To Gift or Grift?
Problems with gift guides...and Selleb solutions
Gift-giving. It’s one of the 5 love languages for a reason. And as a lot of us can attest, it feels better to give than to receive (more often than not).
Before we release our own gift guides (most of the content for paid subs!), pls indulge us as we rip into the current state of gift-guiding, followed by 3 pillars of the Selleb Sisters’ gift-giving MVP manifesto (you’ll see what we mean).
Call it GGaaS (Gift-guides-as-a-service) or GGIC (Gift-guide-industrial-complex), but like death, taxes, and obligatory elevator chats about the weather, (a torrential downpour of) gift guides are just one of the constants/certainties of life during the holiday season.
They’re supposed to be fun! Lighthearted! Capitalistic with a cause! But the formula has beeeeen cracking under its own weight. Note: gifter and grifter are only one letter apart. How many times can you suggest Le Creuset [insert newest product release here] before it becomes the equivalent of gifting socks? Or a $700 red light mask for your bEaUty-lOviNg mom (yes get that affiliate commission)? How many “For the Guy Who Has Everything” lists do we need before we collectively admit that the guy who has everything probably doesn’t want a $45 beard grooming kit lol.
Pro tip: If anything looks like it came straight off of Faire marketplace (no shade but had to), pls don’t do that to yourself or to others, pls don’t. White-labeled, wholesaled, then CPG-ed into something that ends up getting 2-star reviews on Thingtesting. IDK why people still do it.
The problem isn’t that there are too many gift guides; it’s that they not only recommend the same sh*t year after year, guide after guide, but that sometimes, your little brother just wants a damn cash gift card, not some felt coasters from a niche Scandinavian boutique.
All this said, don’t get us wrong. We LOOOVE gift-giving. There’s something that is genuinely so satisfying about remembering a latent quirk or preference or proclivity about someone you love and immortalizing it in the perfect (tangible) vehicle. Dare we say it, we are *pretty* good at said service (not to self-aggrandize lol). And we want to help you rise above some of the din and serve up something different (read: hopefully actually helpful) in true Selleb style.
Ironically, the best gifts are the ones that often cannot be hyper-linked or cast into a neat and shiny box, but we’ll try to deliver some best hits + GUIDANCE on how to score the MVP gift-giver trophy this year (and EVERY year).
Just like you can say things to your BFF that you probably wouldn’t think to utter in the presence of your padre, different rules apply to different giftee groups in the language of gift-giving. Therefore, we have created 3 separate gifting FLOW CHARTS (!!) for our 3 very important categories, namely: Family, Lovers, and Friends.
Our gift flow charts will also reveal the often unacknowledged truth of gift giving: You need not gift everyone such a personal, thoughtful gift. There exist relationship nuances that can be conveniently honored (in many cases) by simply reverting to the mean — Starbucks or Amazon gift cards are a fair game (don’t come at us lol). In that holiday spirit, we present you:
The MVP Manifesto… Your gift need not check all the boxes below but some helpful guideposts for your journey…
Memory. Harness the power of memory and rummage through your mental file cabinet to unearth a word, phrase, or fragment of ephemera that symbolizes something about the giftee that is not so blatantly obvious to your average Joe. Capture a nuanced mood or moment in time.
Valuable. Notice how we didn’t say value. Value kind of goes out the window for gift-giving bc that’s largely not the point. (I meannnn, Mom & Dad, definitely feed our Alo addiction please, we won’t stop you…) “Valuable” can be interpreted in a number of ways, but we suggest thinking of something kind of silly stupid that the giftee would never purchase for themselves but would duly appreciate receiving. So, rather than back-solving for how much said item will be used, then amortize over x years, the question to ask should be: How much will this gift be embraced and cherished? TLDR: If Value pertains to utility/price ratio, valuable is straight vibes, the kind that triggers unexpected euphoria for the giftee.
Personalization. Personalize personalize personalize. Not only does it signal lots of forethought (you care!) bc of egregiously long lead times for custom orders, but there’s truly nothing like giving something that was literally made for that person. Monograms and initials are obvious, but brownie points for more involved personalization <> inside jokes. Then you’re kinda hitting on all 3 pillars.
With all this seared into your gifting mindset, stay tuned for our first (out of 3 installments) Holiday Gift Guide of the year, to be released… tomorrow…
Stay gifting not grifting,
Selleb Sisters xoxo