I love gifts.

It doesn’t matter if I am the one gifting or receiving, but I love gifts. I have been the mall approximately 1,200 times in the last few weeks picking up pieces and parts for various presents, and despite the suffocating amount of people who are also out shopping for loved ones around this time of year, I enjoy it so much. I love finding just that right thing that will put a smile on someone’s face or buying something that reminds me of the time my friend and I went on an adventure or a specific part of a family member’s personality.

I also love receiving gifts. Of course, I don’t need anything fancy, but I love opening up a gift and knowing that someone took the time and the effort to do something that would make me happy. I am known to cry when I get gifts because I am so touched.

So, why am I rambling on about gifts? As always when the holidays roll around, I hear people complaining about gift giving: about how it has made the holidays all about materialism, how gift giving doesn’t make economic sense and how no one knows how to give a good gift anyway, so we should just give everyone cash instead. Maybe all of that is at least partially true, but I think we should give gifts anyways.

I don’t think gifts should be about economics or greed. As cliché as it is, when it comes to gifts, it is the thought that counts. You could not spend a dime on a gift and still make someone happy. For example, my boyfriend and I recently celebrated our wooden (fifth) anniversary. For the occasion, he gifted me with a necklace made from two pieces of wood he found that was supposed to spin together to create a heart shape. Not only did he not spend any money on the gift, but he also couldn’t quite figure out how to make it work. However, none of that mattered to me. Just the fact that he tried so hard to make me happy with what he had made me happy and made me feel loved. It was, in all honesty, the thought and care behind the gift that was the true gift to me.

Gifts should be about showing your appreciation for the people in your life, letting them know that you care about them, that you listen to them, and that their happiness means something to you. No one, at least no one decent, expects you to be a perfect gift giver or to spend a fortune on a gift. Most people just want to know you thought of them.

Of course, there are other ways of doing that other than giving gifts, but gifts are just plain fun, and I’m a big believer that we could all use some more fun in our lives.

So this holiday season, I hope you all are able to stop stressing about getting the perfect gift and just put love and care into whatever you give.