More Than A Gift

What Not To Give - The Top 10 Worst Gifts

Granted - meaningful gift-giving isn’t easy and it certainly doesn’t come naturally to everyone. However, avoiding the worst gifts can’t be all that difficult and is half the battle. So here are some of the worst gift categories to steer clear of, along with some real life examples. You do have to wonder sometimes…

1) The Offensive Gift

“My girlfriend gave me deodorant for Christmas. It was so embarrassing because it was as if she was trying to tell me that I have body odor. I’m sure she meant well but it made me feel very uncomfortable.”
- Mark, 20

2) The Impractical Gift

“A colleague once gave me a beta fish in a bowl for my birthday. I have two homes, one in the North and one down South. I leave each one for six months every year. I cannot take a fish along with me (!) either on a plane or on a long car trip, so it was a problem as to what do I do with the fish when I left for the season. Fortunatelty, I found a friend who didn’t know my colleague and who was willing to take it for me, for good.
- Amanda, 70

3) The You-Should-Know-Me-Better Gift

“I’m a guy that likes guy things. A friend gave me a digital photograph holder keychain - not very manly! I can’t use it and I’m going to have to somehow regift it without this person finding out, as I don’t want to hurt her feelings.”
- Simon, 27

4) The What-Is-It Gift

“My In-Laws gave me some strange flowers made out of bread dough for my birthday. Of course I had to act like I liked it. When I opened it, as they were sitting right in front of me. I had to figure out what it was, then act like I appreciated this strange thing!”
- Suzie, 37

5) The Useless Gift

“A close friend gave me windscreen wipers for my last birthday. Nice idea but who gifts you windscreen wipers when you don’t even own a car?!”
-  Frank, 31

6) The Thoughtless Gift

“My boyfriend was trying to be thoughtful because I had car trouble the previous week and didn’t have any cables. But he got me JUMPER CABLES for my birthday, need I say more?”
- Linda, 28

7) The Oh-So-Cheap Gift

“I was given a $50 gift card to my favorite store by a colleague for my birthday. Unfortunately, when I tried to use it I found it had only $2.56 left on it…”
- Sarah, 42

8) The Gift that makes you feel inadequate

“I had gained a lot of weight over the previous year. Even though my mother knew this, she refused to recognize that I could not wear a size small shirt. When I held it up to me, she was surprised that it was so small. I felt really inadequate and weak for gaining all that weight.”
- Tom, 35

9) The Obviously-Last-Minute Gift

“It was a beautifully wrapped big box. It was heavy and I couldn’t imagine what it was. My surprise when I opened it was no a good surprise. Who gives motor oil as a gift and wraps it? It was obvious that my husband had put no real thought into this and I was very disappointed.”
- Sandra, 51

10) The Re-Gifted Gift

“There were two real problems with the gift. First, I don’t drink whiskey, which is something my boyfriend should have known, since we’d been dating for a couple of years. HE liked whiskey. And, of course, there was the second problem - the bottle had already been opened! Not only opened, but at least one drink had been poured out of it. It was obvious that he had already had this sitting at home for a while but he wrapped it up and put a bow on it anyway.”
- Mel, 30

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Got a gift-disaster to share? We would love to hear it!
Email us at talk[at]morethanagift.com

Meaningful gift-giving…

No doubt we have all experienced this situation: come Christmas or our birthday, we are handed a box or bag, a beautifully-wrapped package with a ribbon and a card. Eyes filled with expectations and a broad smile in front of us, we open the gift and… are stunned! “Errr, thank you soooo much! This really is a GREAT gift, thank you!”, is what we hear ourselves saying, when really our mind is going “What IS this?” and “Why on earth would anyone gift this?”.

Sounds familiar? Well, it happens all to easily and interestingly enough, it is often those closest to us who should really know better, that get it wrong. But let’s be honest - can we say with absolute confidence that we for our part have never ever given a gift that was thoughtless, disappointing, embarrassing or even offensive? Of course we would like to think that we always put sufficient time and effort into our gift choices to avoid this situation arising but how can we really know?

We have done a little survey, asked a few hundred people about the best and worst gifts they have  received, as this gives a much better picture of what makes a thoughful gift than asking people about stuff they have given.

The results are remarkable - there is definitely something true about “It’s the thought that counts” but sometimes that thought seems to be a little “off”…

Watch this space for some of the best and worst gifts!

Easter Gift Ideas

Easter is the most important religious feast in the Christian liturgical year. It celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ, three days after his death by crucifixion.

It is also one of the most popular gift giving occasions in Western countries: think easter eggs and chocolate bunnies, plants and other fantastic little presents to celebrate spring.

Look out for great easter gift ideas and quotes and symbols to make your gift extra special!

Hospitality Quotes

Invited for dinner? Wanting to say ‘thank you’ to your host with a personal message? A lovely quote will make your note more special.

Check out these great hospitality quotes and hospitality symbols!

I’m Sorry Gift Ideas

“An apology is the superglue of life. It can repair just about anything.”
- Lynn Johnston

Most of us will have been faced with the situation of wanting to say sorry to someone we care about. Maybe we did or said something which unintentionally caused upset to somebody we never wanted to hurt and now we find it hard to come up with meaningful words to undo the grief we caused.

Giving a little “sorry present” can work wonders when it is given with the right meaning and accompanied by some personal apology words.

Coming up with a great sorry gift idea can be difficult but you can find some great help with your gift choice here: Sorry gifts for everyone - including quotes, symbols and testimonials!

Farewell gifts - giving a little ‘goodbye’

Saying goodbye is probably one of the hardest things we have to do in life. In fact, it can be so hard that we can barely speak and say all those things we still want our loved one to know.

All the good luck wishes, the “I’ll miss you”s and “I love you”s remain unsaid and we part feeling upset for another reason: not only did we just wave goodbye to someone we deeply care about, but we also failed to reaffirm our friendship.

To get around this very common dilemma, giving a small yet meaningful farewell gift can help us. Whether a token of our friendship, a talisman to wish good luck or a personalized farewell present - there are tons of ways to express our farewell wishes.

Unique farewell gifts just offers you some inspiration: read real-life testimonials, check out comon symbols and their meanings, find some touching quotes for this occasion. No doubt that whatever you choose, your loved one will very much appreciate your effort!

Retirement gift ideas

Without doubt one of the most significant milestones in life is the day our working life finally comes to an end and we can supposedly sit back and relax.

Retirement is meant to be the time when one can at last harvest the fruit of years of hard work and enjoy the freedom of having the time to pursue all those hobbies and interests that were neglected for years.

Well, unfortunately we are not used to having that much time at our disposal and not having to go to work in the morning might be a daunting experience for some people. Some retirees have even mentioned the “post-retirement depression” to express just how difficult this time can be.

The opposite reaction to this milestone undoubtedly also exists: an almost ecstatic response to - finally! - being through with work, the office, the boss, etc. Some have spent years carefully planning the “time after”: the cruise or round the world trip is already booked, family and friends are all waiting for visits, membership of a new club is arranged, etc.

Regardless of the anticipated response to this milestone, we are likely to share the moment with the retiree-to-be. It is a fantastic gift-giving occasion and a meaningful retirement present can be great to mark this special event.

Because of the aforementioned ambiguity of feelings, however, it might be best to stay clear of so-called “gag retirement gifts”, or you might risk upsetting the recipient by rubbing salt in their wounds.

There are great gift ideas, such as personalized retirement gift baskets or you could opt for an inspirational retirement guide to help with the beginning of the new era.

Retirement gift ideas has a lot of fantastic and unique retirement gift ideas and you can find personalized retirement gift ideas too.

Host gifts - Get it right

Whether dinner at your friend’s place or a cocktail party at your business partner’s house - there are numerous occasions that encourage us to give a token of appreciation for someone’s hospitality.

Of course there is always the traditional bottle of wine we can bring but that is hardly imaginative and not a very personal choice of gift.

Great host gift ideas include symbols, quotes and other ways of personalizing your gift options for any hospitality occasion - whether formal or personal. You can even have a look at some real-life testimonials and their experiences with being at the receiving end of host gifts.

Gift inspiration

Gift-giving can be such a stressful thing to do - all we want is to make somebody we care about happy, show them how much they mean to us and put a smile on their face.

But time-constraints and the concern that we might get it wrong despite our best intentions make it seemingly impossible to even make a choice.

Unfortunately we are not helped by the vast amount of useless websites surrounding this topic. What we really need is a place to go for inspiration and relevant gift ideas but what we find instead is tons of online shops with flashing banners and animations, suggesting various super deals and special offers we should take up immediately.

After just a few moments on one of those sites we have a headache… but not one meaningful gift idea. Unless you are into dancing robo-dogs, you won’t get lucky looking through most shops. Or you could always opt for one of the millions of gift basket stores that are out there… Is it just me or would you also get offended if your lover gave you a gift basket for your birthday? Don’t get me wrong, gift hampers are fantastic - for some people and some occasions - but they are not the answer to all your gift dilemmas.

So what we have tried to do is create a website that provides you with all the information you need to make your gift-giving experience more fun and more meaningful. Check out More Than A Gift for some inspiration!