Gift Giving

My Definition
This is the voluntary movement of an object (presents e.g flowers, clothes, toys, food) from one individual to another without wanting anything in return.

Web Definition:
A voluntary transfer of property or of a property interest from one individual to another, made gratuitously to the recipient. The individual who makes the gift is known as the donor, and the individual to whom the gift is made is called the donee.

If a gratuitous transfer of property is to be effective at some future date, it constitutes a mere promise to make a gift that is unenforceable due to lack of consideration. A present gift of a future interest is, however, valid.

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Gift-giving

Reasons why people give gifts:
1.) For a celebration or event
These include Birthdays, Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Mother & Fathers day, Anniversaries, etc. Gifts are not essential to give during these moments however it reinforces the fact that they are celebrating the event with each other.

2.)To show someone how important they mean to ourselves
An example may include a boyfriend giving their girlfriend a new pair of earrings. They do this because they enjoy seeing their partner excited and happy about their new present.

3.)Giving a part of ourselves with the gift
Usually when people receive gifts, they get the expectations, values, emotions and hopes too. This helps to link two people even closer together. It makes you feel good about yourself.



This video above shows the problems within gift giving. Nowadays, people's expectations and hopes for gifts are really high and with big events like birthdays and Christmases it is highly expected to receive gifts. This video points out that because expectations are so high, people get disappointed and therefore friction happens between people.

At the time my parents were younger, they used to only receive one birthday and one Christmas present which used to be small such as new shoes, a bicycle, a toy however, now, children in this day and age ask for and get a number of expensive items at the same time. These include laptops, ipods and speakers, a number of clothes, perfume, shoes, etc. Gift giving culture has changed significantly. People are now overspending on each other even though they struggle to afford it. Below is an advertisement which came out during 2009 Christmas time by John Lewis:



Each person in the advert, is shown a gift that would best suit them. Businesses create the hype over spending ridiculous amounts on each other during celebrations and events. Here it is obviously Christmas which is why they are trying to attract people to buy presents from them. Events which never used to happen are now popular and over commercialised. This includes Halloween, Mother and Fathers day, Easter, etc. Most of these never even existed during the time my parents where young. They have either been invented or exaggerated for commercial purposes.

For holidays such as Easter comes Easter Eggs, Baskets, Bunny Costumes and cards on top of the traditional Easter roast. This is all unnecessary money being spent. People still do so as they find it fun and treat it as a ritual.




Last year:

The average amount a Brit spent during Christmas was £435

£170 is what is spent by an average British family for a Christmas diner.

1.7billion Christmas cards are sent each year in Britain.

There was 83square km of wrapping paper that ended up in UK rubbish bins (this is enough to wrap up the island of Guernsey)

£8.9bn will be spent by shoppers online this coming Christmas (according to the Centre for Retail Research)

http://www.mirror.co.uk/advice/christmas/2009/12/17/christmas-in-numbers-115875-21905347/