“Last Minute Gift Blowout!” “Last Day For Free Shipping!” “Last Day To Get It There By Christmas!”

It’s hard to miss the barrage of ads trying to suck the last few dollars out of our pockets this time of year.  There’s nothing wrong with gift giving, but we’ve got this whole idea turned on its head.  Gifts used to be something you’d give because you were generous, because you wanted to give.  Now they’re considered obligations by many.

Advertisers fuel this fire, and are pretty much the undisputed creators of a peculiar phenomena that occurs as we count down the last few days until Christmas.  I like to call it the “finish line frenzy.”

The Finish Line Frenzy

I’ve seen it, you’ve seen it.  We rarely talk about it, but it’s definitely real.  The “finish line frenzy” is what happens when people see the holidays coming up, and a panic sets in.  The panic is caused by the reality that they haven’t bought gifts, or the fear that they haven’t bought enough gifts.  A few things are happening here:

Our guilt is being leveraged. Most of us have been conditioned to feel guilty if somebody gives us a gift and we don’t give one in return.  We’ve also been told that we need to buy gifts for everybody around us, including mailmen, hairstylists, teachers, etc.  The reality is that you don’ t have any obligation to buy a gift for anybody.  Gifts are just that – gifts.  Don’t let the advertising people convince you otherwise.

Advertisers are applying “squeeze”. Stores have excess inventory that they want out of there!  In an ideal world, stores would sell off exactly the amount of seasonal merchandise they have on hand, with nobody being turned away.  In a slightly less-than-ideal world, they’d sell out before the holiday, and turn a few customers away.  The one thing they absolutely don’t want is merchandise that they have to mark down or clearance out after December 25th – so they package whatever’s left into an ad and advertise “great last-minute gifts”.

Advertisers are raising the financial bar. I walked into Pier 1 the other day to find a couple of nice coffee mugs to go with some homemade cocoa mix that my wife and I are making, and there was a very nice jewelry armoire by the front door.  It carried a price tag of $279.99 (on sale), and was marked as a “great Christmas gift”.  Maybe I’m just cheap, but if I spent $100 on a Christmas gift I’d think that was extravagant – I can’t imagine spending $279!

The frenzy around last-minute gift-giving is designed to make you forget that gifts are best if they’re thoughtful.  If you’re wandering around Wal-Mart on December 23rd (you know who you are) to find a gift for somebody, whatever you get is probably going to fail any reasonable definition of “thoughtful”.

Add to that the fact that you’ve walked into a store without any idea what you want to get – and the stores aren’t trying to sell you the gifts that are good for the people on your list.  They’re trying to liquidate their holiday merchandise.  So they promote “low priced”, “pre-wrapped”, and “last chance”.  Net result?  You do wind up thinking – but about yourself, not the other person!

This is no way to live.  If you’re down to the wire and really want to get somebody a gift, there are a few simple things you can do:

Get them a restaurant gift card. If you know me, you know that I hate gift cards.  Well-chosen restaurant gift cards are the exception!  Pick a restaurant that you know the recipient likes, that you know they have in their area, and get them a gift card that will cover an average meal for them.  You know they’ll use it, and you don’t have to worry about whether it goes with their decor.

Gift cooked food of some sort. Tell your giftee that you’re going to bake cookies every other month all year, and you’ll bring them a couple dozen cookies every time you do.  Alternatively, make up a bunch of cookie dough, freeze the individual cookie dough portions, and gift the frozen dough for them to bake whenever.  Or tell the giftee that you’ll come over to their house and make dinner the first Saturday of every month for the next year.  There are lots of options!

Gift a service. Babysitting, lawn mowing, snow shoveling, etc. are all things that people need to do, and either can’t or don’t want to do themselves.  Tell your giftee that their Christmas gift is lawn mowing every Saturday in June and July.  Print up a nice certificate stating that fact if you like.

The restaurant gift card requires you to go buy something, but the other two don’t require you to do anything until after the holidays!  Just make sure that whatever holiday commitments you make get kept as the year unfolds.

Want an even better idea?

Be the sort of person who’s generous enough throughout the year that you don’t feel you have to make up for it with a bazillion trinkets on December 25th.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – the holidays are a time to share with family and friends.  Gifts are incidental.  Keep your priorities straight, and have a merry, merry Christmas!

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