1. Printing your face onto household items
If you’re sure that your partner, parent or friend hasn’t got fed up with seeing your face on your actual face yet, this is a great gift idea! This list of birthday gifts for women includes an oval-shaped cushion onto which you can print pictures of two faces – one on each side. A quirky gift idea for your mother if you have a sibling, or an excellent couple’s gift (although it might be a bit weird to see your partner’s face next to you in bed and then replicated on your pillow!).
2. Guns (yes, real ones)
This one’s seriously weird. According to Time magazine, back in 2011 a record number of firearms were sold around Black Friday and in the week leading up to Christmas. One can only hope that no disgruntled relatives went on a murderous rampage after one drink too many and yet another racist joke from Uncle Jim!
3. Self-gifting
Research conducted by centre:mk (a large shopping center in Milton Keynes) ahead of Christmas 2020 revealed that almost a quarter of adults polled were planning to buy a gift for themselves during the holiday season, as well as buying Christmas presents for their partners, children and parents. 22 per cent of survey respondents explained that they would rather buy an item for themselves than ask others to buy it for them as a Christmas present – possibly because some of the top choices for self-gifting were expensive items such as games consoles and mobile phones. It has also been speculated that this desire for self-gifting (which was seen again in the lead-up to Christmas 2021) has been fueled in part by consumers wanting to ‘treat themselves’ after two difficult years of COVID-19 pandemic.
4. Supermarket gift cards
Gift cards have been a popular choice of gift for years, especially for those buying presents for people they don’t see very often and don’t have a close relationship with, such as nieces and nephews. The expectation, however, has usually been that the recipient will use the gift card to buy themselves something a bit special, a ‘treat’ that they wouldn’t have otherwise bought for themselves. Research conducted last year by Google, however, suggests that there may be an increasing trend towards buying supermarkets gift cards as presents with the expectation that the recipient will use them towards their food shop. This is perhaps unsurprising given that the pandemic has affected many people’s livelihoods, with large numbers of employees in the most affected industries being put on reduced hours or sacked altogether.
There have been evolutionary psychologists who have suggested that giving gifts is a common practice partly because it has evolutionary benefits. According to William Hamilton, the more closely related we are to someone (e.g. a sibling versus a cousin) the more likely we are to help them, because that ensures the survival of our own genetic pool. Perhaps, then, gifting our relatives vouchers to help with their food shop makes evolutionary sense!
