Dream of a Gift: Meaning, Symbol and Possible Readings

What a gift says

A gift is never only an object: it is a gesture that creates a bond. To give is to say “I am thinking of you”; to receive is to accept being the object of someone’s attention. A wrapped gift also carries a dimension of surprise and of expectation: we do not know what it contains until we open it. In a dream, all of this may resurface.

A gift-wrapped parcel in a dream may evoke recognition one is waiting for, a wish to be spoilt, a generous gesture one would like to make, but also an obligation, a debt or distrust. The rest of the dream (do we open the parcel? what is inside it?) gives the meaning.

This page offers symbolic readings, without prediction. See how to use the dream dictionary.

The gift in cultures

In his Essai sur le don (The Gift, 1923–1924), the anthropologist Marcel Mauss showed that in many societies a gift involves three obligations: to give, to receive, and to reciprocate. The gift is not free in the strict sense: it creates bonds and mutual duties. This idea helps explain why a gift, even a pleasant one, can in a dream come with a feeling of debt.

Mythology also preserves a memory of distrust towards presents. Pandora, whose Greek name means “all the gifts” (or “she who receives all gifts”, depending on the reading), brings suffering to humankind with her jar. The Trojan Horse is a poisoned gift; Virgil has Laocoön say: Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes, “I fear the Greeks, even when they bring gifts”. And in German, Gift means “poison”, a word that comes from an older sense of “something given”.

Freud’s and Jung’s readings

Freud saw in dreams the expression of wishes. Receiving a gift in a dream might express the wish to be loved, recognised or fulfilled, as in children’s dreams, where wishes are direct. Giving may express a desire to give, to make amends, or to be forgiven.

Jung could see in it a “gift of the unconscious”: something that comes from within oneself and that the dreamer has not yet recognised (an idea, a talent, a resource). Opening the parcel then means welcoming what the psyche offers. These are frameworks for reading (see Freud and Jung on dreams), not truths.

Contexts that change the meaning

Three to five possible readings

1. Expected recognition: the need to be seen, thanked, valued.
2. Generosity: a wish to give, to make amends, to please.
3. Surprise and curiosity: what is not yet open, what one does not yet know about oneself.
4. Debt or obligation: the feeling of having to give something back.
5. Inner gift: a talent or a resource one discovers.

Questions to reflect on

• Who was giving, who was receiving? What was inside the parcel?
• What was I feeling: joy, awkwardness, distrust, guilt?
• What am I expecting from others at the moment?
• Who do I feel like giving to, or thanking?
• Do I feel I owe something to someone?

A brief word of caution

A dream of a gift announces neither good news, nor a windfall, nor a trap. If you are under the pressure of someone who gives you presents in order to control or isolate you, speak to a trusted person or to a professional: in cases of violence, in France, call 3919; if a child is in danger, call 119. In a crisis, in France: 3114 (suicide prevention, free, 24 hours a day); in an emergency: 17 or 112 (112 being the emergency number across the European Union). For ideas of real presents, see our gift ideas or the shop’s departments.

Frequently asked questions

Also read

The meanings mentioned belong to tradition and symbolism. They are neither promises of results nor medical advice. Back to Dream dictionary.