I prefer personal presents. Sure, I won’t complain if someone spent £100 on me buying something I said I wanted (like an iPhone *hint hint*...) but a short, handwritten letter means so much more: A note or drawing that has a little story behind it. Receiving something that makes only you and your close friends smile - because you’re the only ones who understand it - lasts so much longer than a nice scarf that will undoubtedly be left at the back of the wardrobe, forgotten, this time next year.
You can’t really put a price on personal gifts. They can physically cost less than a pound and yet encapsulate many years of friendship and fun. My room is full of those sorts of gifts: a photo capturing a moment of fun; an autograph reminding me of two days of excitement in Birmingham; a whole host of cards saying congratulations for various things; and little notes summarising shared memories. It is these things that take pride of place on my walls and shelves rather than the objects, like a necklace or scarf, given for the sake of giving a present.
How you are given these presents also matters a great deal. Being given a rock on its own it a bit anticlimactic and, if anything, just plain rude. However, if you were to wrap it up nicely in wrapping paper you know I’d like and attach a short note, the value of that stone soars. Rather than just being a piece of rubble, it’s something that reminds you of friendship and times shared. Ok, so maybe not everyone quite understands my appreciation for large pebbles, but surely people get where I’m coming from. Personal gifts are just so much nicer, simply because of the thought and time put into them.
This year, my trip up to Nottingham and then the snow has meant that I’ve been unable to swap presents with many of my friends. However, one that I received before leaving for Nottingham really made my day. The main present was a bar of white chocolate. Not a bad present as such, but once you’ve eaten it (as I had by break time the same day) there is nothing left to remind you of the sentiment. Nevertheless, this present came with one extra thing: a note. Unless you understand my obsessions with sheep, Doctor Who and France, and my tendency to mix the three in bizarre forms of rhymes you won’t really understand this note. Nonetheless, my friend had suffered many texts with such rhymes involved and decided to write her own. Just the effort of writing her own and actually thinking to do so was amazing, let alone the fact that the contents made me smile! Having your friends remind you that they know you well, appreciate your bizarreness and remember previous time is just as great a gift as being given something expensive that will undoubtedly go out of fashion.
I will leave you now with the note that made my Christmas! (Or at least so far!)
Hannah,
Now I know I will never attempt an amazing tleep rhyme but I am going to try...
This is Jemma’s tleep rhyme
Heard all along the river Rhine
‘Baa’ they hear her friend Hannah say
‘Not near the Rhine in France it’s not far away!’
So France they all go,
Tinky, Winky, Dipsy, Po =P
Hannah, Jemma and all the sheep
Just to hear Jemma’s rhyme tlep.
They got to France where all the sheep were blue
‘What’s going on?’ ‘I haven’t a clue’
So to Hannah’s house they decided to go
Tinky, Winky, Dipsy, Po
Hannah, Jemma and all the Sheep
Just to hear Jemma’s rhyme tleep
At Hannah’s house things weren’t quite right,
It gave Hannah, Jemma and the sheep quite a fright,
A strange noise in the wind it blew
Wait a minute it’s Doctor Who!
After the Doctor had been and gone
They heard Jemma’s tleep rhyme and burst into song
But the Doctor was not there so Hannah was not very pleased.
But she did like Jemma’s tleep rhyme, the sheep and ..... cheese?
btw, I will explain tleep soon!
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