This is not my blog.

Okay, it's that time of year for gift giving again. I just purchased the last gift that I plan to buy for Christmas and it was an e-gift card to Omaha Steaks. Why did I choose this gift? Well, several reasons. First: because I didn't have the home address of this friend but did have his email address. Second: I don't see this friend all the time but do see him often enough that I wanted to say thanks for the little things that he has done for me throughout the year and during the time that I've known him and his wife. Third: I don't know what sort of physical thing to buy him because he's an adult and has money. Fourth: I know that he loves steaks and good food. And fifth: I bought the same thing for him last Christmas and after he helped me move out of Ohio and he said he loved it both times.

It should come as no surprise that I'm a big fan of electronic commerce and usually buy at least half of my Christmas and holiday gifts from on-line merchants. I have bought several gift cards this year or have used other forms of electronic or telecommunications-based gift giving. I have been known to give Amazon.com e-gift certificates (electronic gift cards that can be delivered to an email address), pre-paid video club memberships, restaurant gift cards, and I've found a few other ways to send some cheer to a distant friend through the mail via the gift cards you buy from a display rack at the grocery store, Wal-Mart, or other numerous places.

But am I a chump for using gift cards? I ask this after reading an article in the Charleston Gazette this week (I couldn't find a link) telling me that I would be better off handing my giftee a handful of cash rather than using a gift card. I am well aware of the pitfalls of gift cards from articles I read about them last year but I still bought them anyway. Why? Well, because I wanted to give something of value to my special people. I just read a great article by Chris Wondra called gift-card-onomics that talks about this very concept and how, from an economist's viewpoint, we want to give someone something that they want without hitting the taboo of being thoughtless in our gift giving. Let me explain.

Every year I see that horrible Jingle All The Way movie (which is on my least-favorite Christmas movies list) and always have a visceral negative reaction to it. To me it typifies the thoughtlessness of an increasing number of people who wait till the last minute to buy gifts for their loved ones and seem to take pride in this when the tv news crews go around interviewing people who are shopping on the evening of December 24th. Nevermind that Johnny wanted the popular toy that was sold out by the day after Thanksgiving. Nevermind that your family might enjoy seeing their gifts sitting under the Christmas tree prior to the actual time of opening and exchanging their gifts. Nevermind that you sound like a thoughtless and insincere asshole when you gloat over the fact that you are waiting until the night before Christmas to do all of your gift shopping to the newscaster who is stuck going out on Christmas Eve to cover your shenanigan's because it's somehow newsworthy.

For most people, there is an expectation that time and thought will be put into selecting a gift for their loved ones at this time of the year. The old adage of "it's the thought that counts" carries a lot of weight in this realm. What thought goes into a gift that is hastily thrown into the cart during a 6 hour shopping spree through picked-over aisles on Christmas Eve? What thought goes into simply giving someone a wad of cash or a personal check when everyone else is giving you gifts that they have put time, thought, and consideration into so they could find just the right thing for you?

How does a person avoid that trap? Well, finding a gift for a kid is essential because children can't drive to a store and pick out what they want. It's about instant gratification on Christmas morning. With adults it is different. Adults can drive themselves to a store or can shop online and get the things they want so it gets tricky figuring out what you can buy them that they can actually use. Getting them a cd they already have, their 5th flashlight, their 11th candle, or their 19th pair of socks in a color they will likely never want to wear is troublesome.

Then along came gift cards that take away the anxiety of getting someone a gift that they don't actually want. Sure, maybe we are a culture that is too gift-crazy (as this guy writes about), but if we're going to give a gift we want for it to be one that the person can and will use. I've tried, for the last several years, to give the adults that I shop for gifts that they can use on a continuing basis or can get prolonged enjoyment out of. I've given and am giving gifts like a AAA membership for my dad (who has a car with over 200,000 miles on it), zoo or amusement park memberships (like Season Passes to Camden Park for my sister's family), pre-paid movie club programs like Netflix, symphony or show tickets, Entertainment books, and other sorts of things that people can use and think of me while they are enjoying them. Maybe it's a narcissistic tendency or maybe it's just my own little quirkiness. I don't know, but I think that it's more in the nature of giving someone something they can value beyond the moment they get it. This is where gift cards are both a boon and a bane.

According to many of the sites I've researched, gift cards can be a big scam in some ways. Many gift cards have activation fees or "per use" charges that suck off their value in a very non-gift way. Some gift cards (as well as gift certificates) expire or have terms that allow their activation for a monthly charge after they have gone through a period of dormancy that will render them useless if not used (like a built in expiration by fee). Last year more than $24 million was spent on gift cards and it is estimated that last year some $8 million of the value in similar cards went unused due to expiration and other such terms. Why do gift cards and certificates go unused? Some people say that they just couldn't figure out what to buy, some say they didn't have time to shop, while others say that they lost the card or forgot about it till it was too late. This leads some economists to say that you are better off giving someone cash because it doesn't expire ... or better yet ... a personal check which does expire but leaves you keeping the money instead of a retailer if it isn't used. And what is the problem with that? Well, perception - it just seems like a "grinchy" thing to do. If you go the other route and donate money to a cause in someone's name you run the risk of looking pompous ... or cheap if anyone saw Seinfeld's George Costanza and his "The Human Fund" gift-giving scam where he kept the money and printed cards telling people it was donated to a fictitious entity.

So what are you going to do with your Christmas or other holiday gift-buying money this year? I still bought gift cards (along with other things) even though I have personally known the experience of trying to milk that last $2.48 off of a $25 gift card, have had fees charged against the card, or have worried that the busy store clerk didn't properly activate the card I have bought (rendering it useless and my money potentially wasted). Just this weekend I had to activate my pre-paid Netflix account that JDB bought for me last year because it was about to go active whether I wanted it to or not ... and I had put it off too long anyway. I'm not opposed to giving or receiving gift cards despite their shortcomings. For me it is the thought that counts. Though others may feel differently about them. They are still the number one most-wanted gift among women and the third most-wanted gift among men and Consumer Reports estimates that 62 percent of consumers plan to give them this year, second only to clothing (71 percent). Do you plan to give any gift cards? Why or why not?

For more of my thoughts on Christmas, and there have been many of them this year, feel free to search my blog or just click here.

Labels: news, rants