I really don't like giving ebooks/movies/music as gifts, even a £X voucher doesn't sit well with me. If I'm going to give someone 30 amazon or itunes voucher, I may as well give them it in cash so they're not tied to those two stores to spend it on and, well, giving cash for a present feels cheap* even if it amounts to more money than the actual gift I end up giving
Still, I'm much happier getting a CD or BluRay for Christmas than a digital version since it's trivial to rip to stick on a home server or pop into my itunes library and I get the advantage of a lossless rip leaving room for conversion to future codecs without loss. Something I couldn't do with a digital download gift and mainly, it's still nice to unwrap something**
For books though, I don't really want people to buy me books anymore (physical) as I'm 100% ebook now and for similar reasons as I gave, people don't want to buy me ebooks as a gift. So books are now no longer used for presents.
I wonder if that's a common trend? I think it's something that will go away in time though, giving gift certificates/vouchers or even arranging ebook delivery to occur on Christmas day with a special message will become as accepted as a gift under the tree. It'll take time though, we hold onto traditions and unwrapping something physical will take a long time to change***
* before I'm ripped to pieces, it's IMHO only. I'm not saying it IS cheap, but I don't like giving it, I like to find something i know the person will enjoy and give that instead. It's partly how I feel and also the people I'm giving to. Just to be clear, i'm not saying others who give gift certs are been cheap etc.
** Oddly, I have no issue giving a "ticket" to some event such as Disney on Ice.
*** For the majority, I'm sure there are people on here and elsewhere who've already switched
