Gift Ideas
This is the first year I had Christmas gifts planned and mostly bought by August! Most years I rack my brain for ideas on what to get the people in our life that we shop for. There’s so many options for everyone on your list!
Gift basket - Make a basket of their favorite things or a themed basket around something they love!
Homemade goodies - Is there anything better than a box of delicious holiday treats?! Don’t feel like you have to spend hundreds of dollars. Homemade candy and treats are a great gift and I love getting something someone put time and effort into making!
Handmade gifts - Candles, jar mixes, vanilla extract, body scrub, ornament, picture frames with an updated photo, and many others! Anything homemade is a special gift! Great for grandkids to give to grandparents.
Something they want, something they need, something to wear, something to read - This is a great idea if you are on a budget and wanting gifts in a variety. My husband and I did this one year and it was so fun!
Experiences - Now that I have a kid, I realize how great a gift like this is. However, you can gift experiences to men and women too!
Gift Baskets:
Coffee Lover - A mug, bag of coffee, coffee syrup, & coffee stirrers.
Plant Lover - A book on plants, an easy maintained plant or seeds, & gardening gloves.
Hot Tea - A couple bags or boxes of hot teas, honey, tea towel, and a teacup.
Cozy - Blanket, warm socks, hot cocoa mix and you could throw in a mug!
The Baker - Mixing bowl, oven mitt, spatula, baking mix (cookies, brownies, cake), and chocolate chips.
Men’s Baskets - You could do a golf theme, fishing theme, tools, or just a basket of things they love!
Handmade Gifts:
Homemade Vanilla Extract - We did these a couple years ago. All you need is vanilla beans, vodka, and pretty glass bottles. If you want to, you can add labels to them for added personalization.
Ornaments - Great gifts for kids to make for family members. Salt dough ornaments, picture ornaments, plastic or glass ornaments that you can put and fill or paint.
Jar Mixes - You can put homemade brownie or cake mix in a jar and layer with chocolate chips or do a smores jar for anyone that loves smores! You can make homemade seasonings for cooking or grilling! You could also do sugar scrubs or Epsom salt in small jars.
Picture Frame/Holder - This can be as simple as gifting an updated photo to a family member, or doing a DIY frame to put the updated photo in.
Experiences:
For kids - The zoo, an aquarium, a museum membership or day pass, water park, trampoline park, or maybe a gift certificate to see a movie they love that might be coming out. Anything they can make a memory out of! The great thing about experiences is that you can take them to that experience to make the memory with them, or gift it and let them decide when to cash in on that experience.
Ladies - Massage, manicure, pedicure, facial, gift cards to their favorite store or restaurant, cooking or painting class, or maybe an event or show that will be close to them in the next few months!
Men- Gift certificate to a shooting range, certificate or season pass to golf, Escape room, or a subscription box for their favorite thing!
There are so many options that we don’t always think of when we are under pressure to buy for many. Baskets are a great gift for holiday parties or close friends. Handmade gifts make great gifts for family members, friends, neighbors, or work colleagues! Experiences are great for kids or a loved one!
Did you know gifts are a love language? My husband loves receiving gifts, but he is also a GREAT gift giver because he loves to give gifts and pick something that the receiver will love. However, for those that don’t buy because it’s their love language and only because of the social obligation, I see you. I am ashamed to say we have gone into debt around Christmas time in the past just because of the pressure we felt to give even when we didn’t have the extra money to do so. After we had our son two years ago, we decided that we would do what we could, but we refused to go into debt just because someone was able to buy more extravagant gifts than we could. That means we don’t always participate in gift giving for all holiday parties and stick to buying for our son and close family members. This year I found our son’s big gift at a flea market for less than half of the original price! It was in great condition and only needed the dust wiped off of it.
While you will see me sharing gift guides and sales for things that would make great gifts, that does not mean you have to feel obligated to purchase them. I share them because when I have a budget for things like Christmas gifts, I want to get the best deal for something I am buying as a gift. I want you to get that great deal too!
