Discover how to purchase a Christmas gift for someone in these steps!

The Christmas holiday is approaching and you need gift ideas for friends and family. However, the process of figuring out a gift idea for each individual person can be exhausting. Especially when a specific person is just plain difficult to generate a gift idea overall. The frustration compounds indefinitely and your time is ticking away each day. What can you do to solve these ideas? The simple answer is breaking the problem into steps.

Step 1: How much thought are you putting in?

The first step is how much thought you are putting into the gift idea. In the YouTube video by Cal Newport about How Can People Who Lack Planning Skills Improve Without Discouragement, the same principles apply when generating gift ideas. An anxiety build-up when coming up with a gift idea should not happen. If anxiety is happening when coming up with a gift idea, then you are going about planning the gift wrongly.

Your plan for Christmas gift ideas should be granular – building a sense of “what you want to convey” with your own thoughts towards buying a gift. In other words, your personal input should be applied to why you want to give someone something. There should be a reason before anything is even purchased.

Step 2: How much love are you putting in?

If the reason has been established, yet the problem remains that you still need an idea, then comes the next step. How much love you are putting into the gift idea? In the YouTube video Is Gift-Giving a Selfish Love Language? by Abbey Howe, gifting someone something from the basis of love is a tangible affirmation of affection. However, as Abbey Howe mentions, the misconception of love is the price tags on merchandise.

You should not be blowing wads of cash on Christmas gifts for loved ones. Being somewhat frugal about your gift ideas is a good balancing behavior to showcase that you are responsible. A gift should never make someone feel uneasy about the price tag being hidden. Nor should the expensive gift make them explosively happy, because this could generate a false sense of wealth that you provide.

 

Putting love into a gift idea is a double-edge sword act. The overwhelming feeling of satisfaction can make an instant Christmas miracle, but leave you worried about finances in the long run. After putting thought and love together, there is one more step to the equation of generating a Christmas gift idea for someone if you are still struggling.

Step 3: What are you receiving in return?

What about you receiving something in return for your idea? You are taking the time to make sure they receive a happy experience and a gift for many years to come. In the YouTube video How to Give a Good Gift by TEDX Talks, gift giving is broken into another three pieces. These three pieces are uniquely tied together to form your satisfaction of giving a gift. The intention, object, and effect are all pieces to the equation that make your gift special to you personally.

The intention of gift giving is the practical act of how you are thinking of them. The object of the gift is the physical representation of your gift in general. Last but not least is the effect that the gift has on the receiver. Without all three of these in place, this final step of generating a Christmas gift idea will have no relevancy towards you in general.

Conclusion

You should always keep in mind that gifting someone a present is just as important to you as the one receiving a gift. However, the gift itself should have meaning for both you and the receiver. Remember: what do you want to convey, how much love are you placing, and what are you receiving in return? These three elements should all be applied to gifting a Christmas present for a loved one.