Gift cards are an easy answer when you don't know what to buy.

I only received one this year, from Loft. This is my favorite store and my SIL knows this.

Some people sell their gift cards for less than what they are worth to get the cash. I can always find a use though, even if it's regifting.

If it's a store that is not suitable for me or one that I would not normally frequent I use the card to buy gifts for other people - either for their birthdays or Christmas.

If I get a card for a coffee shop that I don't frequent I will take a couple of girlfriends with me and buy their coffees and a snack using the card. It helps to get it used up and they're happy to help me!

I view those kind of cards as little windfalls to my budget.

I keep the cards in a see-through small freezer bag in my purse. Easy to switch to another purse and I see them everytime I open my purse.

Amazon, iTunes and Barnes & Noble do let you enter their cards into your account and they are automatically used for your purchases. I always enter them shortly after I receive them, but I don't throw the card away until it has been completely redeemed just in case some sort of error occurs. However, it's easy enough to keep them in my desk drawer until I've used up the value in my Amazon and B&N account.

I buy a lot online when there is free shipping, so I tend to keep any store gift cards close to my computer. Restaurant gift cards are the ones that give me fits because we seldom eat out and rarely at the restaurants for which we have been given cards. I always try to re-gift those to the nieces and nephews as soon as possible because I know that they will use them.

I see them as part gift, and part of my overall budget.

So, for example, say I get a Target gift card (where I shop weekly), but I see something I want for myself at a different store. I feel completely at ease using the value of the Target card at the other store to get myself a gift, and then using the Target card for my weekly shopping trip of paper towels and frozen dinners.

If I get a gift card for a store where there is nothing I want, then I would use it to buy a birthday gift for someone else, and then again use that card value to get myself something elsewhere. It's all just about the giver wanting you to have something and they don't know what to get you. So I do try to use them fairly promptly after the gift occasion, and to get something.

I love gift cards. My favorite this year was from Nordstroms, where I spent the total amt. on a pair of sunglasses. It was a nice splurge!

Fun2be, I did not know you could register a gift card with Amazon and other places---- so often I've thought that would be so handy, duh!

I try to email gift cards when they are unavoidable. The itunes ones are always popular with nieces and nephews. This year I gave out several all-digital subscriptions to the New York Times to members of the younger set whose parents don't subscribe. I purchased the six month subscriptions and am hoping they enjoy it enough to ask for it for their birthdays, which happen to be about six months from now :-)

Julieckmo, interesting way to look at the gift cards. We don't have any stores except Walmart so that strategy wouldn't work here in the sticks, but I would def use it if we lived in the civilized world!

I have mixed feelings about gc. They are better than buying someone something that will be totally useless or wrong.

OTOH, my in law Xmas is now just a gc exchange and it seems so silly and pointless. He gave his Mom a B&N card in the exact amount of the one she gave him. We make suggestions of restaurants we like and they buy gc to chain places we don't use. It took as 2 years to use one and that was only because we were out of town and it was another style restaurant in that corporations stable of places. I was so pleased we remembered and brought it along on that trip.

I'd rather get a gc than have clothes picked out for me. But honestly, I'd rather rather have money to spend as I wish, where I wish.

One year my SIL gave me a Linens N Things card and my MIL gave me a Bed, Bath, Beyond card. So I had half as much buying power at each store. The cards always end up costing me because I have to add to the amount to buy anything.

Thanks to this thread it occurs to me I can use my 2 birthdays and one Xmas gc to B&N online! Well, duh, why didn't that occur to me? I prefer to shop at, and support, a local book store but that's not where they shop so I don't get a gc for that. I should go check the B&N site right now.

I am a bit like HH and have mixed feelings about the cards, but really, I am not crazy over them. I do have a few older relatives that we buy for that it is so hard to decide what to give them. So as part of their gift, we included car wash gift cards. I know it is something they do not do themselves and I know it is something they will use. I really prefer to give an actual gift instead of a gift card, but will give the occasional gift card - if it is something I know will be used and appreciated. I do not particularly like to get gift cards as a gift. I did get a couple of visa gift cards - and those can be used for anything. We also got three restaurant gift cards - one at a favorite restaurant and the other two we will also use.

tina

Sometimes when I'm given a gift card for someplace that I will never use, I regift it to someone I know will use it. Then I take the amount of money that the card was worth, and buy myself something of around the same value. It all works out in the end.

I could go either way with gift cards - although my teenaged nieces and nephews all love them! Otherwise, I don't generally give them, and don't often receive them. When I do, if I can't easily use them, I donate them to our schools' silent auctions and raffles. It's a win-win!

It kind of makes you stop and think about the whole concept of gift giving. It seems like some people have reached a point where:

they don't really "need" anything, at least not anything their friends or relatives can afford and/or know they need

friends and relatives either don't know each other well enough to know what others "want" and/or others don't want anything friends and relatives can afford

friends and relatives don't even know what kind of a gift card others would use

receivers of gift cards don't appreciate the gift card enough to even use it

If those were the circumstances for me I'd bag the whole concept of gift giving. But we already did that rather than resorting to gift cards - with the exception of two family members who are truly in need. We give them cash.

Gibby all those things are exactly why my husband and I dread Xmas. It's important to the rest of his family to give and receive gifts but it doesn't feel like much thought go into the gifts, hence resorting to gc for 90% of the gifts exchanged.

This year my SIL did give my tall husband, who needs extra long ties, al tie but as he opened it she said "I don't think it's long enough for you but I wanted to get you a tie." Naturally it wasn't long enough. She bought it at Kohls, because that's where she shops. In the same mall is a Men's Warehouse, where they sell extra long ties. So if she REALLY wanted to buy him a tie why didn't she walk to the other end of the strip mall and buy the length she knew he needed? No, she just wanted to tick a box of gift for brother - done!

Here's another example from years ago:
She gave us a gc to a restaurant and said (and I swear I am not making this up) "I know you don't really eat there but it was convenient for me and I wanted to get you something." Ummm, thanks for thinking of us? (The funny thing about that was a neighbor saw us there using the gc and bought us another one! His parent also gave us the same gc for two anniversaries in a row! We couldn't get away from the place. It was fine, just wouldn't have need our first choice.)

A bigger question might be why does my SIL feel compelled to say those things as she hands you a gift? Here's a gift you don't want but I don't care what you want. Merry Xmas. Happy Birthday.

Years ago after my husband recovered from cancer, I said instead of exchanging gifts of things we don't need why don't we all just donate the money to a cancer charity? For the first time ever my FIL said I agree with her. Both my MIL and SIL pouted and said but we made donations to them, we want to exchange gifts. Okay, whatever.

Sorry for going on and on, I guess I needed to vent. I still have mixed feeling about gc. Sometimes they're the perfect gift, sometimes they're cop-out.

Hey, this is a great place for venting, so there's no need to apologize for doing so. Over the years, I've found that there are people who are able to come up with amazingly thoughtful and appropriate gifts and others who wouldn't have a clue even if you gave them a list. Maybe gift buying is a skill like decorating or cooking that requires some basic talent to excel at it.

Hirehno I feel your frustration! I've never liked gift cards because I also think they are the equivalent of giving someone a note that says I am giving you this because I have to give you something. I've never liked that dirty Santa game either, but it might be more equitable if played with gift cards all of the same value. Here, I'll swap my Home Depot $50 for your Walgreen's $50....has it come to that?

I heard an economist say once that eventually we will all end up selling each other stuff at Walmart and I am beginning to wonder if he was really kidding. Ah, cheap consumer goods, the engine of prosperity. Buy up, the Christ Child needs another NFL patterned fleece blanket :-(

I think gift giving divides into what I call order takers and dream fillers.

Order takers want to provide something that the recipient specifically wants or needs, and that completes the 'transaction'. A subset of order takers just need to check off a gift from the list, and as long as it is an object or GC, check it done. For an order taker, gift cards are a godsend. No more running hither and yon trying to find X or Y, just pick up the card, load it and boom, mission accomplished.

Dream fillers want to provide a gift that, as the saying goes, the recipient didn't know s/he wanted until it appeared. For dream fillers, the downside is trying to get into the minds of people to suss out just the perfect item. Not an easy task! For a dream filler, gift cards or cash completely negate the goal, and to boot they kill the dream by making it crystal clear just how much was spent on fulfilling the 'dream'.

I used to be a dream filler--it was my perpetual goal to get the PERFECT gift for those on my list. However, as I've gotten older I have come to realize that as with much else in life you can't control or force anyone to feel, do or enjoy gifts no matter how carefully you try to pick something special. And of course gift cards as a product have exploded; you can literally give them for every and any product or service.

What I do now is try to combine order taking and dream filling. So, for Christmas I paired a package of sugar free chocolate bars I special ordered for my diabetic dad with a GC for a movie theater. He and my stepmother will be facing an extended period of medical treatment out of town and my 'dream' is that they can have a night out at the movies as a respite, where he can snack on treats that aren't bad for him. I gave my sisters, all of whom like me are avid readers, each a pair of book-themed novelty socks packaged with an Amazon GC. Dream: they can order something they enjoy reading and peruse it wearing snazzy socks. Okay, that one is pretty light hearted dream filling but still, it's at least a start!

And that's how I try to combine the practicality of gift cards with at least some attempt at creativity and personalization.

Ann

kswl - I no longer give gift cards for exactly the reason you described - finding them in drawers all over the house. The very last thing I want to do is pay for a card that gets misplaced or forgotten. So if I'm unable to think of a suitable gift or in the case of teens who'd rather have cold cash I just write a check. I include a nice note and if I have a clue as to their likes I'll mention that they can apply the card toward .........whatever.

It does seems a tad tacky to me. But at least I know if it gets cashed and if it doesn't I can easily wait a few months and call to inquire and even replace it if need be.

My eldest is married and this year he adopted his in-law's tradition of compiling lists suggesting things they'd like. My DIL had requested gift cards for some personal pampering - mani/pedi, massage, facial etc. Since she lives in the city and doesn't frequent the same salon I thought it would be easier for her to just have money so she could go whever she wanted. I put a check in a holiday card and placed it in a glove box, wrapped it like a present with a big ribbon and tied a bottle of sparkly nail polish in the bow.

On the other hand - I don't mind receiving them and I am the happy recipient of the 4 gift cards that were given to my husband at work. He'll never use them but now I will have the fun of spending someone else's money at Amazon and Barnes and Noble and the 2 Am Ex cards that can be used just about everywhere.

Ann, you are a thoughtful person adapting to the realities of a gift card world, and your attempts to combine the two types of gift giving are very kind. I see I am well on my way to becoming a curmudgeon!

Maire cate, back in pre-gc 1990 my brother sent me a birthday card with a $50 bill and a note saying "enclosed is a gift certificate redeemable everywhere." I also would much rather give money!

Kswl,
Scoot over, I'll join you on the curmudgeon bench.

Marie_cate,
I'm not a teen and I'd prefer money. Like your son, I had to provide a list of ideas to my in-laws. They rarely bought anything from my list so I stopped writing one. If you're just going to buy me what you think I want or need, why ask me? Now my husband provides a joint list with restaurant ideas and things like gas cards and Target. He still plays along to keep the peace.

Ann,
You know how to do a gift card right - thoughtful and creative. Well done.

Gibby - I think you hit the nail on the head. In my family, there is only one couple who truly "need" gifts. A young couple at a rough spot in the road right now. We actually quit gift giving on my side of the family years ago and instead we've done things such as giving to a certain charity, "adopting" a needy family or child, etc. After my mom passed away, for some reason my sister and I both started buying things for my dad again. I think because mom always kind of spoiled him with certain gifts. He is 83 and enjoys the car wash gc, likes to shop for himself so will put a visa gc to good use and love his chicken biscuits so truly appreciates the Chick Fil-A gc! So although he doesn't need anything, it's a way to spoil him a bit and I think we both probably over compensate for trying to make Christmas easier for him - being alone. Sister and I (and the husbands) started give each other a small "something" that is meaningful. They have a willow tree nativity set and we've bought a couple of pieces to that and started them on a new collection - willow tree ornaments. In turn this year we received a yummy large 3-wick candle in a nice glass/brass jar and an ornament of our own.

On the other hand, MIL does not want to discontinue gift-giving even though she or husband and I need anything. I think buying for older folks can be even harder, so she is the one I truly wrack my brain over! But she is a bit like HH's inlaws and does not put much thought into her gifts, so for years she has just given us cash. Which is appreciated but it is just not personal.

Ann - love your ideas!

tina

We gift to our children, grands and great. I know them well enough and listen throughout the year when they mention something they would like, I pick it up for Xmas. I stick to brands I know they like and feel pretty good about the gifts I give. My grands always brag to their friends about the great gifts I give them.

My DIL was in an Antique store with me when she fell in love with some miniature books. She loved them. She is in grad school working toward being Children's Librarian. So I found a set of tiny, old Children's books and found a cool old set of book ends to help them stand.

If it ever comes down to having to buy impersonal gift cards, I will quit gifting. I ask for letters. I have enough stuff. Aimee bought me and DH each a car detail certificate and that was awesome. I'll use that.