I AM not quite happy with how some of us do the exchanging of gifts during Christmas. I don’t want to turn into The Grinch with this post. I’d just like to share my thoughts about it.

Well, if I may not like exchanging of gifts, it’s my own feeling towards it and I have personal reasons for feeling this way.

Here are some of the reasons why I sometimes have negative feelings towards exchanging of gifts:

1. Let me begin with the name. The term gift according to Wikipedia, refers to the voluntary transfer of something which does not require anything in return. The term exchange makes it obligatory, a trade. It somehow lessens the voluntariness of the action. Let us say, John works in a department and they’re having a Christmas party. His officemates organized an exchanging of gifts. He had only known about it when he was asked to pick a name from a fishbowl. He was also told that the minimum amount is P 200 pesos. Even if John doesn’t want to exchange gifts with anybody this Christmas, he has to oblige because somebody might have already picked his name, and since he will be receiving a gift, he has to give someone in the office a gift that is somehow of equal value to what he will be receiving.
2. We feel like we are cheated upon once we receive something we think has lower monetary value than what we give. I am guilty of this. When I was still in grade school, I received a ready-made gift that all of my classmates must have seen being sold at the sidewalk in the public market. Because my mind was set that I will be receiving that is worth a particular amount, I couldn’t help but feel sad. I was just a kid then. Of course, it’s different when you’ve grown up. But there people who haven’t grown up. So, those things that they don’t like end up in the hands of other people, a reaction that I don’t is entirely wrong. If he gives it away to a person who happens to like it, I would gladly think that the gift has been given justice.
3. Exchanging of Gifts is sometimes filled with pretensions. Take Marie, who has always sworn to never like a red dress — specifically that red dress hung in a local boutique. By some twist of fate, it was what she received. She was horrified at the sight of it but in order to not offend the giver she had to force a smile. Joanna is another case. She had known that Joseph, her wealthy classmate, was the one who picked her name. She expected something expensive only to receive second-hand sci-fi paperbacks, which she happened to dislike. Could she tell Joseph that she did not like his gift to her?
4. The value of the gifts received from Christmas Parties are sometimes less appreciated. As in my first point, gift-giving is made less voluntary. So, you are aware that others just bought gifts not because you will like it or it will be valuable to you but because it’s an obligation. You all end up with my third point. However, if you are one who wanted to please the one to who you gave your gift, and you noticed that he was not as happy as you expected him to be, you end up a bit frustrated.

These reasons don’t make me want to avoid exchanging of gifts. In fact, we’ve had one today and another on the 19th. Let’s say it’s part of the social tradition and I don’t want to be labelled a weirdo, a deviant.

And oh, I want to receive a photo album.