I like gift cards. And if they're from new/different/strange stores, it's like an adventure.

I'm currently carrying balances on Bed Bath & Beyond, TGIF, and Banana Republic. TGIF irritates because it's out of my way, but other than that, free restaurant food! And it keeps me out of Applebee's.

I mean, if you get a present you may get bizarrely wrong things, but I don't like trying to pick out my own present. I always feel the need to buy things on sale, or practical things I actually need

I love picking out my own present. It's so much easier than getting a wrong thing and having to handle returning it; and anyway, it is spending someone else's money.

Spending someone else's money on a thing that is on sale is just icing on the cake! Spending someone else's money on a thing that is practical is not spending your own money on practical things! More lattes for me!

...I will spend your gift cards, if you really can't bear to.

Am I alone in this?

No. I do not like the gift card. In my family, people end up giving each other gift cards for the same amount. Why not just keep the money and say "Merry Christmas"? Plus gift cards turn convenient money into inconvenient money and sometimes it's inconvenient money with an expiration date. My relatives keep giving me gift cards to chains that are miles away from me, and once I've driven out to the store to spend the gift card, I feel like I have to spend it there even if there isn't anything I particularly want.

My parents essentially just asked me what would be a good place for them to get a gift certificate for me. I don't mind gift certificates as they provide the treat of buying things without guilt.

I still need to get a present(s) for my parents, but unfortunately I have no money to spend. Will be tricky. I've got until the 24th, when the kids and I will get together with my family for christmas. My wife is boycotting get-togethers with my family so she's not going to come along.

I like gift cards as long as they're in a reasonable amount for the store they apply to. Like, $25 to Banana Republic? Not a good gift card, because the recipient will almost certainly be forced to spend some of their own money to fill out the cost of an item. $25 to Barnes & Noble, OTOH, is Teh Awesome.

Amazon gift certificates are my favorite because they accumulate and you can use them on anything.

Evil returns can be bad, it's true. Ah the joys of returning something to Nordstrom's, where my grandfather shopped because it was close and they treated him like a god (he feels that he is a god, and so should always be treated as such, but usually only Nordstrom's obliges) but we lived in Boston and the nearest Nordstrom's was in New Jersey. He bought me Ugg boots in about 1993, way before they were at all cool and were just practical yet hideous.

I like gift cards as long as they're in a reasonable amount for the store they apply to. Like, $25 to Banana Republic? Not a good gift card, because the recipient will almost certainly be forced to spend some of their own money to fill out the cost of an item.

Yes! This. That makes me cranky.

Downtown is pretty deserted. It looks like a lot of people are just staying home.

I'm fine with gift cards. If it means I don't have to schlep shit back in my luggage? (I've been actively lobbying to NOT be given anything this year. It doesn't seem to be working.) Or, in the case of a friend who got married, buying her a whole table saw would have been a little extravagant a gift from me, but with a gift card, I was able to buy a "share" of the table saw.

It'd be kinda weird getting one from someone random , but from family or for certain big events?

I find gift cards a little depressing, actually. I mean, if you get a present you may get bizarrely wrong things, but I don't like trying to pick out my own present. I always feel the need to buy things on sale, or practical things I actually need, and I always have to chip in some of my own cash to cover the ridiculous shipping.

Am I alone in this?

It depends on the gift card, for me. You can buy damn near anything from Amazon, including vibrators. Seriously. So I never have a hard time shopping there. And my feeling with a gift card is, "Hey! I can get that DVD set/rabbit pearl/collected works of Shakespeare that I've been wanting but am too cheap to buy myself."

And, of course, a gift card to a wine store (local, that is -- a bricks-and-mortar store, which you may not have been referring to) makes me giddy happy. I feel guilty spending $40 on 1 bottle of wine if it's my money, b/c I'm cheap, but if it's someone else's money, then I have no problem being self-indulgent.