This is the time of year when so many of us are engaged in doing things to get ready for a holiday: cleaning the house for guests, redecorating, cooking, baking and entertaining family and friends.
Although some of these activities may be a bit curtailed because of our desire to keep ourselves safe, there is one thing that can be counted on to occupy a significant amount of time: gift-giving.
In years past, we may have spent days without end in stores or shopping malls, trying to find the perfect gift. This year, we may be even more likely to let our fingers do the walking, as we did last year, shopping on-line. Even with on-line shopping, we may still be spending time wrapping the gifts, making certain that they look beautiful even before the box is opened.
Gift-giving and receiving, whether for a holiday, a birthday, an anniversary, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, a wedding, the birth of a baby, or perhaps for no reason at all, is often frought with all kinds of minefields. Are we spending too much on the gift or too little? Are we giving a gift that says more or less than we want to say to the recipient? Have we truly captured the personality and likes of the recipient? Is the color, size or style of the gift appropriate? Indeed, many people become overly stressed with all of the decisions to be made.
Of course, a gift that is the wrong size or color can be easily remedied. Gift receipts are made for such a purpose.
But, there are some gifts that go so far off the mark that one can only say something like, “ Wow?---- Just Wow!” when opening the package.
Now, let me hasten to add that I’m not talking about the gifts that were obviously regifted. You know, the ones in which the original gift card or tag is still enclosed in the package, proving that the gift was not purchased for this current recipient. Gifts such as this involve no thought other than, “I’ve got to give something to X, I don’t want to spend any money or time on the gift, so I’ll just give them something that I got and will never use!”
No, what I’m talking about are the gifts of a very different variety.
We all remember those uniquely special gifts that were obviously the product of a great deal of thought. The pair of cufflinks that even years after they were presented make you remember when you got them, and the special person or persons in your life who gave them to you. The book given to you by a young child who heard you talking about the author, and then saved up allowance money, went on their bike to a bookstore, and purchased the latest book by that author. These gifts, no matter their cost, create such powerful memories of love, place, and person that we glow just thinking of them.
But sometimes, a gift is just so wrong that it creates its own special memory, one that even years later brings a smile to our face at the unique wrongness of it.
My mom, who died this summer, was a world-class horrible gift-giver! One year, when I was already an adult, but still young, she gave me 7 pairs of pastel-colored nylon socks, the type worn by very old men in nursing homes. Needless to say, the socks were returned to the store as quickly as I could get there.
However, from this uniquely bad gift came another really sweet and funny tradition. I told my wife never to buy me socks as a gift! I said it pretty forcefully, and so, the next year, my wife, a woman with a wicked sense of humor, gave me a beautifully wrapped box containing a pair of socks, instead of the gift that I had thought that I was going to receive, the one for which I had been hinting!
This action provoked another repetition of me saying, “Don’t buy me socks!” At which point my wife, also a very patient woman, presented me with the gift for which I had been hinting. As a result, I became a lover of beautiful socks! Those who know me are aware of my love of unique and beautiful socks! Since that first time, I can generally count on receiving one or two pairs of socks along with the larger, uniquely special or lovely gift.
As I said, gifts can create powerful feelings, and create special memories. Some of those memories are funny, as in the 7 pairs of pastel-colored socks, or the flannel robe that I got once, again from my mom, which was an exact duplicate of the one that she gave me the year before. But the perfect gift, given with love and thought, such as the book given to me by my son years ago, creates memories of such a depth that we can never forget them.
Why don’t you write and tell me about the truly bad gifts that you’ve received which caused you to say something like “Wow ---- Just Wow!”
Have a wonderful holiday! May all of the gifts that you give be perfect, and may every gift that you receive be one that shows the love of the giver for you.
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Mike Snyder
Braveman Law Owner Candidate for Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas Judge Designated Counsel AFSCME DC33 Local 696
3 年For my Bar Mitzvah, all my gifts were in small envelopes or boxes, but my Grandmother gave me a 4 foot wrapped present….I opened it with such excitement to reveal….. a vacuum cleaner “to keep your room clean”. I laughed and rolled my eyes when she said it was heavy duty. When I turned 30, the gifted pens, the Swiss Army knife, the watch I had received…all gone…but that vacuum cleaner was still going strong as ever.
Owner, The Law Office of Kristine L. Calalang
3 年Your wonderful weekly messages are a lovely gift to us all! Thank you!!