Gift giving...

Christmas is one of the most wonderful times during whole year. People visit their family and friends, they have enough time to sit and talk, without any hurry. Taste of turkey, smell of Christmas tree, glam of candles and Santa Claus. There is also another part of Christmas which creates this magical atmosphere – gifts. It is nowadays an unavoidable part of celebration. Every single year, everyone of us has the same problem. What to buy? What are the dreams of our family and friends? How to make them happy? We are not even aware of the fact that we follow the hints given us by marketing specialists. Many researchers did an experiments and created theories related to people’s gift buying habits. Gift may be:

• Functional – utilitarian e.g kettle, toaster

• Symbolic – status symbols e.g good perfumes, expensive alcohol

• Hedonistic - for fun

Andrew Greshoff (University of Michigan) claim that our own preferences may be a serious problem, because the more we like something, the worst will be our conduct during buying a gift. In accordance to American research when we like item, we do not pay attention for its defects. But when a person does not like an item, the overall dislike may be caused by just one bad attribute, or even a set of normally liked attributes that just do not go well together, so positive aspects come to mind more easily.

"This difference leads us to make more exaggerated predictions that people like the same things we do, compared to predictions that people will dislike the same things that we dislike," Gershoff said.

Buying habits has changed last time.

"Where people shop for giftware has changed dramatically in the five years. The most notable change is how often shoppers are turning to the Internet to make purchases of these goods. In 2007 the Internet was the second most important venue

for giftware shopping, trailing only discount department stores." Danziger and her fellow-workers worked out an report titled The Ultimate Guide to the Gifts and Home Decorative Accents Consumer Market... Unfortunately, an access to this report is paid.

What is more Danziger (2004) claim that :

• Gift giving is about emotionally connecting giver and recipient

• Emotional shopping – the goal is to achieve a special feeling

• The gift communicates a message

• Problems can occur when the giver’s and the recipient’s value drivers differ

To sum up, we should not forget that every single gift is a proof of our attachment to gifted person. The most important is a fact of giving, not a value of a present. Gershoff said. "There are other values that people have and those values include building closer ties and closer friendships.