Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with presents and etiquette

Baby Shower etiquette for men/dummies

iTristan — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 14:43:10 -0800

If my wife hosts a baby shower, fairly large (30+ people) for her friend (with all the expense, labour and effort that requires) would she still be expected to give a present to her friend on top of this?

On Pet Gifts Given to Pet Owners

brownpau — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 09:57:23 -0800

A petty question for pet owners (or animal companion parents, if you prefer) on pet presents: what are your feelings on pet accessory gifts (e.g. cat toys, dog shirts, hamster wheels) given to you for birthdays and holidays? That is, on special occasions, do you find it uncouth to be given gifts which are actually for your pets? (e.g. Dear Joe: Happy birthday! Here is a catnip mouse for Furry Felicia. Have fun! Love, Jane.)

Returned Gift to Company for Refund; Chargeback Given to Gift-Giver

bonheur — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 14:46:01 -0800

Is there a good way to go about returning or exhanging gifts without embarrassing anybody? [MI] I was raised to believe that gifts should be treasured and returning a gift is a slap in the face to the giver. However, going through my stuff during a recent move made me realize how many gifts I have sitting around with the tags still on that I will never use. I decided that this year, any gifts I won't use I'll return to the store for an exchange or refund. Lo and behold, I received one particularly expensive item I decided I didn't need, so I contacted the store (in another state) and arranged to ship them the item in exchange for a refund. I received a letter from the store today containing a credit card receipt, and stating that the refund had been made to the credit card the item was purchased with. What do I do now? Contact the original giver and explain the situation and ask them to write me a check? Contact the store and try to wheedle a check out of them? Pretend nothing has happened? I'm embarrassed, and I'm afraid the gift-giver will be too. Help.

kids Hallowe'en party ettiquette

Pericles — Thu, 30 Sep 2004 05:47:01 -0800

My 6 year old daughter has been invited to an American child's Hallowe'en party here in the UK. Is a gift required?

What is the proper way of asking for cold, hard cash for wedding gifts?

carter — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 11:54:10 -0800

Wedding etiquette question. We live in the US, but are having a ceremony in the UK. We don't want to have to haul ~~the booty~~ presents back, and many UK appliances will not work in US because of the voltage. Any Mefites had experience of the correct way of asking for cold, hard cash for wedding gifts? It's kind of half-sorted, as our respective parents are giving us cash, and so we opened a joint account; so gifts could go into that, maybe as a beginning of a house deposit or something. I have also told my friends just to bring really small things if they want to bring a gift, but even thirty or forty really small things is going to add up to at least a suitcase of chotchkas. I'm more concerned with the gray area of in-laws, old family friends, godparents, and so on. I'd even ask for gift cards, but you'd be hard pushed to find UK stores in the states; I think the only common store is Walmart ...

We have considered online registeries, but these are people in the UK who are not too online savvy; I have to phone them to tell them to that I've sent them an e-mail; so I think online CC transactions might be a bit much.

I know this is all kind of unromantic and practical, but we have to make a decision too. Or rather, we're being asked about what we want to do. And to be quite honest cash would be useful.