I pride myself on being an early-in-the-season shopper every year, but inevitably there are 1-3 people I just haven’t found the right thing for yet (or totally forgot to get something for.) By this point I usually just want to run out and buy something IRL that doesn’t require me to take my chances with shipping.
Let’s talk about gift cards. Last year I asked everyone on Instagram if they liked receiving gift cards or felt like it was impersonal, and it ended up being about a 50/50 split. I’m on Team Gift Card—I’ve been told I’m hard to buy for (who, me?) and I also love to shop with money that isn’t my own, so it’s a win-win. But I totally understand that not everyone feels the same way I do! It can feel like an afterthought, or like you’re just throwing money at the giftee versus spending the time thinking about what they might like.
If I *am* getting a gift card for someone, a lot of times I’ll buy a little something I can gift with it (ie. a book along with a gift card to a bookstore) or I’ll design something cute to print and wrap. Especially if it’s an electronic gift card that will be delivered to their email, it’s nice to come up with something physical that they can open. You can get creative with it: one time, a friend gave me a gift card to my favorite coffee shop and put it in one of their to-go cups, then wrapped that. It was fun to open, I could tell she put thought into it, and it was to a place she knows I love. Nothing impersonal about that!
But that’s just the start. I’ve thought long and hard about gifts for procrastinators that are just as special as anything else, and really, I think we should ease up on everyone in general. The holidays are busy, there’s a lot going on, and not everyone has the time or energy or money to make every gifting opportunity a full blown quest. So I’ve included a range of price points and levels of effort below!
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