What makes a gift? Is it expensiveness? Effort? Rarity? Each of these things is nice, but are they what makes a person feel special upon unveiling?

Anyone can give an expensive gift, and they are often given for the most cynical and self-serving reasons. Rarity is nice, but unless the person receiving the item has expertise in reference to the gift, or a specialized need for it, its scarceness goes to the wayside. Effort by the giver is also appreciated, but even a 14 foot marble statue is not much of a gift if it clashes with the Grateful Dead  posters in the recipients living room.

So after debunking these characteristics, what have we learned? Gifts cannot be redeemed by other virtues if they are not suited perfectly to the individual receiving them. An engraved cigar box is a decent gift for the casual cigar smoker, but it’s an extraordinary gift for a cigar aficionado who has a lot of open space on his desk. Even something as banal as fifty pairs of matching socks can be a great gift if the recipient is a slovenly, poorly organized, exercise enthusiast. Whether it be intensely functional, or just a trinket, the lynchpin of any great gift is that it express knowledge and appreciation of the recipient. In other words, something personal.

At PersonalizedGifts.org, we specialize in advising people on gifts that are memorable, useful, and of course, personal. It is our hope that our readers give gifts which are more then the sum of their parts, gifts that, in their own way, speak.