When you’re a child, you get by Christmas by giving your parents handmade crafts such as a card, a wall-hanging that they’ll only put up for a few days to make you happy, or something else that they’ll probably never use. It’s funny how when parents buy their kids gifts, they go out of their way to figure out what would excite them the most, but when it’s your turn to buy your parents a gift, hardly any thought is put into it. “It’s not that I don’t spend time thinking about what to get my parents during Christmas. I do. In fact, I put in a lot of time thinking what would make them happy. But the problem is that I think they have everything they need. Everything I can think of, they already have it,” says Barry Pereira, 28-year-old blogger.
The man put into words what’s been on everyone’s mind when they go shopping to buy gifts for their parents. But how does one find a solution to up their gift game when it comes to the people who are difficult to please?
The first step is to stop thinking of them as mom and dad who will be happy with any nonsense we give them and just be happy with the thought and the gesture of giving them a gift. Let’s treat them as individuals to find the perfect present for them. Start by thinking of their profession if they haven’t retired yet. “Office stationery seems to be a hit with my mom. She works in an office and she just loves quirky stationery such as cute sticky notes in various shapes and sizes, pens, and stuff like that. Last year I got her a cushion that has the phrase ‘Wake up, kickass, repeat’ printed on it. I told her it’s for her office chair. I have to say it’s made her popular with the younger colleagues there,”says Pereira.
If they are retired, don’t give them something dull. Think of what they like to do in their free time. Think of introducing them to new things. “My daddy was an avid reader in his day. He loves taking out lessons and quotes from old classics like Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce and so on at every chance he gets. He has so many books at home and loves reading new novelists too, even though he complains about them while reading. My mom wants to get rid of the books that he has read and never touched again for years. So this year I’m going to buy him a Kindle e-reader,” says Ajay Rao, 23-year-old event manager. “I know he will resist it at first, but he will give in eventually. He’s always been that way with technology. He didn’t get the idea of upgrading from his old-school cellphone to a smartphone, but now he’s always on Facebook. Even though this gift is for dad, my mom is the one who will be even more happy because she can now get rid of his old books.”
If you’re putting so much thought into what to get your parents, it’s obvious they also put in a lot of thought in what to get you all these years you were growing up. Let’s go out on a limb and say that they’ve been great parents, and this Christmas, if you really want to show them your appreciation, get them a chance to get away and pamper themselves for a while. Kimberly James, 31-year-old BPO employee bought her parents a keychain with a photograph of the whole family, including her elder brother and sister. But that wasn’t the big surprise. The three siblings pooled in to buy their parents a car. “The look on their face when they saw the car, with the big bow on the bonnet, was priceless. They were so happy thinking that I got it for myself. But when I told them that my brother and sister who live in Australia pitched in and we bought it for them, they were so confused. It took them a while to wrap their head around it. Later that night, we all went for a drive and my dad treated us to ice-cream. It’s been a year, and my parents have taken so many little road trips to nearby destinations in it,” says James.