How to Buy the perfect Gift

Gifts. Gifts. Gifts! There is always that occasion or special day when you’re expected to buy gifts for someone - wedding anniversary, birthday, Christmas, or Valentines day (which was just two days ago). What made me think of this was that so many of my friends – both male and female – didn’t know what they wanted to get for their significant others. I see this as a difficult position to be in. Nobody wants to be the one who bought the ‘wrong’ kind of gift.

So, as you would expect, this got me thinking: How do you go about buying the ideal gift, regardless of the occasion? Bear in mind that ideal gift usually does not have to do with the price tag on that gift. I thought about is, and it boils down to this:

Three things to have in mind when you’re buying a gift.

1. What occasion it is: Birthday? Christmas?
   
   
2. What the person likes: Rock music? Trendy clothes? Candy? Electronics?
   
   
3. Your relationship with that person: Husband? Friend? Son?

On some occasions, there are expected gifts – for example, when your Aunt Mildred invites you over to her humble abode for Thanksgiving Day, a very appropriate gift would be a bottle of wine or wine glasses. A lot of people would be expecting gifts related to the actual Thanksgiving meal.

However, on a birthday, you need to be a little more tactful. You need to focus on the person and what they like. Same goes for Christmas. Sure, a generic gift could work, but you’d be a much better place with the person if you got them a gift that shows that you know what they like, or what they need. You can also judge by the person’s age (You probably shouldn’t buy Barbie dolls for a 25 year old.) If you’ve known the person for some time, you should know their interests, and buy them something in sync with that. Or, you can think about past conversations with the person, and see what they seemed to talk about getting. Perhaps you can be the observant one and buy something you think they need – some art for their bare walls - a bag of charcoal for their grill.

Your relationship with the person is important because you definitely don’t want to buy a gift that’s full of heavy implications (expensive jewelry for a girl on your second date), gifts that understate or overstate the kind of relationship you have with the person. For example, you wouldn’t buy your brother the kind of gift you’d buy your evil boss at work.

Another thing to consider when buying gifts, which many people do not think about, is how long the gift lasts. There’s a big difference between buying a flower vase versus flowers that’ll wilt in a week - if you chose them properly. In most cases, long-lasting gifts are more memorable. Who remembers how tasty the chocolate was six months later. On the other hand, the flower vase will last quite a while – as long as the person doesn’t break it. This kind of long-lasting gift will remind the person of you every time he/she looks at it/uses it – now this can’t be a bad thing, can it?

Before you walk into the birthday party confidently with your killer present, you might want to think about packaging. Packaging makes the gift look attractive, regardless of what it is, and it also creates this element of anticipation. What’s in it? May I open it? Usually, stores can package gifts for you, or you can call people who might know how to package your kind of gift – do it carefully. Another reason packaging is good is that sometimes you may not want everyone willing to look to know what you brought as a present. Some gifts, of course, don’t need packaging e.g. the bag of charcoal.

So next time you need to buy a gift, use that as an opportunity to show that you are observant enough to pay attention to the person’s likes and needs.