on Dec 27th, 2005
The Christmas Swindle
Let me preface this post by stating that my intentions were of the most pure kind. It is only in hindsight that I see the potentially nefarious implications of my decisions.
I, like many men, turned to Gift Cards as my principle gifts to my wife this year. Let’s face it - the awful stigma that once accompanied gift certificates or cards is all but gone these days. Many prefer them to getting those horrid gifts of days gone by (”you bought me a penguin statuette for Christmas?!?”). Case in point: for two years running, women at or near the register have said to me as my order was processing: “I wish my husband would just get me a gift card.”
(Factor in also the Catch-22 that is buying stuff, especially clothes, for women: buy them too big and she gets mad because you are calling her, well, fat. Buy them too small and she is upset that you are calling her, um, fat.)
When buying gift cards for anyone but my wife, it’s the same a buying a real gift. Giving them a $20 card is the same, financially speaking, as giving them the $20 sweater. But it has occurred to me in these days after Christmas that the rules bend a bit if you are in this scenario with your wife.
Allow me to be specific: my darling wife is about seven months pregnant. As such, for Christmas I got her a gift card for a local maternity clothing store; she can get some things she needs for her current voluptuous state. I also gave her a gift card to her favorite clothes store so she can get something nice after she has had the baby (since nothing in this store comes close to accommodating a pregnant woman). Kind of a “now and later” themed Christmas. Aren’t I sweet.
So where is the swindle, as the title suggests? Think about it for a minute…yes…ah, there it is: I’m getting credit for stuff she would have bought anyway. That money would have been spent the same way, in the same amounts, for the same things, whether I’d bought gift cards or not.
I feel like I’ve gotten away with something naughty. I won’t tell if you don’t.
