because the person many already have the gift your thinking of.

So if anybody got any of these gifts from me, then my apologies. With the exception of the picture frames, it probably wasn't my idea. If you got a picture frame from me, I'm sure it's a nice picture frame.=)