This week one of our favourite bloggers, Tatyana Bugayeva, of ‘Secret Little Stars’ shares her secrets on ‘the art of giving’ to get us ready for December 25th. Remember, when it comes to unwrapping the ultimate gift this Christmas – Ultimo have it covered.
“Let me give you a gift. You are encouraging me to think about the things you like and I’m experiencing great joy and excitement in engaging in all those activities. Give me the gift of giving…
Hands up if you, your friends and family say this every year: “Oh don’t worry about getting me a present this Christmas, I don’t want anything!”
Although we mean well, studies suggest that if we stop giving, we are missing out on an important connection with family and friends during Christmas. Who is on our gift list is telling us who is more or less important in our lives. But the biggest effect of gifting is on ourselves as it reinforces our feelings for them and makes us feel caring.
Gift giving is often the most obvious way for people to show interest, love, to strengthen a relationship’s bond and show appreciation to the gift receiver during Christmas. Giving presents during December can be traced back to at least Roman Times when the Romans celebrated New Year. At first, their gifts were symbolic, like branches from the sacred places, food and precious spices. People dressed up in special clothes and even wrote verses to accompany their gifts. But over the centuries, and closer to home, it’s the Victorians who re-invented the notion of gift giving during Christmas by making it a time to unite the family and express gratitude. With so much friendliness, love and happiness during the festive season, exchanging gifts became a natural act of giving during holiday traditions. And then many years later, exchanging of presents took on a whole new “persona” – our legendary Santa Claus, the ultimate gift bearer and now a symbol of Christmas all over the world. And so it began, Dear Santa…
Some people spend months planning and buying their gift for the right person. Likewise, there are just as many, who will be burning the midnight oil searching the internet for the best gift at the last possible moment. It’s normal, because some are born with the “art of gifting”, whereas others need a bit of help and direction, but we all do learn from one another over the years. Children expect the gifts they asked for and attack the biggest presents wrapped in brightest cheerful paper on Christmas morning. Men in the family usually try to work out which one of the beautifully wrapped gifts are socks, so that they can leave it to last, whereas us ladies, we tend to look out for our favourite logos on ribbons, paper and tags – after all, we’ve been hinting all year for a reason…
Why is gift wrapping so important? It isn’t just for covering up the gift in nice paper. It’s about going that step further, like icing on the cake. It’s all about the anticipation and excitement of discovering what’s inside. Think about a time when you received a gift that you didn’t want to open because it was wrapped and presented so nicely, do you still remember what it was? You probably do, and at the same time wish that some of your more significant latter presents also deserved that kind of presentation.
One year I had the most beautiful, perfectly wrapped gift sitting under my tree since mid December, which of course it couldn’t be opened until Christmas morning. This perfect looking square box was wrapped in high quality textured beige paper, finished with the most beautiful hand-made thick fabric red bow with my name embossed on one edge and immaculate hand-writing on the equally gorgeous name tag attached. It even smelled of chocolates and vanilla – it was irresistible. Luckily, the actual gift itself lived up to my expectations (and it wasn’t chocolates), but the fact that I was told nobody knew how it got there had made the whole anticipation game even more exciting. There were no clues whatsoever, and even though I knew all along who it was from, this made me realise how much tiny little details with personal touches can make any gift extraordinary.
Needless to say, some gifts are just not made for “DIY” wrapping, like the gorgeous luxury Black Label lingerie Hallie set from Ultimo. Can you imagine it being wrapped in spare kids’ cartoon paper on Christmas Eve? Nor can I…
This is why I love Ultimo as their products arrive in a luxury black box that comes free with any purchase. Luxury gifts deserve luxury treatment! I know who I’ll be sending to www.ultimo.co.uk this Christmas.”
Love,
Tatyana & Ultimo
x
Visit Tatyana’s blog at: www.secretlittlestars.com
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