God, it really depends on the context. I voted I liked receiving gifts more, but that's because I hate hate
hate the pressure of needing to buy expensive gifts for some of my friends. I actually prefer to not do gift exchanges with wishlists because there aren't really a lot of things I want, and in return my friends ask for gifts that are out of my budget. I'm too embarrassed to say I don't have a lot of money, because my other friends have stable incomes and they can afford to give expensive stuff, so I feel obliged to also give expensive stuff.
To give context, one of my friend groups agreed on an exchange gift and set a cap of $15 for wishlist gifts so everyone was out to make the most of it. I know it might be petty change to some, but for me my heart was RACING seeing the $15 cap. Even I rarely spend $15 on myself in one go, and I'm 100% okay with not exchanging in the first place because there wasn't really anything I wanted at that moment. But y'know, I'm too embarrassed to admit all that so I was like hahaha okay. It also didn't really feel heartfelt because everyone sent direct links to shops and items they want to have bought, eliminating the element of surprise. It just felt like I was buying groceries for someone else.
But my other friend group was super nice and lenient on gift-giving (I love them lots), no one pressured anyone to exchange gifts, and rather than set up wishlists to just have checked out and deliver, we gave each other gifts simply based on how well we knew each other. I got a customized Yanfei pin, a Yanfei t-shirt, an Owl City
Ocean Eyes poster, and a wool blanket. Bruh these friends knew me TOO WELL, I literally asked for nothing but they gave me everything I didn't know I wanted and I'm so happy with that. In return, I told them all I'd crochet them something, because I know they all love stuffed toys, so they sent me what plushies they'd want to have done. They were REALLY thrilled with the outcome and I was so happy!! And the best part is that, overall, it costed me just like $5 to make multiple plushies. Here are pics of two of the plushies, one asked for a bee and another asked for a chick!
(the chick did not have legs yet when i took the picture forgive me)
Overall, I do like giving presents, don't get me wrong, but that's only when I know they didn't ask or tell me to buy it. Imo giving heartfelt gifts makes me feel
way better than just buying something that someone asked me to buy (like wishlists). It's the feeling of
'Hey I thought of you and I thought you'd like this!' kind of thing. Ofc I ask them some aspects of their likes and dislikes so they don't be too disappointed in what I give, lol.
