15 Christmas Gift Giving Etiquettes
Christmas gift-giving etiquettes are essential for one to possess because Christmas is awesome.
The Christmas season is wonderful! It’s a universally holiday and one of the few holidays that has a “season”. Many songs, movies, books, etc center around Christmas. Additionally, regardless of gender or age, everyone is eager to give and receive awesome gifts.
But we all still forget one thing of high importance – Christmas Gift Gifting etiquettes!
You can’t just give gifts during Christmas. You have to do so without violating gifting etiquettes from common sense etiquettes to deeply complicated cultural boundaries. Doing so can quickly turn gift-giving into the worst horror movie of your life!
We don’t want you to not have those complications because we want your experience to be blissful. It’s also important to have some basic gift-receiving etiquettes but today we are going to focus on some awesome Christmas gift-giving etiquettes.
So without further ado, let’s jump right in!
1. Do NOT re-gift – rather donate
Regifting is rarely advised is at all so resist the urge to regift with all your might. And if you do have to regift, you must do so while keeping your tract untraceable! It’s extremely unpleasant for someone to learn that the gift that you have them is a regift, so stay away from regifting!
Anyhow, if you’ve found yourself needing to get rid of a gift that no longer serves you, rather than regift it, you need to donate it.
2. Check workplace policies!
Check Company Policies
Don’t give your boss a romantically gesturing gift because it’s a magical season. You will be embarrassed if you gift something that violates work policy. Even worse, you could get into huge trouble if you do so.
3. Respect Cultures and Boundaries
This is really important. Like really important. The craziest part is that most people don’t even know that they’re dabbling with this important gift-giving etiquette.
There are numerous things that you have to observe as you gift to your friends across cultures. You should be even more important when you’re gifting elder members of said friend’s family. Elderly people are less understanding when they feel like their culturally disrespected.
It doesn’t matter if you have the world’s great cultural combination, everyone could be prey to this. So, check yourself and don’t ruin a relationship due to this mistake.
4. Don’t blow your budget
Some people go ahead and blow their budget’s budget. We are going to talk about blowing through your budget because you were price matching but for now, we’ll just talk about self-inflicted budget blow.
It’s not wise to blow through your budget because, post-Christmas, other responsibilities await you and it’s difficult to keep up with them if you just blew through your budget. Doing so doesn’t account for the future and that’s why this is a very bad financial move.
It doesn’t matter if the gift is self-indulgent or for others, it’s still really important to observe this etiquette.
5. Do not give self-improvement gifts
If we were to put this list in order, this would perhaps be second to none. Why? Self-improvement gifts never pan out the way you want them to. 99% of the time, they are seen as disrespectful, dehumanizing, and condensing to the person that you give it to.
It’s never a gift when you give your aunt Janice a workout program, rather than see the (possibly non-condescending intent and benefit of the gift), she will see your fat-shaming her. You don’t need to give her financial book because she will regret sharing her family finances with you because no you’ve misused it and making a mockery of her.
These horror scenarios go on and on, but we don’t any of them to be your reality, so we really advise you to stay away from self-improvement gift.
6. It’s okay if you don’t gift everyone
After all, your name is not probably Saint Nicholas. Even Santa Claus has people on his naughty list and these people don’t get a dime. So, don’t crazy or blow through your budge trying to figure a gift for everyone. It won’t help you and more often than not, because you’re focused som many people gift, you’ll lose focus on giving quality gifts to people that actually matter.
7. Respect Parent when gifting kids
No matter how appropriate you think a gift is, please, always consult a child’s parents before gifting their kid. This is one of the most delicate etiquettes for overall gifting but we put on her as a Christmas gift-giving etiquette because it’s crucial. You will be violating a lot of personal trusts and perhaps some legal one if you don’t adhere to this tad bit.
8. Don’t come empty-handed
The two main reasons why people come empty-handed to the Christmas event are; they forgot the gift or the didn’t plan on getting one.
So, what do you do to combat this? PLAN
If you plan ahead you’ll remember to buy the gift. If you plan ahead you won’t forget your gift. Plan ahead. Plan the party ahead of time and arrive with the gift. If you plan ahead, it doesn’t matter how broke you are, you will have enough time to do anything.
9. If you do come empty-handed, don’t lie about it.
Now, we are no saying come empty-handed, okay? Plan ahead. But if for reason you don’t exactly get the prior point down and legitimately can’t gift this year, that okay!
Be honest about your lack of gifts.
No one is going to dislike you for it. If they do, they are not your real friends. Simple as ABC’s
10. Gift with your heart – it’s a magical season
11. Don’t buy fake/low-quality gifts
Buy the real stuff not the fake. Now, we don’t blow your money on Gucci because it’s prime in your eyes. We simply mean don’t buy fake Airpods to save face. But cheaper headphones instead, trust us there are cheaper headphones that function phenomenally.
Takeaway? Buy gifts in your power and be proud of it.
12. Give actual Christmas Gifts
This one might seem like a no-brainer but it’s really crucial because we don’t really think much about this. So, we are taking the liberty to remind you. So, when you give Christmas gifts, actually give Christmas related gifts.
Specific wedding gifts like “new household items are awesome but you don’t mistakenly give them during Christmas, now would you?
The funny thing is, you might not know that a certain doesn’t make for awesome Christmas present as it does a mother’s day gift. But. There’s a difference and you have to watch out for it or else your Christmas gift-giving experience could turn into the newest horror movie!
13. Don’t “pre-talk” your gifts
Even when dealing with people who don’t like surprises, don’t spill all the details about you gifts! …and don’t “pre-talk” them because pre-talk leads to “over-talk”.
Pre-talking your gifts basically means to spoil the surprise of a gift and this is so bad because often you will be compelled to add a little extra to the value of the gift that it actually has.
This is one of the most self-serving Christmas gift-giving etiquettes because it helps you adhere to many of the points on this awesome list. When you don’t talk about the gift you intend to gift, you don’t tend to “mythify” them and so you don’t blow through your budget due to the need to produce expected gifts.
Additionally, it gives you a small allure of mystery.
14. Add a personal touch and a gift receipt!
As you are currently reading, there are two aspects to this singular topic.
To personalize a gift and to include a gift receipt.
Firstly, to personalize a gift: This is one of the Christmas gift gifting etiquettes that we keep close to heart. Simply gives the gift more value, so make sure every gift you gift is heartfelt and personalized. Try to personalize each gift for the specific recipient because, among many benefits, it has a particular benefit related to the next point.
Secondly, include a gift receipt: If you bought the gift, include the gift receipt so the recipient can return it if he/she wishes to.
Why?
Firstly it assures the person that you didn’t just package anything. It makes the person feel like you thought about them specifically for the gift. (even if the gift is generic)
Secondly, it keeps you from re-gifting.
Thirdly, it gives the person the liberty to recoup the value of the gift if he or she finds no use to the gift. This way, because the money recouped can still be a gift after-all, you gift never goes to complete waste!
Now, there are some obvious complications to this point. You might really want someone to have a gift and not return it or re-gift it, tell them. If they see that it is a gift that they cannot retain, amicably engage with them to find a better owner.
15. Buy a couple’s gift to save money rather than 2 separate/individual gifts
If you’re going to gift a couple during Christmas, try to find something that could be labeled “couples gift”. Why because it saves you money and because the gift belongs to two people rather than one person, your gift has more value and is only likely to be return, donated, or re-gifted if both parties mutually agree.
John Ede is a dedicated blogger who owns and runs BEST GIFT LISTINGS His goal is to create the awesome platform of gift advice that people can consult for any day and any occasion.
