One tip to make holiday shopping easier

Cari Nazeer
Forge
Published in
1 min readDec 12, 2020

--

Photo: Eva-Katalin/Getty Images

🎁 Today’s tip: Asking people for what they want doesn’t mean they’ll appreciate the gift any less.

It’s a common misconception that the best present is one that comes as a total surprise to the recipient. As the behavioral scientist Margaret Echelbarger notes, research has shown that people typically enjoy getting gifts they’ve asked for more than ones that haven’t.

“Making it a goal to surprise someone for its own sake can be more stressful than it’s worth,” Echelbarger writes. If you’re participating in a holiday gift exchange, there’s no shame in making things easy on yourself — in fact, it works out well for everyone.

📚 More from Forge on gifting season:

The Hottest Holiday Gift Is Money
Read more >>

The Case Against Giving Holiday Gifts
Read more >>

2020 Is the Perfect Year to Blow Up Your Traditions
Read more >>

The Forge Daily Tip is sent every morning via email. ☀️ Subscribe to The Forge Daily Tip here.

You’re subscribed to receive emails from Forge. You can adjust your settings via the link at the bottom of this email.

--

--