Gift Receiving: What Goes Through our Minds when Receiving a Gift?

Source: casketnice.com

The gift-giving ritual is one that is very exciting and rewarding, but when you give a gift, you often receive one in return, and that can be stressful and unpleasant. When you give a gift it is out of true selflessness, it should be given because you want to give it, not because you have to. When it comes to receiving a gift, you don't have a choice to get it or not, to not accept a gift would be considered rude. Most people when they receive a gift will then in return gift one back to the sender, because it is part of our cultures reciprocity norm (chapter 14, Consumer Behaviour). As Christmas just passed, opening gifts was weighing heavy on me the days leading up to Christmas morning. I tend to get ideas in my head of items that I would like, they're usually quite unrealistic gifts, but it's hard not to show disappointment when your gift giver has not gotten you what you had in mind. I almost thinking not getting any gifts would be easier on ourselves. We have made gift giving into such a big deal in our society, we take a lot of the fun out of the whole exchange process.

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This is a really difficult economic time of year, and I find lots of people spend more than they can afford on gifts for loved ones. When I open up an expensive gift, I can't help but feel guilty that I am putting my loved one into debt for me. Is that really fair to them? Not at all, but returning a gift that you really love would be really hard to do, because yes of course everyone else has the latest brands and gadgets and we all want to have them. So when I received Michael Kors boots for Christmas I was overjoyed, but that is a lot of money for my mother to spend on a gift, and I think, we spend so much to just get a name brand...is it really worth it? Of course the answer to us young people is yes, it makes us feel special and gives us confidence among our peers to be wearing high end brands. It is part of our human competitive nature to try to feel superior to others, and by wearing expensive brands we achieve a small part of that.

Also, depending on the gift that you receive, your relationship with that person can improve or be ruined. Although gift cards are meant to be a good way to diminish concerns from a buyers perspective of buying the wrong gift for someone, a gift card is really impersonal and can be taken as the giver does not know or care much about the person they are giving the gift to. To me that is a worse offence than not giving any gift at all, it has to either be thoughtful or be nothing at all.

Source: www.popsugar.com

When opening a gift, hiding our facial expressions is near impossible. Our facial cues say exactly what we are thinking and they tattle on us when we are not feeling the same levels of happiness about a present as we say we are. We have so many different expressions that our facial expression may not actually be saying what we feel, so people should not just jump to conclusions by a persons reaction to a gift, let them process the gift and tell you how they are feeling. This happens so often at my house at Christmas, people get offended that the recipient doesn't like their gift and it turns into mayhem over a misunderstanding.

After reading the gift-giving section of chapter 14 of Consumer behaviour, it has really gotten me thinking as to how much is really involved with gift giving. The process is extremely complicated if you start to over think it. I believe that this really affected me this Christmas, as I never used to worry so much as to what to give and receive over the holidays, I didn't want to give the wrong gift, or react the wrong way and negatively affect the celebrations. I never knew the implications of gift-giving,  but now that I do, finding the right gifts for others is that much harder, and I'm starting to think of non materialistic/consumer things to give to people as gifts instead.

My suggestion to all is that you give a gift that you believe is nice for someone else, and if they do not like it, don't take offence and get mad, life is too short to worry about that. It also ruins all the fun of the holiday season! When it comes to a gift, the important thing is that it's the thought that counts most.

“The best gifts come from the heart, not the store.” ― Sarah Dessen, Lock and Key

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