This coming Christmas Day and thereabout, the question of giving Christmas gifts come to fore. The manner of giving, the motivation behind the gift, the value of the presents, and the choices of recipients should be guided by certain criteria or norms. To make it simple and brief: What really motivates the giver to give? What guides him in the determination of the nature and the value of the gifts? What set of guidelines does he follow in the manner by which the gifts are to be conveyed? Above all, what does the giver hope to accomplish by giving what to whom?
My answer to all these is just a simple classification of four kinds of Christmas gift givers: First are the pure in heart bona-fide Christmas gift givers who give to make the receiver happy, pure and simple as that. Second are the transactional gift givers, the ones who expect a return or a favor in exchange for the gift, the scheming wheeler-dealers. The third are the practical jokers, they give gifts to make the receiver laugh, to humor him, or to have clean fun out of the gift. And the fourth are the cruel gift givers, the ones who give in order to insult, create conflict, take revenge, or cause chaos.
The first giver is the usual family member and loved one whose only desire is to make his dad and mom happy with his gifts, his children to enjoy, or spouse to delight. Also close friends and relatives, officemates, fellow church members, neighbors, and associates. The gifts are simple pieces of clothing or adornment, and food or drinks. For the wife, jewelry, bags, shoes, or perfumes. For the children, watches, phones, gadgets, and accessories. For the kids, toys and clothing and shoes. Christmas can be draining to the pocket but the giver is happy to give.
The second one gives to the judge, police, fiscal, the BIR, or Customs for obvious reasons. They have pending cases, and the recipients should not even touch them because such acts are pure bribery, and influence-peddling. These are violations of the anti-graft and corrupt practices law. The pharma companies shower the doctors with expensive gifts so they will prescribe their brand. Suppliers bribe purchasing managers. Contractors bribe bidding committee members. Then, the old suitor bribes the young sexy girl for sex, with six C’s: cash, credit cards, carats, condo, car, and college scholarship.
The third kind of giver just want to have fun, they are harmless. The fourth should be dreaded. They send boxes of worms, or black ribbons or a basket with bombs and grenades. They are enemies and hopeless people who want to transform Christmas into a tragedy. Watch out for these rascals and Rasputins.