Christmas Is Giving!

We usually know what it is before we've even opened it. We can tell by the shape of the gift, or the way it feels when prodded, that we've received a gift we aren't going to love. Another pair of socks, a tie, perfume you probably don't like or an unfortunate knitted jersey from your Gran - the doom of the bad Christmas gift is a common feeling.

It's usually at this point that we all plaster on the fake smiles, nod enthusiastically and then cast the give aside never to be looked at again. We stuff it in a drawer and hope it'll disappear, because for some reason - even though we hate it - we don't want to throw it away. It's difficult, it's embarrassing, and what's more it's more than a little disappointing. Wouldn't we all like gifts we love?

The real problem of being on the receiving end of a bad Christmas gift is if we are in the room with the person. We know we should be grateful, that we should be glad to be getting anything at all, but quite frequently "nothing" seems a better idea than another gift you can't or won't lose. So how on earth do we deal with the problem?

Basically, there is no way. You could try having a quiet word in the ear of the giver, if they are a persistent bad gift giver - but they're more than likely to be offended, no matter how nicely you word it. So the best thing to do is just strap on a smile, appear delighted and keep going. That was no one gets hurt, and while the gifts may continue to be terrible, at least there's a sense of the Christmas spirit.