Nervous receiving presents?

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Does anybody get nervous receiving presents? If so why do you get nervous? Any idea how to overcome it?

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I get nervous, because I'm afraid I won't like the gifts, and I'm unable to look like I do, thereby insulting people.
On top of that, people opening gifts tend to be at the center of attention, which is uncomfortable place to be in the first place.
Prefer not to get gifts for that reason.
Don't know of any ways to improve that.

Last edited by AvatarOfLight on 27 Dec 2008, 7:23 am, edited 1 time in total.

I slept through christmas because of this. I woke up at 7pm. Stayed up all x-mas eve playing with snow script delaying sleep. Nobody understand why I do it and get so mad at me.. it's just easier.. for me. It's easier for everyone else too as they don't have to deal with me. I like to give, but feel unworthy to receive.

Yes. I dearly love to get gift cards, but unless any other gift is something I have described in precise detail, the usual gift is something I either can't use at all or something I genuinely hate. I feel terrible that someone spent time trying to get me something I'd like and now I have to try not to let them know they failed. My husband tends to be the worst--he gets me stuff he wants me to want. And it's hard to hide that I rarely use these gifts. But this year he did his homework and got me exactly what I wanted. Probably a one-in-ten-year event! So many folks pride themselves on being able to "know" what the perfect gift is for someone else. Unfortunately it becomes all about the giver's ego, not the recipient's desires.

I also don't like getting the gifts. People watch my face really closely, and my face doesn't convey the degree to which I like the present. I feel unable to properly express my appreciation. If it something I really don't want (lacy edged hankerchiefs or stinky perfumey bath prodcuts) I feel very awkward and fake while thanking the person for it. I would almost rather not get presents, or else get gift cards for an online book store or some such.

While I usually like the gifts people give me, I always have to fake that "OH MY GOD!" type reaction, which is really hard to do. Not that I can't do it, the reaction seems really forced.

Grateful dead topic

This is why I hate receiving gifts--the fawning reaction that is expected. I just say I feel awkward. I prefer to send a thank you note. Writing is easier, or an e-mail. Spontaneous in- person reactions are so crappy and fake.

The entire gift getting/gift giving package seems like an unnecessary chore to me. I don't understand why people set such store by making half-assed attempts to guess what another person might want that's reasonably priced.

I seem to alway be barely making ends meet so its hard to afford things in the first place.
This makes it uncomfortable for me to get presents when I can hardly afford to give them.
This is not to mention that most of the time I have not the foggiest of what to get them.
When I can afford it I just assume give them money to go buy their own gifts or I simply ask them what they want.

Yes, I do feel quite nervous when all eyes are on me. During Christmas I opened my gifts from my family when they were all preoccupied with something else and not opening theirs. It wasn't overwhelming or awkward that way, although they didn't appreciate me doing that.

Otherwise I usually just smile and say thank you and then scurry back to my room.

Always!

I know in theory how I'm supposed to react to recieving a present, but I can never manage to pull it off.

Even if I'm really happy, excited and flattered to recieve a gift (which I usually am), I can't express it they way most other people do. Due to that, I get nervous and begin to thank the person ad nauseum while grining awkwardly.

Opening my presents on Christmas morning when I was little was so uncomfortable. I remember crying one year.

I have no problem receiving gifts as I know I will be able to make use of them in some way no matter what they are. If I don't like it, I sell it and then there's some Christmas money for me. It is giving presents that I am nervous about, in case the recipients think my gifts are rubbish etc.

I have no problem with gifts either. I just say "thank you" and put the gift down. I don't see it as a lie because you always thank people for giving you something. You don't have to say anything else after that.

When I give people gifts, I expect them to be honest and I sometimes tell them they can always exchange it if they don't like it, I saved the receipt for that gift, but it depends on what the gift was. I have gotten my brother gifts and he would end up taking them back but he still thank me for them. I would buy him games or PSP movies he already had which I didn't even know but he still appreciated what I did and he would exchange it. Lot of people take gifts back, or exchange them but I wonder if it was gifts they got from people. That's why stores are packed after Christmas.

oh hayul yeah...

I feel obligated to 'balance' the gift with one of my own, so I dread finding gifts for people.