How to Pick a Good Gift

For a certain sort of person, a looming special occasion might be a source of dread. While others are able to instantly think of an appropriate, original and inexpensive gift, these people spend weeks agonising, only to desperately reach for something truly lacklustre at the last minute. In many cases, the right gift can help to get your feelings for a person across, and avoid the awkwardness that comes with the wrong one.

But exactly how do we pick the right gift? There’s an art to it, and it’s important to practice over time. Even the most hopeless gift-shopper can, however, give themselves a head-start with some fool-proof tips.

Don’t worry about Price

One of the problems with spending big is that you start to expect it to be appreciated proportional to the amount you’ve splurged. But this isn’t always the case – and the disappointment that comes when a big gift doesn’t go over that well can generate long-term resentment. Of course, you’ll still need to meet a minimum threshold for spending to match a tradition or occasion, but you can expect diminishing returns beyond that.

Look Beyond the First Few Seconds

When you buy a gift, you might think of the look on the recipient’s face. Is it going to be a happy expression, or a bemused one? Is it going to be an angry one? A better approach is to think about how much utility they’re going to get from the gift in the long-term. A voucher or a subscription might not have the wow-factor that certain unique gifts can tap into, but you can be fairly sure they’ll be used and appreciated.

Stick to the Classics

When you go out of your way to find something different for everyone you’re buying for, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Some of the people you’re buying for might end up feeling jealous of the others. Often, the gifts we want are exactly the gifts that everyone else wants. Thus, those tried-and-true gifts end up being the safest options. Card Factory stocks a range of stocking-fillers, so you can still inject a little bit of variety without going overboard.

Just Ask!

Ideally, every present we buy would be a wonderful surprise. But in practice, surprises can often be nasty. If you don’t want to contribute to the volume of gifts that end up in landfill every year, then don’t hesitate to simply ask the person for whom you’re buying. It might be that they want something that you hadn’t considered. That’s one less thing to worry about!