Aoife Dunican on the art of nailing bright and bold style
Aoife Dunican on the art of nailing bright and bold style

Suzie Coen

Cillian Murphy’s book about empathy is essential reading for everyone
Cillian Murphy’s book about empathy is essential reading for everyone

Sarah Gill

‘Compelling storytelling and myth-making are what make a brand last’
‘Compelling storytelling and myth-making are what make a brand last’

Sarah Finnan

From Delhi to Dublin: Shreya Aggarwal’s inspiring career in data analytics
From Delhi to Dublin: Shreya Aggarwal’s inspiring career in data analytics

Leonie Corcoran

This dreamy East Cork period home is on the market for €775,000
This dreamy East Cork period home is on the market for €775,000

Megan Burns

My Life in Culture: Artist Brian Maguire
My Life in Culture: Artist Brian Maguire

Sarah Finnan

Inside the incredible shipping container house in Ringsend
Inside the incredible shipping container house in Ringsend

IMAGE Interiors & Living

No pumpkins in sight: how the Irish celebrated Samhain long before Halloween
No pumpkins in sight: how the Irish celebrated Samhain long before Halloween

Erin Lindsay

‘My experience as an Olympian has taught me how to sacrifice short-term fun for long-term fulfilment’
‘My experience as an Olympian has taught me how to sacrifice short-term fun for long-term...

IMAGE

A seafront Skerries home has been given a luxe update with rich colours and hotel-inspired details
A seafront Skerries home has been given a luxe update with rich colours and hotel-inspired...

Megan Burns

Image / Editorial

These are the 10 questions you should ask before you start buying Christmas gifts


By Jennifer McShane
04th Nov 2020
These are the 10 questions you should ask before you start buying Christmas gifts

Many of us are starting our Christmas shopping online this year, with lockdown and wanting to stay safe and avoid crowded shopping centres once December hits. The gifting dilemma is one that still remains, Covid-19 or not. Do you have that one friend who returns every single Christmas gift without fail? A new report compiled by psychologists says it’s all about digging a bit deeper before hitting the shops – and asking the right questions


Every one of us has likely received a Christmas gift we’ll never use. We can never really know the art of the individual gifting process – except that we always remember if we received something we didn’t imagine we’d ever get.

Some call it bad gifting, others call it thinking outside the box, but either way, British psychologists have come up with the answer — asking our loved ones a series of innocuous, yet highly insightful questions, in a bid to find out what they really want for Christmas.

Get out of a gifting rut

The list comes after research from TK Maxx showed that two-thirds of us are gifting unsuitable presents – even as shoppers spend a massive €22 billion on them each year.

Their study looked at the behavioural biases some of us adopt when buying and receiving a present, including the taboo of asking for what you want (the thing the majority of us are wary of doing).

Should you be in a gifting rut, psychologists claim the set of questions are devised for anyone so they might discover untapped information about their giftee.

The questions

Researchers investigated the gifting phenomenon because they discovered one in 12 of us can’t answer a single personal question about the people we buy presents for, which, basically, says a lot more about us than our buying habits!

They are, as follows:

1. Imagine you have 24 hours to do anything you want. Sky’s the limit. What would you do?

2. Finish this sentence: ‘I’m the world’s unknown expert in…’

3. This Christmas you decide to donate everything you own except three items. What do you keep?

4. What’s the one thing you could watch or read about forever and never get bored of?

5. What’s something people assume you like, but you secretly don’t?

6. What’s the one thing you own that you still haven’t used yet and why?

7. Not including me, who’s the best gift-giver you know? Why?

8. When was the last time someone did something thoughtful for you?

9. What’s the best gift you’ve ever given someone (other than me)?

10. And finally, share what you are looking forward to most next year…

The idea behind the questions is based on adopted techniques and question types, typically used by a range of professionals to elicit information, thus allowing gifters to gently probe the recipient’s interests and wishes, therefore revealing their deepest gift desires.

Not convinced? Give it a try and see how you get on…

Happy shopping!


Main photograph: Unsplash