Sweet Catastrophe

I’m so sick of reading articles that either focus on how crappy it is to give someone a gift card, or that use the evils of giving gift cards to convince you to buy some other product.

What’s so damn terrible about giving a gift card? People bash them as being impersonal, but any other gift can be just as impersonal! Like anything else, it’s only as good as the amount of thought you put into it.

Last year, Ryan and I gave his mom a gift card to her favorite store. It’s a bit expensive, so even though she browses there all the time, she rarely allows herself to splurge and buy something. With our gift card, we gave her no choice. We gave her the freedom to splurge on something she otherwise would’ve talked herself out of.

A friend of mine and I found a really obscure website that sells some really awesome stuff. Of course, it’s all handmade so it’s expensive. Neither of us would ever let ourselves spend money there, but this year, I hope to get her a gift card for this store. Maybe I’m just weird, but that’s exciting to me…

My brother and his wife don’t get out. They’re broke. Their idea of dining out is picking up KFC and taking it home to my grandmother and their two children. How romantic…This year for Christmas, I’m giving them a gift card for one of the nicest restaurants in Douglas. I’m picking an amount that’s high enough for them to splurge, but not high enough for them to take the kids, or treat anyone else. Is that impersonal?

This year, my dad could pick me up a gift I flat-out said I didn’t want, or he can browse the ‘gift’ idea aisle in Wal Mart and buy me some random piece of fitness equipment, or he can give me a gift card to Wal Mart. I don’t ask for money, giving me a gift card eliminates the need for me to ask. I can buy groceries, I can buy household essentials, gas, or hey, I can buy something I want. What’s so impersonal about that? Maybe I don’t have a list of things I’d like to have this year. Or maybe I have a short list of things too expensive to expect as a gift–I can use a gift card towards a larger purchase, or save it for later when I run into something I want.

If you think gift cards are impersonal, stop–think about it. Is the gift card impersonal, or were YOU being impersonal when you gave up thinking and used a gift card as a cop-out?