S/O- Christmas, how do you feel about giving cash?

I only like giving cash if I know the person is saving up for something big otherwise it's really no fun giving money.

Watching my adult kids, as I said in another thread, is the primary thing I enjoy about Christmas.  If they need money, then I want to have gifts for them too.

My worry about gift cards is many times they don't get fully used or get forgotten about or lost.  I am giving my sons and husband each a wallet in their stocking and I want to put in gift cards but I feel like I will be throwing money away.  So I may do a little cash and a gas card.  But to tell the truth, if the time comes when I have to ship gifts I will either order them and have them delivered or I will scale back and do more cash.

This is going to sound bad but, I like to receive cash but not give it to people. I prefer to watch the deals and have the recipient in mind of what they would love. So, sometimes that "retail" value of the gift looks pretty nice!

So glad, I only have my kids and in-laws to buy for!

I have mixed feelings on cash. I don't mind giving it if that's what the recipient prefers. I like receiving it when there aren't many strings attached - the $100 from my 'aunt' that she randomly sends to spend on myself -I love that! When my mum sends me money (and it's always a cheque which adds the hassle of going to the bank - I don't drive and it's not walking distance), she always tells me what to spend it on...which isn't always what I would prefer to use it for.

I like gift cards when it's for a place that the recipient regularly shops/would like to regularly shop - so for me, I love getting gift cards from Michaels, Walmart (I use for photo printing), JCPenney but I wouldn't be thrilled with a gift card from someplace out of town for instance. So a gas card for a teen driver or an amazon or bookshop card for an avid book lover - sure. But I know my DD would be thrilled with a Claires card but not with a Bath and Bodyworks card.

This is so me!

I always can find something that my giftee wants for less than what normal retail is, and buy it at a price I can afford.

But I love getting cash as my gift, because then I can buy what I want/need.

That might sound selfish, but I would *die* if I was gifted a piece of jewelry or a high-end purse when what I really need is a pack of socks, a pack of undies, and a new pair of jeans. No one takes you seriously when they ask, "What do you want for Christmas?" and you answer with a necessity. Everyone wants to gift something fun. New elastic on my undies *is* fun.

I do love the idea of a gas card as a gift though. That would rock.

Yes! Sometimes you DO want the nicer items but who's going to pick out the right scrapbook supplies?! I'd rather be gifted socks and use the sock money to buy scrapbook supplies.

I use to hate it, but my teen showed me what's she able to do with the money after Christmas. She took 200 and bought over a 1000$ worth of clothes, shoes and other stuff with the after Christmas sales.
I give the teens cash, but give it in a fun way...this year we are making a tree lot, money pad & a bunch of orgami animals. We will wrap the orgami & money pad, plus I've bought a couple of other small gifts.
The joy for us is knowing they are getting what they want.

As a rule I don't like giving cash or gift cards, but now that my 3 oldest grandsons are teens, I do give them cash. They love it and get pick out something for themselves. The younger kids still get presents.

I really don't like exchanging gift cards between adults, that is really a waste of time in my book.

Before I married DH I was single for 36 years. My sister and BIL had a daughter. My parents were always about being fair. They would have gifts for all of us under the tree and always had an ornament on the tree for me that contained a check for the difference of what they spent for my sister's family and what they spent on me. It was usually a few hundred dollars. As a single banker I always appreciated the cash. Banks love to give fancy titles but the salaries weren't that great.

I don't give cash, and I don't like to receive it (for gifts...)

I have no problem giving cash (or a gift card for somewhere if I KNOW for sure the person likes to shop at a particular place and will actually use it) because I really enjoy getting cash myself. My parents and in-laws are all gone, and DH and I don't really exchange gifts anymore so that doesn't leave too many people who give me anything at all anymore. My BFF's mom gives me gift cards for Hobby Lobby, JoAnn's or Michael's and I love that. I save them and use them on some day when I really need a little retail therapy and have no money. 

I think in a parent/child gifting situation, in many cases (even with adult kids) there is an income differential there. The kids wouldn't necessarily be giving their parents cash anyway because they don't have it to begin with, so it wouldn't be an apples to apples situation.

Just because you (general you) like giving an openable gift doesn't mean that the person you're giving it to couldn't have done just as well--or possibly even better--of a job of snagging deals on the items they really want with the cash you did spend. I will admit that I am a deal hound and I usually WILL find the very best prices on the stuff I really want.

Take scrapbooking or craft stuff for a good example. Everybody that knows me knows I love this stuff, but there is no way they can know what I already have or what I'm actively looking for, and I'm pretty picky about what I like. Just because someone can get a smoking hot deal on a bunch of scrapping stuff doesn't mean I'm going to like, need or want any of it. Honestly, I would rather have a smaller amount of cash that I could spend on something I know I will use, or I can save it up for something nicer than what they would have bought for me off of a clearance rack somewhere.

If I get a tangible gift from someone and it's something I can't use, I'm going to find out exactly what was paid anyway when I take it back and return it. Unless the person didn't give me a gift receipt (which drives me nuts), then when I take it back all I'm going to get is the lowest price the item was sold for in the last 90 or so days, which is probably even less than what the person paid. In that case the only person getting chumped is me, and I'm sure that wasn't what the giver intended at all.  

To address the issue of "trading money" and "what is the fun of that", I know of friends who do just that and have a TON of fun! Everyone is tasked with buying a gift card for somewhere, it doesn't really matter where, for a set amount of money that everyone agrees to in advance, and wraps it up creatively. Then all of the wrapped gifts are put out where everyone can see them, and they play the dice game. The first person to roll doubles gets to pick a gift from the pile and unwrap it and the dice get passed on. The next person to roll doubles can either "steal" the gift card the first person has or they can choose another gift to unwrap, and play continues that way until everyone has a gift card. Yes, they're all basically trading the same amount of money, but there is a level of fun and surprise injected into the giving and receiving of it. It would definitely be more fun doing it that way than just handing the cash back and forth.

Teens in my part of England love to get Christmas cash too.  It's amazing what value they can get out of it in the after Christmas sales....and they thoroughly enjoy going shopping with their Christmas cash!   

I give cash gifts to my adult children quite a lot now - they can then buy the item they want as I wouldn't be at all sure I was getting the right model, or whatever, of the item on their wish list.  I always buy a small present to wrap and put under the tree as well though.

I have no problem with giving my kids cash for Christmas. But I also always have a couple of other gifts for them besides the cash.

I'm not a fan except for teenagers or with it earmarked for something very specific that the gift giver couldn't purchase themselves (example, for a massage + tip, and the place the recipient likes to go doesn't sell gift cards; to put towards something they are saving up for, etc).