My wife and I have Breakfast Television (a local morning show that has a great mix of news (local, national and international), the requisite weather, sports and entertainment and a blend of features that we find entertaining on in the background in the morning.
One segment that caught my attention this morning was about "worst Christmas gifts". They were using data from a British survey of 3,000 people and among the list they mentioned were:
- Bubble Bath
- Bath Salts
- Socks
- Candles
- Belgian Chocolates
- Scarves
- Books
- Moisturizers
This intrigued me on several levels...
The idea of "Worst Gifts" seemed so empirical... surely there is variation based on a number of factors. I thought of Country, Sex, age, cultural background almost immediately.
Now, the internet can be a "wonderful thing" ;-)
There is so much information out there, if you can find it and sort through it.
Worst gifts down under
Best and worst gifts for grandparents
Multiple "Top Ten" Worst gift lists
Executive Worst Gift list
Fifteen worst Holiday Gift Ideas
The funny thing was that I found myself over and over thinking that I liked some of these supposed "worst gifts"...
As I read through these various pages (much more than the few I have added links to), one point became abundantly clear to me,
like Beauty, a "worst gift" is completely in the eye of the Beholder,
and then I thought of a gift that I gave my mother years ago... I was seven years old and went to the corner variety store (we were living in a new subdivision in the Finch/Islington area of North York) by myself with money I had saved by collecting returnable bottles. After searching for a long time (for a seven year old), I found a jewellery box. It was small plastic and topped with an embroidered cloth lid, I seem to remember that is cost me perhaps 59 cents - it was definitely less than one dollar. I don't really remember giving it to my mother that mother's day so long ago, but was shocked many many years later (I was in my thirties) to find that my mother still had it among her most prized possessions. I felt ashamed of the gift when I saw it, and my mother told me that this was the gift that I had given her that she treasured the most. I could not understand this at all. She told me that this was the first gift that I had given her that I chose myself and paid for with my own money. It's funny the lessons mothers teach you, even much later in your life...
for me personally, it is the "thought", much more than the "gift", that counts...
thoughts?
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