Its the thoughtlessness that discounts
This year's rant against worthless, wasteful, and thoughtless gift giving for the holiday season is brought to you by WorldChanging which linked to Changing the Present, and their cute Hall of Shame - What not to give page where people are invited to send in photos of worthless, wasteful crap that will be on the curbside come January. (Be warned that there are some questions as to the motives of this "Changing the Present" organization.)
The old saying "it's the thought that counts" is meant to make us feel good about giving and receiving "bad" gifts - but what about when it was a bad gift because there was no thought involved? It is a custom in Japan that anyone going on a business trip should bring a gift back to the office. I suppose the theory is that it shows that the traveler was thinking about his/her coworkers. In reality it seems that, more often than not, the "thought" is mostly a stress-filled "I have to find something for the office. One more thing on the to-do list..." This is evident by the big market for "last-minute convenience gifts" available at the train stations just before getting on the bullet train to go back home - and people's willingness to pay outrageous prices for usually no-better than average goods (all be it in a fancier, more wasteful package). Whenever I receive a gift like that, I actually don't feel anything good, just bad that the person wasted their money and did a disservice to the earth and future generations at the same time.
Of course, I am very thankful for the two gifts I received this year (yes, only two) because one was hand-made cookies from mom, and the other was something that Tomoe and I had been considering purchasing for over a year now. This shows that the person who gave the gift actually spent some time thinking about what to give. Similarly, Tomoe met with some clients yesterday and received two gifts. One was a box of gift-wrapped cookies (the same thing everyone else received), and the other was an old, used glass jar destined for the trash. Which one do you think she was excited to tell me about when she got home?
She is always looking for more containers to store miso and jam and other little goodies, but we are reluctant to buy any new ones when at some point we know a used one will become available. The client that knows this, and that thinks about Tomoe before simply throwing his own used jar into the trash, taking the time and effort to keep it on his desk until he sees her next... That is what is meant by "Its the thought that counts". That is what made it a great gift.