Dec 15, 2015 3 min read

Have you finished your Christmas shopping yet? As of this writing, I haven’t even started making my list.

I always enjoy Christmas shopping and like to wait until the week before Christmas when it’s (usually) at least a bit snowy, which always puts me in the holiday spirit. I have to admit I sometimes take the easy way out and buy gift cards for Christmas presents. What’s your opinion of them? Am I a bad gift giver or lazy shopper for purchasing gift cards?

People seem to come down firmly on one side or the other when it comes to gift cards. I, for one, think they’re awesome. There are drawbacks, such as receiving a gift card for a place where you will never shop or dine. Giving a $25 Tiffany’s gift card, where prices for the tiniest bauble start in the hundreds, may not be the best idea. That seems like the equivalent of giving nothing, because the person will probably never get to spend it and will forever think of you as a cheapskate.

I read you can buy gift cards for stock in companies this year. This might be a great idea. Google hovers around $700 a share, so I doubt anyone will be giving much of that. If you choose a clunker of a company it could, again, be construed as giving nothing at all. Better to give $25 cold, hard cash than stock in a company that winds up like Enron.

I do agree gift cards are an easy way out of holiday shopping, but I like to believe they allow the recipient leeway in choosing something they really like. It can be kind of thoughtful if you consider the person, their hobbies and what they enjoy.

If anyone is ever searching for the perfect gift for me, the answer is easy. Anyone who knows me at all will tell you an airline gift card makes perfect sense since I’d rather be traveling than doing anything else except maybe skiing. Gift cards to any of my favorite ski resorts would also be welcome. Or a local golf course. Or a local dive shop.

It is possible to buy a gift card that’s a clunker. But even if you don’t love a store or restaurant, you can usually find something to eat or buy with a gift card. You could always give them away, and there are Internet sites that buy unused gift cards. This is a great idea as long as the person who gave it to you never finds out about you unloading their gift. Is selling a gift card you received worse than re-gifting something? I wonder how Miss Manners would answer that.

At any rate, I hope all of your holidays are happy, joyful and peaceful, and spent with people you love.

Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.