Canadian Gift Culture
Trying to figure out if this is a Canadian thing or a my husband thing: when my birthday rolls around it’s invariably low key. It’s either no gift/card, something intended to be funny/jokey or … no that’s it. There is no uniqueness to the day - no happy birthday in the morning, no coffee in bed, no special meals or outings. Just like any other day.
The only time it has broken this mould was when we lived together in UK (I’m UK/Irish) and he gave me a nicely wrapped first edition book by a popular Canadian author. It was fab but I wonder if he was under the influence of the local culture?
I’ve spoken to him about this - and right now I can only either I have a gift love language or I am just built different - but year to year nothing changes. Even though IN GENERAL we are very effective communicators. I am stumped.
The WEIRDEST part of it is that gifts are never given to me - they are kind of left for me to find, whether he is at work when I wake up or not. And by ´find’ I mean, they are in the counter or on the kitchen table with no verbal indication that he has a gift for me. It is not like a scavenger hunt. Which would be fun!
Is this a Canadian thing? Is it somehow not polite to physically hand someone a gift and say happy birthday? Is it foolish of me to expect a gift that is thoughtful instead of just something you can wrap up? It’s just so curious to me but when I google it I am not finding what I am looking for.