The song "crescendos tenderly"[10] with a double chorus before entering the outro which initially includes spoken word backing vocals chanting "giving again" and is "enhanced by a horn section that the Furries seem to be able to utilise more effectively than anyone else".

[10] Critical reaction to "The Gift That Keeps Giving" was generally positive with the New Musical Express rating it as one of the best on parent album Hey Venus!

; "[it doesn't so much raise] the bar, as balances it on top of Mount Snowdon" going on to state: "From a foundation of ELO guitar cloud-swells, Gruff's Elvis Costello-in-a-bubblegum-bath voice wraps around tender trombone parps to create the band's most beautiful moment since "Demons".

[4] BBC Wales commented on the track's Christmas links, describing "The Gift That Keeps Giving" as a "mellow, mellifluous, slow ode to the joys of the festive season ... lyrically incredibly simple ... brain-bendingly catchy".

[11] Much was made of the 'retro' nature of the track with Yahoo Music UK claiming that the song is "a pure blue-eyed soul tune, of the sort that Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham used to churn out four decades ago"[12] and The Guardian describing it as a "gorgeous, Bacharach-tinged haze".

[13] Billboard noted that "the group's penchant for sonic flourishes is used to subtle effect" on "The Gift That Keeps Giving" and went on to suggest that the track is representative of Hey Venus!

[14] Cokemachineglow, however, thought that the song "will be cast into the void, one daring, lonely piece of the first Super Furry Animals album to not succeed as a thorough unit"[15] and, in their single review of "The Gift That Keeps Giving", the NME suggested that the track wasn't one of the group's best.

Towards the end of the video less privileged children are shown crying at their lack of presents before we cut back to the initial child who is surrounded by gifts while Santa Claus is seen in front of a log fire, crucified on a cross.