At times like Christmas and your birthday, the celebration always involves gifts. It’s fun when you’re a kid - it was great to get that special toy you’d wanted for so long, wrapped up in pretty paper. The more elaborate the wrapping, the better because it added to the excitement. It built the suspense and when you finally saw it, that adrenaline started going, your heart started pumping fast and you felt like you could just jump up and yell, “Yes! I got it!”

Things have changed. As you got older you didn’t get such cool presents like you did when aunts and uncles put thought into your gift. Shopping for teens must be too complicated. My favorite part of gift shopping is thinking of something the person will actually like and use. It shows you care, and that’s the point of a gift. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a greedy person who wants loads of gifts, I just want them to mean something.

And that’s my problem with the gift card. Some find it amazing. I find it ridiculous. People abuse the gift card and buy it out of laziness. It shows no thought at all. I receive many each year for places where I never shop. After searching storewide for something, I do what I do every time I get these cards: I wind up buying socks because hey, we all know you can’t have enough and because not using the card is a waste of money, and then I’d feel terrible.

The gift card: You certainly can’t hold it up in the air screaming and rejoicing when you receive it, because you’d sure look like a goof, wouldn’t you. You just have to smile and say thanks.