The Easiest Way To Make Someone’s Day This Christmas

Do you remember the last time you bought a thoughtful gift? The kind of gift you spent weeks thinking about. You wanted it to be perfect for that special someone and you hoped they would love it.

Now fast forward to the moment when you gave that gift. I imagine you were probably a mixture of excited and nervous for them to open it. You waited with eager anticipation and now it was time for the big reveal.

What was their first reaction like? Were they ecstatic and surprised? Or were they thankful but lukewarm? Worse yet, were they dismissive?

I’m sure that whichever way their reaction went, it impacted you deeply — either in the way you were hoping for (it made your day and theirs), or you were bummed out and discouraged.

I remember the last time I got a thoughtful gift for my dad. For years he had been telling me that he didn’t care about gifts. And yet, I still wanted to give him something that would pull out some sort of reaction. So I spent hours putting together a family album of our precious moments growing up. I was really excited to give it to him.

When he opened it up, his reaction was “Oh nice, thank you.” And that was it. He wasn’t intentionally dismissive, but he wasn’t very interested either. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. I probably could’ve predicted that reaction since he wasn’t very into gifts, and yet I still hoped for a better outcome.

What kind of gift receiver are you?

This Christmas, I implore you to think about the kind of gift receiver you are. It has more impact on your loved ones than you may think. Are you:

The person who thinks they don’t deserve it — “No, no, this gift is too much. I can’t take this, you need to take it back.”
The person who wishes you bought them something from the dollar store — “I wish you didn’t spend so much money. You need to save every dollar.”
The person who rips it open, says a quick “Thanks!” and goes for the next present.
The person who doesn’t really care and may not even say thank you.
The person who inauthentically gushes — “Oh wow, this is so wonderful, thank you so so much, I love it so much, I’m going to use it all the time. Wow just wow.” → Little do they know, they are talking about a tea towel…
The person with a typical response — “This is great. Thank you!”

So, which one are you? A mixture of a few? Or maybe there’s a response I missed — do let me know in the comments.

Now look back at that list. As a gift giver, which one of those people would you prefer to give a gift to? And is there an even better response you would hope for?

The Easiest Way to Make Someone’s Day

I’m sure you have the sense by now of what I’m getting at. The way that you receive a gift from someone can have a big impact on them.

Therefore, the easiest way to make someone’s day this Christmas is to be a great receiver.

It’s really simple. Here are a few of my thoughts on how to be a great receiver:

Take a moment — In that split second of realizing what your gift is, take a moment to think about what that person went through to get it for you.
Know that you deserve it — That person wanted to get you this gift and spent the time and money to do it.
Show your gratitude — The word ‘show’ here is very intentional. To be a great receiver, it takes showing your gratitude. Whether that’s through your words, your facial expression or a deeply loving hug. This is the part that really counts. And it has to be authentic to you.

Now, what if you get a horrible gift? The re-gift, the hand-me-down, or the gift that shows that the person obviously knows nothing about you? Do you fake it? No. You can say a simple “Thank you” and leave it at that. Because at the end of the day, a gift is still a gift.

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In that spirit, I hope you have a wonderful time making a lot of people happy this Christmas by being a great receiver. After all, it’s the best part of giving a gift — we want to see the beautiful reaction of that person and know that our time, effort and money were well spent.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it! Enjoy!

With love,

Megan

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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