Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Appreciate What You Receive


‘Tis the season for gift giving and returning! Many of us forget the true meaning of the holiday and turn it into a commercial holiday and all about presents. I know I love the commerciality of it all and get caught up in decorating the house, baking, Christmas music, and buying and receiving presents. But with receiving presents can often lead to re-gifting or returning, which I have learned is NEVER a good idea.

I’m not a habitual re-gifter and haven’t done so in forever, but it’s a no-no. But when you re-gift you have to worry about accidentally leaving something linked to the original giver, questions about where you got it, etc. And if you’re like me, I’m a horrible liar and am pretty sure people can tell when I’m not telling the truth.

And returning gifts isn’t nice either. When I was younger I returned LOTS of gifts (and to my family members who may be reading this, don’t fret, none of them were from you). I hadn’t returned gifts in a long time, but now that I’m on my own and in an apartment with not much storage, I just don’t have the room for stuff I don’t need or will never use. But either way, you feel bad about yourself if you return a gift and here’s why:

The person spent too little on you. I recall one Christmas where I returned a pair of pajamas I received as a Christmas present from a family member (again, this is not any of you that may be reading this). I was in my early teens and the pajamas were something I would have worn as a child. When I returned them, I got a whopping $2 back! I don’t remember if I had the gift receipt when I returned the pajamas, but I didn’t feel too good about myself. I am only worth $2 to that person? And even if they did spend more than $2 (if I didn’t have my gift receipt), they couldn’t have originally been that much more expensive that they were reduced to $2!

The person spent too much on you.
As crappy as I felt about the $2 pajamas, I felt even worse when I returned a present and the 1 item cost more than all of the gifts I bought for the person. It felt great having the cashier give me cash back, but I felt bad about how much this particular person spent on me! I just keep hoping Money Bags was re-gifting and didn’t spend that much or I feel super cheap!

My point is, we should all appreciate what we receive from our loved ones and what we have already been given in life. We need to step back and look at the bigger picture and be thankful for everything we have already been blessed with. P.S. Mom, if you’re reading this, this doesn’t mean you don’t have to buy me presents next year. :-)

1 comment: