Christmas is less than a week away now, so you may be feeling the pressure to have everything ready for the big day. But sometimes something slips through the net, and you may not have all the gifts you need on time. If you feel bad about these (hopefully) occasional late exchanges, then you’ll be pleased with the results of a new study – it turns out people are not actually upset by receiving late gifts.

Gift giving is an important part of our culture and that of many others too. Every year, consumers spend substantial amounts on gifts, either for Christmas or birthdays, to the extent that it has become a relevant aspect of the economy. Of course, its significance has inspired interest from the psychological community too.

Existing research has examined all aspects of gift-giving behavior, from the motivations and underpinning drivers to expectations (overestimation), outcomes, and giver-recipient mismatches – especially related to the gifts given and the types of gifts the receiver prefers.

In this latest paper, Cory Haltman, a doctoral student in marketing at Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business, and colleagues conducted six studies that explored the mismatch between givers’ and receivers’ views on timely gift giving.

On the face of it, it seems there is a good reason to feel anxious about giving gifts on time. According to a survey the team conducted as part of their research, 65 percent of Americans believed that a gift should arrive on time if it is for a specific occasion, such as a birthday.

“A majority of U.S. consumers seem to think that gifts should be given on time – but our study shows that there’s more to the story,” Rebecca Reczek, professor of marketing at Fisher College, said in a statement.

In one of their studies, undergraduate students were asked to imagine a situation where they were giving or receiving a gift that would arrive on time or two weeks late. In this case, the gift was a pint of ice cream. They were asked to rate how likely they felt the late gift could negatively impact their relationship.

The results showed that those who imagined giving the gift late believed they would hurt their relationship far more than compared to those who imagined receiving it late. In another study, the team found that participants worried that a late gift would suggest they cared less about the intended recipient.

“One of the key social functions of gift giving is to communicate care for the gift recipient, so it is not surprising that people fear a negative impact on their relationship if they are late with their present,” Reczek added.

However, this was not how recipients saw the situation. As Haltman said: “[t]hey didn’t see a late gift as signaling a lack of care. They were more forgiving than those giving late gifts thought they would be”.

But can this anxiety of gift-giving impact the type of gift someone buys? Well, it seems it does. In another study, the team found that those who imagined giving a late gift – this time a gift basket – felt less worried if they had put time into creating the gift themselves, as opposed to just buying a prepacked basket.

“People felt that if they put extra effort into the gift, made it more personalized, that can make up for it being late,” Reczek said.

So despite the expressed feeling around late gift-giving, it seems there is some wriggle room for the good-intentioned but still delayed giver. But is there a cut-off for how much time is acceptable? In another study, participants were asked to imagine giving a gift at a progressively late date – firstly two days late, then two weeks, and then two months. They found that for both givers and receivers, the later the gift, the more harm it would do to the relationship. But even this was not an unforgivable outcome.

Okay, okay, so this sounds good, but what about the absolute worst outcome: not giving a gift at all? In one more study, the team found that both givers and receivers felt that not giving a gift was more damaging than receiving one extremely late.

“Late is definitely better than never when it comes to giving a gift,” Haltman said.

“If you’re late giving a gift, put yourself in the role of receiving a late gift,” Reczek said.  “Based on our results, we believe that should reduce your worry that the lateness is going to be harmful to your relationship.” 

Ultimately, it seems our expectations of what is acceptable and what isn’t can be very much out of touch when it comes to late gifts, but only as long as you do actually give that gift!

“Go ahead and send that late gift, because it doesn’t seem to bother most people as much as givers fear,” Haltman said.

The paper is published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology.