Many Happy Returns

I’m home! Oh, how I loved spending Christmas in New York City this year – the lights, the excitement, the fabulous restaurants, the white-knuckle taxicab rides… It was wonderful to share holiday cheer with old friends and new ones, and of course, family.

The return home (to Boston) took about four hours, and on the way I glanced from the highway to the mega-malls that dot the East Coast. I was surprised that their parking lots were not nearly as full as I had expected. This is, after all, the day of many happy returns.

In my family, we make a lot of our gifts so returning them is out of the question! But, according to the National Retail Federation, across the country about one in three people will return at least some portion of the Christmas gifts they receive.

I imagine that if I were to return a gift (to a brick-and-mortar store on online), I’d take the time while shopping to pick up a few extra goodies. So for retailers today is a big day. What is bigger than ever is the latest hot trend in giving: gift cards.

Earlier I wrote about our family’s holiday gift drawing… I “drew” my youngest brother’s name and had plenty of time to pick out the perfect gift. So what did I get him? Nope, I didn’t make him a sweater or even a scarf. I’d made a few gifts for other siblings, and for this brother I know he’s into “Xbox” so I bought him a gift card (it’s hard to crochet something that you can play on an Xbox). And what did I receive? A gift card! It turns out, as amazing as my family is we are not unique in the gift card trend; according to the Chicago Tribune:

“Consumers are expected to spend a total of $24.81 billion on gift cards this holiday season, up from $18.48 billion last year, a remarkable 34 percent spike. Stores got ready for the surge in traffic by bringing in new merchandise, to make stores look fresh, and stepping up the promotions.”

Yippee! I’ve got three cards here, to three of my favorite places: Starbucks, Joann.com, and my favorite store of all, Target.

Maybe gift cards are the answer to avoiding returns. There’s another point of etiquette to consider at the holidays, too. What to do when you receive a gift but haven’t given one? The answer is: flowers. What better way to say "thank you" and Happy New Year all at once than with a bouquet?

I love my family. I love every minute with them. The happiest return of all is returning home.

Until next time,

Conna