This is the primary principle for the best Christmas presents (or any successful gift)! How many of us have been amazed and annoyed to receive a gift that the giver thought we should have?... Or that the giver craved, without reference to you... Or that would have been welcome, if only the giver had bothered to take note of the fact that you quite despise the color navy blue? - or that your house is decorated in French provincial, not folk art?

Context is everything. Just as the most successful businesspeople think like their customers, successful gift-givers delve into mindsets and preferences of their targets... the gift receivers. Remember, a suitable context is a gift in itself!

If friends or loved ones will soon be moving - especially if they will soon be downsizing - extra "stuff" may be just what they don't want. You would then want to think in terms of what would be expendable before they go (e.g., foodstuffs, concert tickets, or perhaps a gift certificate for dinner out or pizza in during moving week)...  Or what would be useful anywhere without taking up room (like gift certificates - maybe think in terms of their new abode, or phone cards, stamps, cash, or a promise of frequent flier miles so they can come back to their old town). And always there's that oh-so-valuable gift of your time... as in the pledge of visits or phone calls, or planting the landscaping plants they pick out for their new backyard with your nursery gift certificate (or, how good are you at packing?).