The Search for the Perfect Gift

(Good luck!)

Photo by Caley Dimmock on Unsplash

[This piece I did for a magazine years ago still seems apt. I hope you will enjoy reading it. ]

I wanted to write something about how to buy the perfect Christmas present. I thought it would help a lot of people who start getting anxious every year after Thanksgiving, who stalk the aisles of stores from then until December 24, picking things up and saying to themselves, “This? Yeah, maybe this. Well, of course, THIS! What a great idea! I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before! Oh, they’re going to love it! But …then again, maybe they won’t. Maybe they’ll think it’s stupid. Maybe they’ll hate it. No, not this. For heaven’s sake, not THIS!”

I know this process very well, because I go through it every year myself. So I thought I’d do a survey and ask people what the best present they ever got for Christmas was. Then I would organize the answers very sensibly into a nice little list that people could bring to the stores with them. Why, probably they would want to laminate it! I decided to put the question this way : “OK, clear your mind. Now, when I ask you this question, give me the very first answer that comes to you. What’s the very best Christmas present you ever got?”