Gift Cards = My Favorite Gift

When I give someone a gift I want it to be something that the recipient will love. There is nothing worse than being the giver (and in some cases the receiver) of a gift and seeing a fake sort of happiness spread across someone's face.

It is one thing to know someone so well that you will know exactly what said person would love to receive. But it is another to have an office gift exchange, a house warming party, sibling gift exchange, or a birthday party where you may know the recipient, but you don't know them so well that you feel comfortable giving them a gift.

This is why I adore giving gift cards as gifts. Gift cards are an easy way to ensure that the person on the receiving end will get just what they wanted--or they could use it towards an even larger purchase that was out of the price range for asking someone to give them.

Another thing that I love about gift cards? You can do so much more than just mailing them in an envelope. Here are my top five ways to give (and hey, even receive for myself!) a gift card.

• Buy something small that you can tuck the gift card into. You could get a cute change purse, a cozy pair of socks, or a cute coffee mug and then give the remaining balance of gift money in a gift card. So if your gift amount is $20 and said coffee mug is $5, buy them a $15 gift card. It's a cute and fun way to give a gift card.

• Stick them in a stocking as a fun way to stuff your stocking during the holidays.

• Hang them from your tree. This is especially fun if you're doing a Secret Santa type gift exchange and you are the host. Ask your guests if they plan on participating to bring "x" amount on a gift card and then wrap the gift. When they arrive you can punch a hole in the paper, tie a string and have them hang it up on the gift tree. Then draw numbers to see who gets to pick the first card on the tree and so on. Doing a White Elephant exchange? This would be a fun way to try and get the much coveted gift card on the tree.

• A lot of gift cards can be purchased electronically. This can be a little tricky to email to the recipient. You could always buy the amount, e-mail it to yourself and then once the big day arrives e-mail it to your recipient.

• If you are giving a baby gift, you could roll up a diaper cake and then attach a gift card to the cake. If the parents-to-be only have one item left to buy for their new little one, try to plan with the other guests and family members to donate a gift card to the same store and attach them all to the diaper cake. Now they can have a starter on that crib or nice carseat that they have had their eyes on.

With almost all stores offering some sort of gift card program these days you can really be creative on how to give the gift of a gift card. Have fun and remember when in doubt, buy a gift card!

I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Gift Cards Rock blogging program, for 6,000 My SocialMoms Rewards Points. For more information on how you can participate, click here.