The Versatile Gift Certificate
Posted on November 29, 2011 by bob in Features
by Alex Nicholson
There are those who smirk at Gift Certificates, claiming it’s a lazy way to shop. But a little extra thought in this regard can yield a big smile at gift-opening time.
Give Food
Everyone likes free food. Local restaurants offer a variety of food choices and are a great way to support area businesses. Along with dining, expand your food-related list to include speciality shops with a variety of wines, cheeses and unique food items. Plus, there are businesses offering complete meals-to-order, some with delivery!
Give Skills
Teach someone a new skill. Or rather, help them learn one. Painting, ceramics, photography, cooking, dance, aerobics, yoga, tai chi and a hundred other interesting skills are easily accessible via Gift Certificates. Start someone on the path to mastering a foreign languages or playing the piano, guitar, or other musical instrument. A skill, once learned, brings joy for a lifetime.
Give Knowledge
Beyond the skills listed above, for the sheer joy of increasing your store of knowledge, classes are available at local universities on a broad range of subjects, from history, sociology and psychology, to math, economics and computer science. You may have to talk the school into providing a Gift Certificate, but it’s worth a try.
Give Services
A Gift Certificate in-hand means we’re less likely to put off services we routinely use that are often taken for granted, until we have to pay for them. An oil change and/or tire rotation, while not sexy, is a thoughtful parent gift to a young driver. Don’t forget haircuts, salon stylings, manicures, massages and gym memberships. Gift a thorough house cleaning. Who doesn’t want a clean home without having to do the work? With our pollen problem, a series of car washes will be appreciated and may help keep the recipient’s allergy problems to a minimum. For a birthday, reunion or anniversary, offer the services of one of the many talented photographers in our area. But there’s no need to link it to a specific date. A gift of a family portrait sitting will be remembered for years to come.
Give Gifts
If you must have solid, tangible gifts to wrap, numerous businesses in our area offer Alabama-made items, from pottery, paintings and photography, to jewelry, scarfs and other apparel. To this list add soaps, jams, jellies, relishes, sauces and rubs. Bookstores stock a range of volumes by local authors, or books written about our area. These include biography, history, cooking and travel. And don’t forget the sweet side of the holidays. There are homemade cakes, cupcakes and candy produced in the River Region that rival anything you can find anywhere else. Just to stay with the original theme, I’m confident stores offering the above items will gladly provide a Gift Certificate.
Spend some time thinking about the specific interests of each person on your gift list, match that to the right Gift Certificate, and you’ll have a happy recipient when unwrapping time arrives.
