However you want to do gifts this year has my seal of approval

It's the holiday season, and a big part of the holidays is giving and receiving gifts.  Visit just about any personal finance blog or big financial website and you'll get plenty of advice on what kinds of gifts to get.  You'll also get lots of advice on what kinds of gifts not to get.

I've read a couple of such articles recently.  One was Big Cajun Man's Gifts You Shouldn't Get Your Kids — Ever, which was one of the ten posts I chose for this week's Best of Money Carnival.  Another was an recycled (regifted?) article by then Woman-In-Red MP Dunleavey entitled the 15 worst holiday gift ideas.  Taken by themselves, they're fine.  They may have even helped me to avoid some gift-giving landmines.

After reading enough of these kinds of articles, I've reached a mathematical conclusion.  Regardless of what kind of gift I give, or don't give, someone, somewhere, will have a beef with it.  Someone will think I'm a crass shell of a human being for even thinking that I could give them that for Christmas.  It matters little how carefully I thought through the purchase, or how well I knew the recipient, or how many baby red pandas were saved by my purchase.  It was just plain wrong.

Following this, I had an epiphany, which may terrify you.  (It usually terrifies me.)  Whatever you're deciding to give (or not give) your friends and relatives, is just fine with me. You have the Mighty Bargain Hunter seal of approval.  No, really!  Here it is:

Give gifts. Don't give gifts. Give gift cards. Give cash. Re-gift. Re-gift gift cards.  Whatever you want to do, have at it! Some examples:

• Gift cards. This is one of Liz Weston's gift-giving pet peeves.  I happen to think that gift cards are fine gifts for any number of reasons.  They're easy to mail, give the person a choice, they're fair with multiple grandkids, etc., etc.
• Cash. When one of my relatives asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I answered “cash,” they responded that giving cash was a little bit crass.  I don't think it's crass in the least.  Cash rocks as a gift, maybe even more so that gift cards.  Just a note:  If you're given cash and are completely offended by it, send me an e-mail and I'll give you an address that you can send the cash to.  Namely mine. 🙂
• Expensive gifts for kids. Big Cajun Man likened gifts over $250 for children under 18 to a bribe in his recent post.  I know this just isn't true.  I've gotten many expensive gifts (some well over $250, back when $250 was worth twice as much as it is now) over the years, and none of them were bribes.  They were carefully chosen gifts, and were ones that I used and enjoyed for many years to come.  I still have, and use, some of them.
• Joke gifts. MP Dunleavey likens $20 spent on a joke gift to $20 being flushed down the toilet.  A few months ago I received one worth about twice that.  The joke will remain private but I still laugh at it, and the recipient got to see me opening it.  $40 is a small price to pay for that kind of humor.
• Clothing / lingerie / gadgets / whatever. If you miss, the gifts still have market value, or can be returned or regifted.  Include a gift receipt to help prop up this value.  If you think the person will enjoy it, who am I to tell you not to give it?  I don't know you, and I don't know them.  Be bold and string … I mean strong.
• Regifting. We do it regularly.  So what?  So what if you regift a gift back to the same person who gave it to you in the first place?  Sending a message is gift in and of itself.  Or make it a holiday tradition and have a regifting partner with whom you regift the same gifts year after year.  Use the same fading wrapping paper.  The gift only cost $1.59 in 1997 but the memories and laughs are priceless.
• Homemade gifts. MP warns that “just because you don't have money doesn't mean that you have talent.”  How's that for putting someone in a no-win situation?  (And this was coming from a person who was once fairly deep in debt!)  Do what you feel, money or not, time or not.  Sound your barbaric yawp in your craft of choice.
• Nothing. Hey, if you want to give nothing at all, that's your choice, too!  Times may be tough, or you may want to alienate those closest to you by sending a crystal clear message without warning on the morning of December 25th.  The environment will probably thank you if your relatives don't.

The bottom line is that there are exceptions to every rule.  There are consequences to every action of gift-giving.  It's up to you to decide, but I support your ability to make whatever gift-giving decision you want!