Just Buy It Off the Wishlist Already

When I was a kid, the arrival of the JCPenney and Sears Holiday catalogs was almost as exciting as Christmas itself. My mom would give me a pen and I would go through page after page marking all of the toys I wanted that year. Of course, I didn't receive all of them but hey, a kid can dream! Little did I know...I was creating my first wishlists.

So many of us want to give The Perfect Gift [are those angels I hear singing?] We love to think of ourselves as great gift givers. But maybe, just maybe, our gifts don't land as amazingly as we imagine? I've got this weird "wow-I-love-it-but-actually-hate-it" face when it comes to receiving gifts that don't exactly fit the bill. So how do we avoid that awkward exchange for both gift givers and receivers? We're back to the stuff of my 1980s Christmas fantasies....wishlists.

Believe it or not, research has been done on this very thing. A number of researchers including Elanor Williams, PhD, Mary Steffel, PhD, and Julian Givi, PhD, among others, have shown that what people truly want is...wait for it...on their wishlist. An article in Kiplinger explained that, "Studies suggest your loved ones will appreciate that gift more than an unsolicited surprise offering and consider it more thoughtful, even if it doesn't feel that way to you."

And let's talk about the stress that it takes off of YOU, the gift giver. Have you ever knowingly given a less-than-stellar gift because you just didn't know what else to buy and you were in a hurry and you can't find your shoes and the cat threw up on the couch RIGHT before you had to leave for the birthday dinner and...where was I? Oh - yeah...stressed out and giving terrible gifts. Luckily with GiftMinder, you can create a wishlist that makes it easy on your gifters and encourage them to do the same. And in doing so, you'll BOTH actually enjoy what you end up getting each other! Wish on, my friends!