Gift Cards Are A Perfectly Acceptable Present

Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Though we are in the last gasps of November, I am already thinking about spending my money in ways that are more productive than buying myself things I may or may not need. Spurred by the circulation of my annual Sister Secret Santa email thread — already the source of at least two fights — and further incited by the Cyber Monday emails streaming into my inbox, I realize that this year, I actually want to buy presents for people. Maybe it’s because I’m doing okay, financially, for once. Or, maybe it’s because the holidays are a nice excuse to give people I care about something nice. Whatever it is, I’m going with it. I’m ready. And this year, I want to get every single person a gift card.

Gift cards are either the best gift you could give or the absolute worst. The convenience of a gift card is its greatest downfall — taking the easy way out and throwing some money at Amazon in exchange for a plastic card feels impersonal and seemingly sucks the joy out of exchanging gifts in the first place. Not unlike slipping a $50 into a tattered envelope and sliding it to the person across a table, a gift card is really nothing more than money dressed up in a fancier outfit. Giving money as a gift isn’t gauche, it’s practical. Everyone needs money, is loathe to discuss that fact out loud and will gladly accept it if proffered. So why are gift cards frowned upon?

All gifts are capital and are a representation of the person who selected them. The $70 hand-thrown ceramic bud vase you picked off the shelf of a boutique full of breakable items shows a certain kind of taste — refined, elegant, quietly expensive; the Amazon gift card for the exact same price is seen as careless, coarse and occasionally rude. Opting out of the stress of selecting a gift for a person that will be just the right thing isn’t rude; it’s practical.

There’s a certain age you reach when, if you’re very lucky, you are financially capable of buying the things you want or need or would really like for yourself. I’ve realized this when giving gifts to my father. Every year we ask him what he wants, he vaguely gestures towards something kitchen-related and when we go home for Christmas, we take a stroll through a kitchen supply store and the bookstore so he can select his presents. We return home, wrap them, dutifully shove them under the tree and cackle to ourselves at the lack of pretense and surprise. In this case, the gift is performative, purchased so that there’s something under the tree, so that the act of Christmas can be performed as it should be. I could also get my dad a gift card or start paying my cell phone bill in full. I’d spend the same amount of money and the intent would be the same.

A gift card is nothing more than the gift of choice, an acknowledgement on the giver’s end that hey, it’s okay, please just use this however you see fit. It’s fine to give a gift card and it’s fine to give a gift. Just don’t feel bad if you opt for the former.

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