In a recent four-year period, my household spent on average $3,491 on gifts per year, and keep in mind that we don’t have any children. I know this because I track my spending – visit my Track Speding post to learn how. I am providing my average spending because I am unable to find any information on average household gift spending. It may surprise you to learn exactly how much you spend on gifts each year. The following table indicates the categories for which we purchase gifts.

My concern is not with the generosity of gift giving, but rather the wastefulness and the societal/traditional expectation to purchase gifts. Why has it become an expectation for family members to buy each other gifts several times per year (note the “yearly” column in the Table above)? Well, I won’t be able to shift societal norms or change traditions, but I can help you to rethink gift-giving. According to Laycock & Gregori (2022), 52% of Americans receive unwanted gifts during the holiday season, accounting for around $8.4 billion. 8% of people claim they throw away the unwanted gifts, while 43% keep them in their homes, before ultimately ending up in the landfill down the road (Laycock & Gregori, 2022). We spend our time and money acquiring gifts for our friends and family because it’s tradition to do so, but it’s likely that the recipient won’t want the gift and that it will either clutter up their home or end up in the landfill. Am I the only one that thinks this is madness? As an effort to reduce the waste of buying material gifts, many have opted to buy gift cards. The problem is that the gift card may be for an unwanted merchant, causing the gift card to go unredeemed. According to Foran (2021), 45% of Canadians’ gift cards are unused. It is not to say that all material gifts and gift cards are bad, it is just that we need to be more intentional with gift purchasing to ensure that they are useful to the recipient. Here are some ideas to simplify your gift-giving and reduce the wastefulness of it:

• Instead of purchasing things/stuff, vow for something useful you know that the recipient will consume like:
  • Grocery gift card for their favourite grocery store.
  • Fuel station gift card to their favourite fuel station.
  • Bottle of their favourite wine.
  • Bouquet of flowers (if they like flowers).
  • Take the person out (or have them over) for a meal.
  • Donation to a charity or cause close to the recipient’s heart.
  • Cash or cheque to the recipient’s name – everyone can use that!
• For groups (friends, family), rather than all members buying gifts for one another during the holidays, do a gift exchange. We have been using drawnames.ca for several years, and these are the main benefits:
  • Each person draws only one other person to purchase a gift for.
  • Each person makes a list of the items they want so that the buyer knows that whatever they buy from the list is something that the recipient will use.

References:

Foran, P. (2021, March 30). Canadians sitting on gift cards with unused balances, survey finds. Toronto. https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/canadians-sitting-on-gift-cards-with-unused-balances-survey-finds-1.5368725

Laycock, R., & Gregori, C. (2022, November 17). $8.3 billion is spent on unwanted Christmas gifts. Finder.Com. https://www.finder.com/unwanted-gifts