Still looking for a last-minute Christmas gift? A new poll finds that most people find cash or gift cards an acceptable holiday gift.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
All right, you got one more shopping day before Christmas. For some people, it’s time to get started. If you’re still searching for a gift, you could take inspiration from this 1953 hit by Eartha Kitt.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SANTA BABY”)
EARTHA KITT: (Singing) Santa, baby, just slip a sable under the tree for me. Been an awful good girl.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
If, however, you don’t want to splurge on a fur coat or a ’54 convertible or the deed to a platinum mine…
INSKEEP: (Laughter).
FADEL: …A poll from the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research suggests most Americans think giving cash is just fine, which is my preferred gift.
INSKEEP: Got it.
MARJORIE CONNELLY: We asked a question on what people consider suitable or acceptable holiday gifts, and we gave them four options to say whether they thought they were acceptable or not acceptable.
INSKEEP: We are listening to Marjorie Connelly, a senior fellow at AP-NORC. The poll found about 60% of Americans – 6 out of 10 – think cash is a very acceptable present. Only 6% think cash is very unacceptable. It was about the same for gift cards, although there is a generation gap.
CONNELLY: We found that older people, they did not find that cash or gift cards were quite as acceptable as younger people. Younger people were very in favor of getting cash or gift cards.
FADEL: OK, that tracks ’cause I give cash to all my nephews and nieces, and they love it.
INSKEEP: There you go.
FADEL: Connelly also warns how well cash or gift cards are received can depend on who’s giving.
CONNELLY: If you’re getting the cash from, you know, your great-aunt or your grandmother, it’s one thing. I don’t know if I’d want to get cash from my boyfriend.
INSKEEP: Ah, I see.
FADEL: Yeah, that makes sense. The poll also finds that cash is preferable to another last-minute option – regifting. Just 22% of the respondents thought that was very acceptable.
CONNELLY: If something’s very nice, and I think the other person would appreciate it, I think that would be OK. If it’s just something that’s junky, I’m just getting it – moving it out of my house, that’s another story.
INSKEEP: (Laughter) Here’s something that’s more popular than regifting – giving an item bought secondhand. About 30% say that’s very acceptable, but again, the context matters.
CONNELLY: I would give a secondhand item that maybe came from a really – like, a nice antique store as – not, like, a – you know, a junk store.
FADEL: OK. So I guess a regifting closet is not a thing we should be doing.
INSKEEP: Exactly not.
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