Giving a gift can be difficult. The recipient may not like it, you might say the wrong thing, or they might think it’s just not worth the price tag.
It’s overwhelming enough trying to figure out what gift to give, but then, you also need to come up with something to say when handing the gift to the recipient. Life doesn’t have to be so hard, we’re here to help with our handy list of things you can say when giving a gift.
What To Say When Giving A Gift
Depending on the occasion, sometimes the best thing to say when handing a gift to someone is a simple:
‘Happy Birthday!’
‘Merry Christmas!’
‘Happy Anniversary’, or whatever else the occasion may call for.
This is a simple acknowledgement of the reason you are giving this lucky person a gift.
If you are giving a gift that is not for a special occasion, more of a ‘just because’ gift, then you could hand your gift over with a statement such as:
‘I saw this and thought of you.’
‘This made me think of you so I thought I’d get it for you.’
‘I really wanted to buy something from the cute little store to help the seller out, and I know how much you like strawberries, so I got this for you.’
‘I just felt like getting you something.’
‘Here’s a gift to show you how much you mean to me.’
‘You deserve it.’
‘I got you something – I hope you like it!’
‘Guess what I got for you!?’
‘Here’s a little something that I found for you.’
‘I thought you might find this useful!’
What To Say When Giving A Thank You Gift:
‘Just a small token of my appreciation.’
‘I got this for you to say thank you for…’
‘Thank you so much for……it really helped me out.’
‘You’ve no idea how much you helped me, this is just a little something to say thank you.’
‘I wanted to get you something to thank you.’
For something more formal, you could go with:
‘Please accept this gift as a token of my appreciation.’
‘I just wanted to formally acknowledge how much I appreciated your help.’
‘From all of us here, we just wanted to say thank you, and please accept this gift.’
Of course you can mix and match any of these types of statements so, depending on the occasion, you might say:
‘Happy birthday – I saw this and thought you might like it.’
‘Happy anniversary – I wanted to get you something special and I think this will look great on you.’
‘Merry Christmas – I hope you like it!’
You almost can’t go wrong when handing someone a gift – usually the recipient is genuinely delighted to be receiving a gift. Although apparently there is one phrase that people perceive negatively if it is said to them when handing them a gift, and that is ‘it will save you money.’
So, don’t hand them a gift, no matter how great it is, and tell them that it will save them money as this can cause offence. Telling the person it will save them money implies that they need help managing their money or that you don’t think they are using their money wisely and this tends to put negative connotations on the gift. Telling them it will save them time, however, is usually positively received!
Also, phrases such as ‘I got you this because I don’t think you wear enough color,’ and ‘Your gravy is always lumpy so I got you this strainer,’ should be avoided.
Your recipient doesn’t want to hear your negative judgments about them when receiving a gift from you. You could still potentially buy them a nice colorful scarf or a strainer but don’t add the negative comments when giving them the gift, a simple ‘I hope you like it’ will do.
Gift giving doesn’t have to be hard – in fact it should be an enjoyable process! If you have trouble choosing a gift for someone, check out our handy gift giving guides which are full of gift ideas and inspiration to get your gift giving, creative juices flowing.
We’ve even got a gift guide full of good gifts for people who have everything, so even those hard to buy for people are easy to buy for now!
Once you’ve chosen the perfect present, giving the gift to the recipient shouldn’t be a stumbling block either, now that you know what to say when giving a gift.
Simply hand the gift to the lucky recipient, say one of our simple phrases (or something similar) and give them a genuine smile.
Happy Gift Giving!
