The funniest part to me is that if we were having this discussion a century from now (or if our Grandchildren would), once the minhag has completley evolved to gifts, EEK and Lior will be defending the ancient heilege minhag of giving davka gifts on chanuka. Pointing out all sorts of hidden kabbalastic interpretations, If you take the first to letters of “matana” in mispr kattan it equas 8 keneged the days of chanukah, while the mispar kattan of the last to letters is 10 keneged the seva sephiros and the three avos etc…
While I (or Grandchildren) will point out actually, minhag of gifts are fairly new and a century ago people argued it was actually goyish.