There’s always one in the family, right?  The notoriously bad gift-giver.  The one who doesn’t get it; who gives ‘presents’.  They love to knit, knit a thousand pairs of mittens each year, and even though you already have a dozen pair you get a new one each Christmas. You know who I’m talking about…

And you love them to pieces. But they keep giving you things that don’t fit, that are useless, that are ugly, and you don’t know what to do with all the stuff you’ve accumulated from them over the years because let’s be honest, there are only so many Yankee swaps you can attend in a lifetime!

How do you make certain that you’re giving good gifts?  Well, it helps if you know what the recipient wants, likes, has for hobbies, etc. It is even more helpful if sometime during the year said recipient discloses what they wish they had.  SCORE!

There is a difference between giving someone a gift and giving someone a present…

A present is something you give to someone that you want them to have.  A gift is something that you give someone that they’ve expressed the desire to have

Let gift giving be a pleasure for you.  Plan ahead so that the process doesn’t stress you out.  Revel in thoughts of the person you are about to give a gift to.  When you’re thinking of them, or if you see something that you think would please them, or if you overhear them speaking of something that would make them happy, write it down.  Keep an ongoing list of gift ideas for your loved ones, year round.

I keep my gift idea list on my phone.  It’s pretty simple.  It’s titled “Gifts-2015”.  Original, huh?!  And then I have it further broken down by everyone’s name and then the gift ideas I’ve accumulated over the course of this year.   It seems like a no-brainer and it is, but before I actually wrote down gift ideas, I used to run around like a chicken with my head cut off when it was someone’s birthday or Christmas, trying to find the perfect, meaningful gift.  And that took away from the joy of giving, because I was worried that since I hadn’t put as much time into picking my gift, it would end up being more of a present!