Gotta Luv the Gift Cards

I, for one, love receiving gift cards. It is so great to be able to whip out a Dunkin' Donuts gift card instead of cash, when I have my window down on a cold day at the Drive-Thru window. It is a mini-feeling of being rich, where I just flash some plastic and I feel like no money has been exchanged.

My husband will find the first sentence of this post ironic. It has become kind of a running joke between us that you only give gift cards (and in his case, a gift certificate back in 2000) if you don't really care about the person. True, when he gave me a gift certificate for Bath & Body Works for my birthday when we were dating, I was disappointed. After all, aren't those products what you give a teacher or a mother? Where was my romantic, "we're in love" gift, I wondered. Granted, we had only been dating for a month so I suppose a teddy from Victoria' s Secret was not in the cards.

But I digress...nowadays, I appreciate when someone thinks of a fave place or somewhere I might like to go, and gets me a gift card. It doesn't matter the $ value -- sometimes it entices the recipient to shop there when they wouldn't normally. Or it can make things more convenient when they do go to their favorite haunt. You can find a ton of different gift cards on display for purchase in places like CVS or Wal-Mart (so now you don't have to drive to separate stores or restaurants for each card).

Gift cards for Christmas have two elements: practicality and thoughtfulness. Practical because they're like free money, and thoughtful because they involve thinking about the recipient's likes. They are small enough to fit into stockings, but you can wrap one in a box to become a present. Gotta love the gift cards! (Or if you don't, get some for someone who does, hint hint!)