Whether or not you celebrate Christmas, odds are you’re a gift card or three richer than you were before. Perhaps your employer blanket-gifted the office with them in lieu of a year-end bonus, or maybe a friend or work contact slipped you one as a show of appreciation.

In a PF Firewall post, the author argues the gift cards are rote, insincere gifts that don’t mean or say anything. While I acknowledge his point, I think they have some merit. They give you the power to determine what your gift will be, and they’re more fun than cash, because you have no option to squirrel the funds away or use them on something boring. Plus, if you don’t use them on yourself, you can always pass them along to someone who might appreciate them.

What’s your philosophy on gift cards? And if you’re shuffling a new deck of gift cards, which ones did you get, and what do you plan on doing with them?

Gift Cards: The Enemy of Sincerity [PF Firewall]

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