"Exchanging gifts is delightful. It can also be fraught. How do you choose something the receiver will enjoy or find meaningful? And must you act pleased if you receive a tub of anti-cellulite cream? With the holidays fast approaching, 11 Guardian readers shared the best and worst gifts they have ever received. Can we learn anything from their experiences? Perhaps not: Don't just give something that appeals to you, writes one, and Always gift something you want, writes another. No wonder so many of us have a hard time figuring it out."
"Worst: One winter evening at college, a fellow student came up to me and declared: This is for you. It's a bat's head. It was a very heavy box. He had never expressed romantic interest in me before, and I was so surprised I said nothing. It was cold, so I hurried back to my dorm room. I had feared it was an anatomical specimen, but what I found was a mass of hardened plaster of paris. My roommate and I went to the dumpster and dropped it in."
"Best: When my son was 13, he started working as a paper boy in the afternoon, six days a week. My Christmas present from him that year was a food processor, which I could not afford to buy myself as a single, low-income mother. Worst: A male colleague gave me Lancome anti-cellulite cream. Guri, 72, Norway Another unwelcome beauty product"
Best gifts include experiential trips such as a Nile cruise and a surprise trip to Kauai, and practical presents like a food processor that eased financial strain. Other appreciated gifts included a new bike and a solo trip to Germany at age ten. Worst gifts often involved insensitive or inappropriate items, such as a boxed plaster 'bat's head', anti-cellulite creams from colleagues, or cellulite-reducing tights. Reactions ranged from delight to discomfort and disposal of unwanted items. Gift success depended on understanding recipients' needs, context, and boundaries rather than giving items that appeal only to the giver.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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