When was the last time you got a gift from your friend or lover? How did that Christmas or New Year present make you feel? Elated, loved, overfilled with joy? It is no news that giving and receiving gifts is essential for relationships. The Free Dictionary defines gifting as giving something to someone, voluntarily or without payment in return, to honour these persons.
Gifts are primarily given out of love and honour to the persons we deeply cherish or for our co-workers or neighbours. Gift-giving remains an integral part of human interaction and helps to define relationships and strengthen bonds. Before giving you unique suggestions, we need to understand why gift-giving is necessary.
Why Gift-Giving Is Important
To Show Appreciation
Giving gifts shows that we appreciate the persons we are offering these gifts to. However, in an article by the New York Times, Ellen J. Langer, a Harvard psychology professor, explained that not giving gifts does not improve a relationship. This is because our friends or lovers will not feel appreciated, making us miss essential connections with our friends and families.
Strengthens Relationships
Gift-giving strengthens relationships as it reflects the giver and the receiver. Giving gifts to people allows us to communicate how we feel about these persons in ways words could never. After all, love is better done than said.
Has Mental Health Benefits
According to the Random Act of Kindness Foundation, some of the benefits of giving gifts and kindness in general include; oxytocin and serotonin production, decreased pain and blood pressure, increased energy, and extended lifespan. While these might seem impossible, they hold. In addition, giving is often more beneficial to the giver than the receiver as it gladdens them to have done something to make a loved one smile.
7 Unique Gifts You Must Consider For Your Loved Ones
Deck of Cards in Bulk
Who does not love decks of cards in bulk? The first thing you should put in your gift box or hamper is a deck of cards, so why not just buy them in bulk? Purchasing a deck of cards for a loved one shows that you care about the type of games they play. Research has shown that playing cards can improve intelligence, making them even more critical. Buying them in bulk makes gifting them a lot easier. It also ensures that we get them at a cheaper rate. It is evident that your gift bag is incomplete without a pack of cards.
Book Vouchers
E.B. White said, “Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people – people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book.” While it might be hard to pick a book for your friends who are voracious readers, getting them book vouchers is the best solution. This way, they get to choose the books they love and constantly bless your soul as they devour these books.
Plants
As unusual as plant gifts might seem, they make for excellent skills. Get your loved one’s plants and watch them grow up. Plants help to bring colour to rooms and brighten moods. They are like pets themselves, and owners grow attachments to these beauties. Get people potted plants as gifts and some necessary nutrients for these plants to grow.
Membership Cards
We really can’t know all the things our friends want, however getting membership cards for their favourite gyms or most lovable clubs. This is a way to be someone after their heart. A membership card shows that we have watched them closely and seen something they need. You definitely can’t go wrong with this.
Buy Them A Photo Clock
Buy them a photo clock, take it a step further, and make it personalized. You can make each picture very symbolic and somehow sync with the time, like a picture of your loved ones at 11 for the “11 o’clock” position or your first wedding anniversary for the “1 o’clock” position. This is indeed a unique gift.
Long Distance Touch Bracelet Set
This is beautiful for long-distance relationships, be it friendships or romantic relationships. You can send a signal to a friend when you miss them as long as both of you are putting on the bracelet. Just tap the bracelet, and they’ll know how much they mean to you.
Write to/for them
Whatever gift you choose, a note should go with it. Something short to let them know how much they mean to you. Love is better done than said, but who says you can’t do both?
Conclusion
We must give gifts to sustain and strengthen our relationships. An essential part of gift-giving is a proper knowledge of the persons we want to give these gifts to. This makes picking gifts they’ll love easier. And don’t forget that your gifts are incomplete without a deck of cards in them.