Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
It's from my sister, and I gave her a REALLY nice present, too. Still, it's her birthday next month. Perhaps giving her something equally useless (I was going to suggest a tin of spaghetti, but at least you can eat that!) will make the point...
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Harry, unfortunately I understand the problem. I rarely get a gift that I truly want or can use, primarily because if it was something I wanted, I've laready bought it and my family is opposed to giving gift certificates as gifts (my wife's fault on that -- she thinks it's too impersonal).
And over the years I have sucked it up, said thank you as heartily as I could, and let it go.
Then I had an epiphany -- a closetful of stuff neither I nor anyone else wanted or could use -- so I simply started telling people that I appreciated the thought and effort that went into the gift but that it was not something I would use, so leave me with the the thought and take back the gift.
Alas, I still get gifts that I don't want so I have decided to become philosophical about it: Beginning this year I have harped on the theme that holiday gift giving is really for the children and because times are tough, no more exchanging gifts among the adults. Everyone was relieved. And so this year, instead of getting numerous gifts that I really didn't want, I only got a gift from my wife that was thoughtful and not anything that I really wanted, but something I will use anyway because she gave it to me.