Dubai: It used to be personalised gifts under a pine tree scented with cinnamon from Christmas baking. Then it was all flash and bling — the bigger the gift, the happier the recipient.
Has the global economic recession put the thought back into gifts? Readers are divided on the matter.
Martin Thomas said that people have had to cut back but the crisis "doesn't seem to have affected the desire to spend" or the cost of gifts.
He said: "I suspect the average spending budget has gone down, so [people] might buy more apps instead of a new phone or maybe they buy the kids a TV but not a 42' inch."
Al Ain-based Catherine Blackmore agrees and added that the global economic crisis, budgetary constraints and previous experiences have caused people to cut back.
‘Restraint'
She said: "I believe that families, due to financial restraints and a feeling of commercialisation are using restraint and not going with extravagance as they have in the past. They are being selective about what they are buying and sticking to a budget."
"I believe in general that people are seeking to satisfy the recipient more than they have in the past."
Jennifer Mascarenhas said that when she was a child the holiday season was about thoughtfulness and giving to others.
She said: "I remember the good old days when we got small gifts that were handicrafts or sweets from home.
"People used to give homemade gifts and cards [they bought] from charitable institutes. This would give the institutes an income and bring joy [to the recipients]."
Mascarenhas explained that today this is no longer the case. She said: "Now it's about just going to a store and taking a gift off the shelf. The Christmas spirit has been lost. It's all about gifts and less about the gifting and sharing."
However, not everyone feels that the art of gift giving has become such a lost cause. Timothy Reducha said that while children "have fallen victim to advertising" and "just want something fun to play with", older people appreciate the thought that is put into their gifts.
He believes that age also makes people consider the people they are giving to rather than what's most popular. He said: "I think people are putting more thought into their gifts because as you get older you realise how insignificant certain things are. You take more notice of who a person is and … thinking about people's wants, needs and desires."
