Giving the gift of plastic surgery this year?

Cynthia Murphy recently bought about $1,500 in gift cards for a friend this holiday season.

The generous gift can go toward a number of cosmetic procedures, including Botox, medical peels or laser treatments at the Williams Rejuva Center in N.Y.

“It is entirely up to her what she would like to do with it because it is a personal decision,” Murphy, of Massachusetts, said. "I like to find a gift that… somebody would appreciate but not likely to do for themselves. Usually they feel it would be overly indulgent.”

She's not alone in her purchase. The idea of giving gift cards for cosmetic procedures and plastic surgeries continues to increase in the U.S., with doctors especially seeing an uptick in appointments during the holidays.

Edwin WIlliams, president of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS), says he predominately sees men buying gifts for women, usually husbands for wives who have been patients of his for a long time.

And Williams sees gift cards growing from 10% to 15% year over year.  Williams says at his practice that non-surgical procedures like Botox grow 30-35% during November and December.

Why? Timing and the growing acceptance of anti-aging techniques, Williams adds.

"Everyone has holiday parties and they are getting together with family and friends they haven't seen in a long time so Botox and Voluma are very popular this time of year," Williams said.

Scot Glasberg, a plastic surgeon in New York, says the stigma associated with plastic surgery has greatly diminished over time. With regular folks talking more openly about a little nip-tuck here or there, he says "it is easier to ask for it. It is easier to give it."

However, it is not as simple as one, two, three to get a gift card for say a breast augmentation and immediately set up a surgery date with a trusted plastic surgeon.

"There is a certain process to get a patient to surgery. There are real risks associated with it. Although not high, there are still risks. There needs to be an understanding, " Glasberg said.

Helen Haskell, the founder of Mothers Against Medical Error (MAME), believes the idea of gifting cosmetic procedures trivializes the potential risks of "unnecessary" surgery, like infection.

"By making it a gift, you are downplaying the risk. There is an assumption with a gift, that it is all good," Haskell said. "People need to take medical intervention seriously."

She believes doctors have a responsibility to present plastic surgery to their patients as a serious endeavor.

"I think putting it in a gift card is doing it lightly," Haskell said.

Glasberg says the American Society of Plastic Surgeons does not allow its members to offer gift cards for certain procedures for this very reason.

"You can't walk into a plastic surgeon's office and buy anything you like," he said. "We need to still maintain the difference in that plastic surgery is still a medical procedure."

Norman Rowe, a plastic surgeon in New York, cautions against attempting to surprise someone with this kind of gift.

"If the patient doesn’t feel they need it, next year you are going to have a lump of coal in your stocking because you’ll make someone very angry, Rowe said. "It is like saying, 'I think you would look better with a smaller nose or larger breasts.'”

Mark Cecil, 55, and Barbie Cecil, 41, are heading in for surgeries Dec. 30. with Fred Fedok, a facial plastic surgeon in Alabama.

Mark is having an upper eyelid blepharoplasty and Barbie is opting for a laser procedure.

The pair, who have been married for eight years, say it is good to have them done at the same time so they can minimize the down time. Plus, the "snow birds" haven't shown up in Alabama just yet so they can lay low.

"This is our way of treating ourselves," Mark Cecil said. "Why not do what you can to age well."

Barbie Cecil, a registered nurse, thinks the idea of giving plastic surgery as a gift is fine as long as people know the risks and do their research.

"I don’t really see anything wrong with it. At the end of the year we always struggle with what we buy each other,” she said. "For my sisters, I think that would be a great idea."