If You Get A Lousy Gift This Year, Here’s What It Means And What You Should Do

It’s a fact of life, and with the holiday season approaching let’s just get it out in the open. Some people simply suck at giving gifts. But before you write it off as simply an inability to pick out the right item, experts say there might be more going on than meets the eye.

A universal problem

Researchers found that well over 1 in 4 Americans returned or exchanged gifts during 2023. If you were one of them, let’s take a closer look at some of the reasons you might have received that bad gift in the first place:

• Making a spectacle: Some people tend to make gift-giving a show (often with themselves as the protagonist) and disregard what the recipient might really want.
• Trying too hard: This good-intentioned (but still frustrating) reason involves a person sincerely attempting to buy something that interests the recipient but not knowing that individual well enough to get it right.
• Insult to injury: The most sinister motivation occurs when someone tries to make a statement, often via self-aggrandizement or passive-aggression, with a gift.

But no matter what the reason, you’ve still got a gift on your hands that you don’t want.

And here’s what to do

Start by expressing gratitude for the gift — and please, try to make it sound sincere. From there, you can give some items away as gifts to someone else or donate them to a charitable organization.

If you’re one of those notoriously bad gift-givers, there is hope. It really is the thought that counts, so try to be as considerate as possible. And generally speaking, a gift you give for no particular reason often lands better than one seen as an obligation.

If all else fails, there’s nothing wrong with asking people what they want.

Chris Agee November 23rd, 2024

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