The Unique Gift Spot

7 Ways to Tell Folks You Won’t Be Buying Them Christmas Gifts This Year or That You’re Cutting Back on the Number of Gifts You’re Buying  1. Set Their Expectations as Early as Possible Thanksgiving dinner, when everyone is gathered around the table, might seem like a great time to discuss your gift-purchasing plans, but that’s actually a little late. Why? Because, as we already mentioned, unlike in past generations, Christmas season now starts long before Thanksgiving Day. Once it begins, people tend to think more emotionally than economically. Your relatives might already know what they plan to buy you, so they’re less likely to be receptive to your ideas. Sure, you can draw names on Thanksgiving Day, but decide now with your family what the game plan and spending limit will be. This is best done through phone calls or emails because a text message, or worse yet a group text, doesn’t give you the bandwidth you need to share your reason(s) for changing your tradi...

Why Children Get Gifts on Christmas: A History In 1800s New York, the overlapping interests of middle-class families and the wealthy produced a cultural practice that’s still in place today. During a week when so many Americans have experienced some combination of joy, rage, and frustration in seeking the perfect holiday gifts for their children, it seems appropriate to pause and ask: Where did the practice of giving Christmas gifts to children come from? There does not appear to be an easy answer. Gifts do not primarily serve as rewards: Commentators on the political  left  and  right  have in recent years asked parents to abandon the “naughty and nice” paradigm that suggests such presents are prizes for good behavior, and indeed historical evidence suggests that proper conduct has not been a widespread prerequisite for young Americans to receive Christmas gifts. Nor do presents seem to have a clear connection to Christian faith. Some American families...

Three Reasons To Engage In Gift Giving The new holiday cliché is to complain about hyper-materialism. Everyone is objectified, these critics say, reduced to goods bought and sold in the marketplace by corporate America. That's Christmas in their minds: the wolves of Wall Street devouring the lambs of Main Street on Black Friday. Many blame capitalism for this consumerism. To escape the corporate slaughter of consumers, they infer that capitalism must be put on trial. Never mind that the definition of capital is consumption deferred, not advanced. De-materializing is often regarded at a near spiritual level, extolling  minimalism  as a way of life if not a religion. Followers of this creed support the No-Gift Christmas movements and label as "useless possessions" what many people cherish. Sometimes, overriding property rights entirely with socialism, or something akin to it, is touted as the solution. All this occurs because companies profit from our gift-givin...

The 5 Types of Gift Givers Exploring the psychology of gift giving. Recognize anyone you know? Why does holiday gift-giving make us feel  anxious  and pressured? “I have 20 gifts to buy,” a friend of mine moans. “It’s stressing me out.” “My sister and brother-in-law are impossible to please. I dread seeing her pursed lips when she opens the package,” another confides. Isn’t giving presents supposed to make us  happy ? After all, the Bible does tell us that it’s more blessed to give than to receive. Of course, in psychological terms, it’s a bit more complicated than that. First, there’s the  happiness  thing: What makes us happier—giving or receiving? Alas, the short answer is neither. Psychologists Tim Kasser and Kennon M. Sheldon analyzed Christmas experiences that could make people feel better and broke it down to seven: 1.     Time with family 2.     Religious activities 3.     Maintai...