How To Choose The Perfect Christmas Gifts

As much as most of us absolutely love the Christmas season, it can be a very hectic and stressful time of year. Shopping in crowded malls, putting out all of your holiday home décor and baking what seems like never ending Christmas cookies and cupcakes can be enough to make us want to crawl into a small hole and never so much as even utter the word, "Christmas", ever again. To top it all off, we have a whole list of people to buy gifts for, and more often than not, we have no idea what to buy for any of them. Now, if you tend to be somewhat of a neurotic perfectionist, such as myself, you probably want to get the absolute perfect gift for all of those special people on your Christmas shopping list. Well, lucky for you, here I share my easy tips for picking out the perfect gifts!

I have but one rule that you must never break if you are going to pick the perfect gift: Absolutely no gift cards. Everyone seems to have this twisted logic that gift cards to someone's favourite store is the perfect gift because they can buy whatever their heart desires at said store and all is well. Gift cards are just about the most impersonal gifts you could ever give to someone. Nothing says, "Hey, I had no idea what to get you this Christmas and had no interest in taking the time to figure it out"', quite like a gift card does. In addition to that, giving a gift card to someone just creates unneeded time and effort on their part. Think about it, now this person needs to leave the warmth of their cozy home to go use that gift card to buy a gift that you were supposed to get for them. So please, for the love of god, save the gift cards for the neighbours and for the relatives that you don't particularly like all that much.

This may seem like a no-brainer, but I truly realized how important it is to consider these two things when I received tickets to a hockey game last year for Christmas (I can't last 10 minutes into a sports game without falling asleep). Go through your list of people to buy gifts for and take a couple of minutes to really think about what type of person each of them are. Do they love to stay home and watch movies? Do they go to the gym 3 times a week? Are they obsessed with a certain singer or band? Once you figure these types of things out, it should be relatively easy to figure out some gift ideas for that person. For example, if someone on your list is a workout fanatic, you could get them some awesome workout gear. Or if they have a favourite band, you could get them tickets to see that band in concert. No matter what gift you give someone, if it relates to their hobbies and interests there's no way they will be disappointed. Trust me, it's exhausting to pretend that you absolutely love a gift when you're actually trying to think of a person that you can give it away to. Don't put anyone through that.

So you've considered every single one of someone's hobbies and interests and have exhausted yourself trying to think of the perfect gift and still have nothing. First of all, I'd like to congratulate you for not giving in and buying a gift card. Second of all, it is time to turn to your last resort, what I like to call a gift-giving lifeline: consult this person's family members. Nobody knows you better than your own family, so if you don't know what to buy for someone's Christmas gift, someone from their family probably will. Ask brothers, sisters, fathers and especially mothers. I am almost positive that someone from this person's family will be able to give you some great ideas. If all else fails, convince them to let you buy one of the gifts that they already bought this person off of them. Just kidding. Sort of.

As I said in the beginning, the holidays really can be a stressful time of year, including picking out and shopping for gifts. Do yourself a favour, and just be happy and have fun. This time of year is about family, friends, and happiness, so don't sweat the small stuff. Try to make shopping in that crowded mall as stress-free as possible. Someone cut in front of you in the cash-out line? Who cares! It's too crowded in your favorite store? Come back a little later! Someone stole the parking spot you were obviously waiting for in the parking garage? Key their car! Just kidding, that's a felony.. Stay calm and go find another parking spot. Overall, just make your shopping experience, as well as everything else, as joyous as possible. Happy Holidays, everyone!