Need advice on a lil friendship issue

[Dobby]

How do I tell my friend I want us to stop getting eachother gifts ?

I have this friend who used to be a very close friend that I trusted a lot, a few years back. From that time, we started to get eachother gifts for birthdays and Christmas mainly, and this made sense to me at the time as she was very dear and important to me.

The thing is, 2-3 years ago (we started being friends about 7 years ago) we kinda grew apart all of a sudden. Basically, she got into a relationship and started to get better (mainly mental health wise), so she started answering to my texts less, with shorter and less warm responses, etc. because she didn't need me as much as she used to, as her mental health got drastically better (I'm not inventing that explanation, this is what she told me). And even if she also told me that it doesn't change a thing about our friendship and I'm still one of her closest friend, I couldn't help but question the reality and sincerity of our friendship from the start (how not to question it when you learn that the main reason someone is talking to you is to distract themself from their dark thoughts). 

I'm not going to go into details on that story because that's behind me and I no longer feel hurt because of it (took me many months to overcome, and I think the fact I'm aro made it even harder to accept and understand, but now I'm fine). We still talk occasionally and see each other when we can (not very often) and it's ok. But now that I'm over being hurt by this breakup, I realise that we're clearly not as close as we used to, that I'm never going to be able to trust her and care for her as much as I used to, my brain just can't anymore (I guess it's a protective strategy or whatever). And so it doesn't really make any sense anymore to spend my time/energy/money on getting her thoughtful gifts twice a year. 

I don't really know how she feels about our friendship because we haven't really talk about it in the last 2 years. But it seems that things didn't really change for her (she still seems very excited and happy when we get to hangout, she sometimes spontaneously start the conversation asking how am I or if we can call etc), so I guess getting me gifts still makes sense to her. 

So I don't really know how to tell her that I think we should stop with the systematic gift thing because it doesn't make sense to me anymore. I don't know how to tell her that without hurting her or making her think that I don't want to be friends anymore, because that's not the case. But I also don't see myself keeping on this tradition forever just to keep the peace. And I don't think it's respectful to just stop getting her gifts in my side and wait till she gets the message, even if it's one of the easy option.

I should probably just tell her things as they are to me, but I don't know.
Anyway, if anyone as any advice or opinion on this I will take them gladly, I think that even just another angle view could help me.
Have a nice day and nice end of the year! <3
 

[AquaJasper]

Honestly, I’d just keep it straightforward but gentle. You could say something like, "I’ve been thinking a lot about where our friendship is right now, and I feel like the gift thing doesn’t make sense to me anymore. I still care about you, but with how things have changed, I don’t really feel the need to keep doing it. I’d prefer if we just focused on hanging out and enjoying our time together instead of worrying about gifts. Hope that makes sense and doesn't change how you feel about us." It keeps things open, doesn’t make it too heavy, and shows you’re still on good terms.

[Dobby]

Thank you for your reply !

This is actually very well phrased, thanks very much for the help :))

[Garlic Bread.2]

Tell her that even though the friendship is important, the break between you and her made things feel a bit weird about the presents. I had the exact same happen to me too.