The Holiday Season is No Reason to Land Yourself in Debt

Everyone is eagerly anticipating Thanksgiving and Christmas’s auspicious occasions to shed off the misery of the past year. The coronavirus hit the world like a meteor, with desolation and deprivation looming around and many people experiencing economic difficulties and loss of loved ones.

However, now with vaccines’ development for the deadly virus, a silver lining is in sight. Everyone is busy arranging gifts for family and loved ones to pass on as a token of love and care while everyone has been socially isolated and maintaining a physical distance. The Thanksgiving celebration is then treated as an excuse to shower love and affection from afar by delivering gifts or gift cards at each other’s doorstep.

Unsplash | Go easy on the presents

The practicality of gift cards!

Gift cards are receiving increasing favor and good reception for their practicality. When deciding what to gift to their grandkids for Christmas, grandparents who feel out of the league choose to send them gift cards. They feel it is better than giving cash because a gift card portrays a real interest in giving the grandkid present by giving them a gift card from a shop/brand they love.

Giving a gift card also does away with the problem of doubling gifts, which were very common in the past where many people got gifted the same music record because the whole family knew that the recipient is a big fan of that band and likewise happened with other things.

This is the reason that the gift card industry has expanded in the past few years, where now it grosses to £7 billion in a year, and according to statistics, 98.6% of gift cards are utilized within a year. This means that your token of love gains an actual realization in the form of a carefully chosen present.

Wired | When in doubt, go for a gift card

However, be careful when passing on gift cards because, as we all know, this year is a little different than all the previous ones.

Guidelines for Holiday Season 2020

• This year your gift cards may not get spent immediately since people are abstaining from going out. However, a few companies and brands are allowing you to redeem your gift cards by purchasing online.
• Be careful when purchasing gift cards online. There is a possibility that you may get scammed into buying a fake gift card.
• Study the business carefully before investing. Due to the financial downfall that faced the world in 2020, many businesses are forced to shut down. Thus, if you are planning to pass on gift cards, first ensure that the business is not geared into a lot of debts and can survive another session of lockdown.

Unsplash | Take joy in the small traditions

But always, remember it is a season of distributing love. Thus, if you feel you too are burdened by a lot of debt and financial uncertainty, delay the gift exchange for later in the new year because your family would not want to cause undue stress for you.