Relative “Forgets” To Get A Christmas Present For The Host, Gets Their Gifted Vacation Cancelled

Family can turn Christmas from merry to messy in the blink of an eye, and Reddit user GMEm8m3loosemymind knows this all too well.

After reconciling with a difficult relative, the woman said she went all out for the holidays and gifted them a dream vacation.

However, she claimed it was met with passive-aggressive comments and a general lack of appreciation and reciprocation. So, she decided to embrace her petty side and take back the present she thought the person no longer deserved.

While it may not seem like the most romantic option, money was the most desired Christmas present in the United States this year. According to the latest data from Statista's Consumer Insights, when asked which gifts American adults would personally like to receive, 45 percent of women and 34 percent of men said cash or bank transfers.

For both groups, clothing, textiles, and shoes came in second place, followed by vouchers in third. (Respondents could choose multiple options in the poll.)

While there was a fair bit of overlap when looking at the breakdown of the data for men and women, some slight differences did emerge. For example, cosmetics, perfume, and body care ranked as the fourth most popular option among women (27 percent), while it came only in 13th place out of the possible 20 options for men (12 percent).

Rounding off the top ten for men were board games/toys/dolls (15 percent) and event tickets (14 percent), and for women, computers/computer accessories (17 percent) followed by board games/toys/dolls (15 percent). Out of the polled options, "decoration articles" were among the lowest-scoring gifts, desired by just 10 percent of female respondents and 6 percent of men.

Regardless if the thing that the author of the post received belongs to the list or not, spending money on others does bring happiness to us—psychologists have confirmed that the warm glow of kindness, the feel-good rush after being kind to others, is real.

For example, a 2019 study highlights that people who give benefit regardless of whether they gain something from gifting others.

"There is a decent amount of research showing that the act of giving actually makes us feel better," explained Jessica Andrews-Hanna, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology, in the College of Science at the University of Arizona.

"Evidence from brain imaging also suggests that both giving gifts and receiving gifts activate core areas of our brain associated with reward and pleasure. These brain regions also stimulate the neurotransmitter dopamine. All in all, psychology and neuroscience suggest that giving gifts to other people can be a very rewarding phenomenon that can bring happiness to ourselves and others."

So, since the woman felt like she needed to cancel the booking, the relative's behavior must've been pretty bad.