Changing Face of Gift Giving

Gifts are ubiquitous part of our social life. Right from birth to various milestones in one’s life including birthdays people do receive gifts from their near & dear ones. There have been various kind of gifts but they can easily be categorized in maximum 5 or 6 distinct categories. However, gifts have also changed or evolved over a period of time.

When I was young, I normally used to get clothes as part of my gifts. My aunts, uncles and closed relatives would all used to find some sort of clothes (mostly shirts & occasional trousers) as gifts during my young age. With age clothes started getting replaced with money. I think at that age I really liked money as gift as you can do whatever that money could fetch.

When my daughters were born, I used to see toys along with clothes and money as gifts. Of course, in India sometimes there would be occasional gold gifts like a chain etc. When we came to US, we experienced that gifts for kids were usually toys and gifts for adults were usually some household items that most of the time were difficult to use and used to mostly end up getting recycled. I also saw the prevalence of gift cards which is not bad. However, I always thought of going for books as gifts but then I believe books still do not command a universal appeal as good gifts. I have also noticed that people sometimes may find it difficult to think what to buy as gift and hence thought of making this process very easy for my guests.

Please don’t bring any gifts. Simple and clean! No hassle! Just don’t bring anything. I have talked to my wife on this and she also agrees with me. But for people who want to bring some things no matter what(or think that bringing gift is a necessary social evil), I would strongly suggest that they donate (it could be as low as $1 and no guesses on the other end) to this amazing charity called Foundation for Excellence. You can find lot of other details about this non profit organization at www.ffe.org. I really find myself closer to the objective of this organization and would like to seek help of all my readers, friends and relatives to please donate to this organization instead of bringing gift to us. Small amounts quickly add to a sizeable sum that will go a long way in helping meritorious but poor kids.

This will also help our kids to understand the value of giving and hopefully they can learn to share whatever little or big with the people who have not been blessed in life like us but has lots of potential, if well supported.

Of course the best birthday gift that I got in my entire life was to get engaged with my wife on my birthday and I am not willing to exchange her with any charity!!!