Ho Ho Hold On Before Buying Any “Extra” Presents!

It’s a fairly common Christmas scenario…you go all out on one really big gift for your special someone and then the guilt sets in…maybe you need to score a few smaller items so there is more to open…you know, to make the love last longer.  Good idea right?  Not so fast Ms. or Mr. Generous…you just might be undercutting the value of the big gift!  Details from this study out of the University of Michigan.

U of M researchers have discovered that this Christmas quandary of quality versus quantity was merely a matter of mathematics.

 “ adding a small parcel to a valuable gift actually made it seem like less of a gift to those who would receive it. This means that just giving someone one great gift is better than adding something small to the gift to make it seem even better.”

 A Professor of psychology says the idea of addition being subtraction is the result of division. Huh?  No, seriously!  “the receiving party is averaging all the gifts together. So even though we like to think that if we keep adding more good stuff to the package it will be valued more, the little gifts actually detract from the big one.”

Who knew?! (The shrinks! Who else!) Seems that when it comes to Christmas, for the crazy human psyche, less is more if less IS more!!   So, save your cash and just go for Mr. BIG –or- as the study suggests “the best way to get the most “wow” factor from a bundle of gifts is to spread the gifts over several days.”   

So, just remember, while it’s still better to give than to receive…give big …or go home….and then get more…over the next few days!  Happy Shopping!