Holiday season, apart from being a great time for celebrating; however is also a time to cope with a great deal of stress that comes with the season. You plan your parties and attend others as well as gift giving to contend with. Gifting someone a present gets tricky if you do not know what the other person is planning on giving you as a gift. At first, I used to worry about that a lot. What I would do at that time is that I would avoid buying gifts for people that I did not receive things from, so as not to embarras them. Later, I took it as silly. So, if I found creative gift ideas for someone I bought the items for the person so that I could experience the joy of giving.

Some people seem easier to buy for than others. There are many times when I am out shopping and I will find something that I know a friend or family member could use or would enjoy having. Then there are people on the shopping list that no matter how hard I try I cannot come up with creative gift ideas. These are usually the people that I feel obligated to get a gift for rather than people I enjoying giving to. My father-in-law falls into that category. For years I have spent hours looking for the perfect gift for him for father’s day, birthdays and Christmas.

No matter what creative gift ideas I would come up with he would find something wrong with the gift. I finally told my husband that it was not worth the time or effort to try to come up with something special for him. My father-in-law is a very practical man so we started giving him things that he used all the time. We gave him certificates for car washes, gift cards to his favorite grocery store and also gift certificates for fills of gasoline. These were not the most creative gift ideas, but he actually appreciated the gestures.

I have found that I now shop quite differently for gift giving occasions. I think strictly of the person and how they react to gifts. If they are a person that appreciates time and efforts that go into creative gift ideas, then I will put forth the effort. If the gift is for a person that is not appreciative then I will go the more practical route in my gift giving. This way the person is going to make use of the gift and I will not have the frustration or hurt feelings of putting effort into gift giving that is not appreciated.