Gifts to Avoid this Holiday Season

OK, it’s that time of the year again. Sale signs have started to go up as the stores begin to woo customers and their holiday shopping dollars. Whether you are an early shopper or a last-minute person, here is a handy list of what gifts you should avoid this holiday season!

Pets
Puppies and kittens are so cute and cuddly – so they make perfect gifts, right? Wrong! For one, the choice of a pet is a very personal decision. Pets come in all shapes and sizes and it must be up to the pet owner to decide whom to choose for a life-long friend. Second, the cost of owning is pet is ridiculously high and you must consider if the person really wants to spend that much money before giving them a pet. Third, pets require a lot of time and attention – can the person receiving the gift really take care of the pet? Finally, if the person does not like your gift, what do they do with it? It’s not like a toy that you can return back to the store. A lot of pets given as gifts end up in shelters and this holiday season don’t be someone responsible for another abandoned pet.

Hi-tech items, when you are hi-tech challenged.
If you are hi-tech challenged, you should in general stay away from giving hi-tech gifts. Hard-core gamers have very specific favorites and unless you know enough about gaming yourself, picking a computer game at random just because it is on sale or on the hot-item list is a bad idea. A laptop can be configured in any number of ways, and unless you know whether the person whom you are gifting a laptop wants a lot of memory or processing power or a great graphics card, you may end up with an expensive gift that no one is happy about. If you don’t know a 16MB USB Flash from a 1Gig one, it may be better to stay away from giving flash drives! Same goes for digital cameras, MP3 players etc. And oh, blank VHS tapes are so old news. Gift cards are great alternatives. But if you think they are impersonal, and want to give the real thing, at least, try dropping a few hints and check out the reaction before you blow your money away. Or see if you can recruit a spy and a consultant (usually a sibling or spouse of the person receiving the gift) to help you select the right gift.

Exercise Equipment
I don’t know why anyone would do this. Particularly, avoid giving exercise equipment to women. While nobody likes being told that they need to start working out, women are particularly sensitive to someone hinting to them that they are “fat”. Even the skinniest ones of us will secretly hate you, if you give us exercise equipment as holiday gifts! In addition, the choice of what equipment to buy is again personal. So unless someone specifically asks you for particular equipment as a gift, strike this one off your list!

Gift cards to specialty stores
I know that a cousin of mine I am meeting for the holidays loves coffee. So I can’t go wrong with buying her a starbucks gift card, right? Well, here’s the catch – she goes to school in a small town which is probably one of the few towns now in the US with just one starbucks coffee shop in the whole town. It’s a town with old world charm where people love their local coffee shops which either boast live music, or mini-libraries and or great bakeries with pastries to die for! With a starbucks gift card, I would probably end up cramping her lifestyle! Another risk with gift cards to specialty stores is that the recipient may not have the specialty store in their town at all, or it may be one very long drive to get to the store! If you do choose to go for gift cards, make sure they are to stores that exist in the town of the recipient, or can at least be used online without having to pay hefty shipping charges.

Items that kids love but parents hate.
If you are buying gifts for someone else’s kids, be careful not to alienate the parents in your eagerness to impress the kids. For instance, you might want to skip that cute-but-loud clapping singing money for your colleague’s 2-year old kid, unless your real intention is to annoy the living day lights out of your colleague. And before you buy roller blades or skate boards or other high risk items for your nieces and nephews, you might want to consult with your sister/brother first.

What are some of the worst gift you have ever received? What are some of the worst gifts you have ever given? :)

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