The art of gift giving and receiving 🎁
The festive season is fast approaching! For many, this is a wonderful time of the year: gathering with loved ones, having great food, and playing lot of boardgames.
Let’s not forget though, others might find this period of time incredibly stressful.
Research suggests that gift giving can be the most stressful part of Christmas… “Do I have enough money to buy the gifts?”, “What gifts to buy?”, “Would the person like the gift or not?”.
So much stress and uncertainty! Therefore, I thought I might write a few tips on the art of gift giving and receiving, and hopefully you will find this useful.
1). 💸💸💸 ≠ ❤️❤️❤️
Let me just start with the obvious, monetary value of a gift does not equal the perceived value of it. The message “if you love someone you buy them the world” is a marketing trick to guilt people into spending more money, sometimes even money they don’t have. While you are considering what to buy this Christmas, remember your loved ones would likely want you to be kind to yourself too (i.e. don’t over spend).
2). The mindset of giving (and receiving) gifts 🧠
As you see from the newsletter’s title, there are actually two parts to gifting: the act of giving itself, and the act of receiving. Both parts can make us feel great… and, also make us feel other unpleasant emotions such as anxiety and guilt.
Rather than gift giving in order to try to impress or to be liked, I would recommend to gift and receive with a value guided approach. What this means is acting in accordance to be the person your heart truly desires: such as to be a loving parent, a connecting friend, a grateful colleague, or a thoughtful partner.
3). If you want the other person to know, say something 💬
Gift givers value the thoughts and efforts they put into a gift, but gift receivers cannot read minds and therefore don’t/can’t value the thoughts and efforts as the gift givers do. If you want to communicate better, you could include a card/letter to explain the thoughts and reasons behind why you chose or made the gift.
4). Time is the most precious gift 🕰
One of the best gift we could give is our time. Many of us might struggle this year financially, if so, you may consider gifting your special person your valuable time. Some ideas could be planning and going for a hike together (especially if you have turned down this idea 5 times already); helping out with a big clean of the house after Christmas (especially when you are part of the reason the house needs cleaning!); or playing your kids’ favourite boardgame with them with full purposeful attention (even if that boardgame is Monopoly…).
5). Frequency > Intensity 💯
Research shows that the frequency of happy events have far greater positive impacts on our happiness when compared to the intensity of the event. For example, a few weekend get-aways would overall generate greater benefit and happiness than a week-long holiday. It is because the anticipation and memory of an event will make us far happier than the event itself. So, if you have more small things to look forward to frequently, you generally feel happier.
You might be able to think of ways to create multiple occurrences from a single gift. For example, you might get someone an online subscription of a [Drawing, Painting, Cooking, History, basically just insert their interest here] class. And of course, you could gift a great boardgame that they get to play many times. This way they will get multiple bursts of happiness over many months to come.
6). Being grateful is cool 😎
Last but not least, when you are receiving a gift, remember all of the above! The gift giver is likely to have put in a lot of thought and effort, even if we don’t immediately see it or understand it. Even if we absolutely hated a gift (which is highly unlikely), we can still live by our values and be a graceful, caring, considerate gift receiver.
I hope you have enjoyed this last Newsletter for the year. You might notice that boardgames are indeed great gifts! They vary in price but most are very affordable, are tool for great experiences that can be re-played over and over again, and facilitate and create quality time with your loved ones.
If you need ideas, here is a list of the great games we have covered so far. If you are interested in purchasing, we hope you head down to your local game store or jump onto the publisher’s website to get a copy.
The Teamwork Series:
The Mind - An excellent, silent teamwork game
Regicide - Play anywhere with just a pack of cards!
Unlock! - An escape room in a box!
Forbidden Island - Can your team survive the sinking island?
The Communication Series:
Five Rounds - Zac calls it the greatest party game of all time
Bhonanza - You never had so much fun trading beans
Decrypto - Let’s crack some codes together
The Champion of the Wild - Where a sloth could beat a lion
Hero Quest - Epic adventure, best with your evil wizard voice
Please gift us 5 minutes of your time ❤️
In case you don’t know, Game & Learn is a passion project and does not generate any profit. We spend hours and hours writing each piece, hoping it will add some value to your life.
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Game & Learn will be back in 2023! Until then, be kind to yourself; and if you can, be kind to someone else too.