Answers to this week’s questions @ thefridayfive

1) What kinds of gifts will you give this holiday season?

The usual: chocolates. I’m poor and can’t spend too much money on gifts so it has to be something I can afford to buy for both my Mom and her SO, and we all think there’s never enough chocolate, so chocolate it is! Sometimes Mom requests a novel or a poetry book, but there’s nothing this year she’d like.

2) What are the best types of presents to give?

I love to give books that have been requested. Because I love reading myself and so do the people who request one from me, I know that a book will be an appreciated gift! After that, I love to give presents that I know are truly needed and wanted, usually of the practical type. In our family it’s totally normal to point out a piece of clothing that one needs, color and size and all, or music cd one wants, and to get that as a present. I’ve been known to ask for a new kettle, or a frying pan, for a present next, or a new pillow (I go through a lot of pillows) and I’m always so happy with them 🙂 I think of my Mom everytime I used that frying pan 🙂

We’ve never given expensive gits, so things like phones or TVs are out. Things like normal priced clothes (nightgowns or a sweater etc.) is as high as we go as a family. I myself don’t want things like jewellery, or TVs as a gift, because I have no use for expensive jewellery and want to choose my own electronics. I assume other people feel the same. I also feel they’re too expensive to buy as gifts, propably because I’ve always been too poor to buy expensive gifts. So practical gifts that I know will be used are my favorite to give.

3) Have you ever given someone a gift as a surprise? Why did you give the gift?

I haven’t as a true gift. I sometimes bring over a new chocolate I found and loved, and want my friend or Mom to taste it, but it’s not really a gift. More like a fun, surprise tasty thing they might like. Or maybe a really pretty flower I saw in the shops. But it’s not a regular thing I do at all.

4) Have you ever received a gift that you didn’t like? How did you respond?

Yeah, when I was a kid in the mid-1980s my Grandma gave me a pale pink sweater! I hated it on sight and couldn’t believe my Grandma hadn’t figured out I hated pink from the fact that I never, ever wore it. I thanked her though because it was polite to do so, then Mom sort of forced me to wear it once or twice when we visited my Grandma. Moved my Mom and I separated our household (I stayed in our apartment, and she moved in with her SO in mid-1990s, I refused to have in my home so Mom took it with her. She wore it like 25 years around home, until it got scrappy enough to throw out. Yeah, that’s pink sweater the only piece of clothing of “mine”, or a gift, I’ve ever hated.

5) Would you rather give someone a gift or receive a gift? Why?

I’d rather both give *and* receive. I’m not used to giving or receiving gifts without it going both ways, it’d feel weird. I’m usually poor enough that receiving one means I’ll have a little more money left for other things that month (or soonish) if it were something I’d spend money on myself anyway at some point.