Some history first:

“St. Nicholas is by far the most easily recognized source of Christmas presents around the world. Parents would leave small gifts of candy or fruits for their children in the honor of St. Nicholas. Eventually the date of this exchange of gifts became associated with the December 25th festivities.

“Christmas presents became even more of a focal point of the holiday experience in the mid-19th century when Americans began to shift from exchanging small, simple gifts and instead began taking a more consume-driven approach to Christmas presents and gift exchanges.”

–Source: Gail Leino at EzineArticles.com

Okay, what do you do when someone unexpectedly gives you a Christmas present or a Kwanzaa gift and you are unable to respond with a tit-for-tat present for them?

I’ve only come across one solution to the problem that works good in that it provides an exchange present. A friend of mine has shelving in the basement where year after year he puts the gifts that people gave him that he didn’t want, stores them there on a shelf. Also there, he stores duplicates of things he already has. Mostly appliances, like three steamers and four toasters. Each item has a name tag so that he wouldn’t give the same gift back to the original gift giver. Any time he needed an emergency gift, it was just a matter of a trip to the basement.

Can’t weasel your way out of being empty-gift-handed? Well, Blog4Brains.com has solved the no-gift problem for you by providing you with the top ten comebacks that are sure ways to stall giving an exchange gift. Here they are:

1) I don’t have yours ready, I ran out of gift wrapping paper. I was going to wrap your present using the comic section. And I plan to do that when I get this Sunday’s newspaper with the comics. I’ve never in my life ever gave anyone an unwrapped gift and I’m not about to start now. You hold onto your gift for me and we’ll exchange gifts after the holidays.

2) Your gift is still in layaway, and I won’t tell you which store because the name of the store would be a clue and it’ll ruin everything if you can guess what you’ll be getting. I should have your gift paid for in about a month. You’ll get it then.

3) You’ll never guess what happened to what I purchased for you as a gift. I was wrapping it when I dropped the darn thing and it broke! I can’t get a replacement until next year.

4) Did I tell you I was car jacked. They took my car and your present with them!

5) I’ll have to buy you another present. You just happen to be wearing the very item that’s like the present I have for you. Bear with me. I’ll have another present for you by next week.

6) The store sent someone to take away your present yesterday. It seems it was recalled by the government.

7) I mailed your gift to you and you should have had it a couple days ago. But with the seasonal rush, the post office is probably behind with the mail. Keep checking your mail; My gift will be there.

8) This is going to sound strange. But a school friend whom I haven’t seen in years dropped by to visit and brought me a present. Brace yourself. I gave her your present. What else could I do? I tell you what. I’ll treat you to lunch sometime next week.

9) I did buy you a gift but I’ll have to buy you another one next week. You see, when I left the store with your gift, I put it on the roof of the car so I could locate the car keys in my purse. And silly me, I forgot your gift was sitting on the roof of my car and I drove off without it. What a day! Some shopping days are just horrible. Don’t you agree?

10) I decided to give you money as a gift this year. Let me run upstairs for my purse.

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