Christmas Gift Ideas!

🎵🎵It’s the most expensive time of the year🎵🎵

          Hello! I hope you're doing well. Before I start this post, I just want to thank everyone who’s been reading some or all of my blog posts so far! Your likes and comments mean a lot. If you’re reading my blog but haven’t told me about it, please do! You have no idea how much it means to me when someone comes up to me and tells me they enjoy reading my posts. 

            Today I’m going to provide some gift giving ideas because I love gift giving so I thought I’d share some of my ideas with people who are drawing blanks this year. 

            I feel very lucky every Christmas season because I have quite a few people to buy for and I’m very happy that I have so many great people around me to give gifts to. It’s worth every cent to have good people who love and care for me.

            My biggest tip I’ll share is that I make a little note on my phone and I list the names of everyone I have to buy for. Then beside each name, I put a budget which varies from person to person. That's just easier for me to keep track of what I want to spend and stay within a reasonable budget.

            The next thing I do is list everything that I think each individual person would enjoy. If I have a price for each item, I add that beside it.

            For the next few weeks I’ll be adding and subtracting to this list on a daily basis. I basically spend every waking minute thinking about things everyone would like. It’s also this time of the year that I can be caught sitting alone in silence and all of sudden shoot up and scream “MOM WOULD LOVE THAT” before I frantically add my idea to the master list. 

            My list layout is just something that keeps me organized and makes the busy holiday season a little bit easier. I obviously do spontaneously buy things while shopping that I didn’t plan to buy someone, but I always add it to the list later to keep myself on track. 

            Now I’m going to share some bullet point ideas of Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Festivus gifts for your friends and family.

       

For the Makeup Lover

            If you know someone who’s into makeup, consider giving them a gift of essentials. The only key here is to not buy anything made for specific skin tones (aka foundation or concealer). 

·     Mascara

·     Setting spray

·     Highlighter (Becca Champagne pop if you want to splurge!)

·     Eyeshadow palette 

·     A nice lipstick

·     Face spray (not mentioned in my previous posts but this is a good one)

·     Blending sponge

If you want specific ideas, feel free to check out my top faves post here and here.

For the Skin Care Queen

            If you have someone who’s big into taking care of their skin, then consider putting together a gift with key skin care items. Again, you’ll want to be careful of buying items made for specific skin types (like oily or dry skin).

·     Face mask (either sheet or clay mask or both!)

·     Face cream

·     Eye cream

·     Lip balm

·     Treatment for lips/hands/feet/other body part

·     Face spray 

·     Face toner (I swear by this one)

·     Face oil (this one is my life)

This just made me consider writing an entire post on my fave skincare products….

For the Body Conscious Pal 

            This can be combined with the skin care stuff but these are also some great things to make a whole gift with. 

·     Body lotion

·     Body scrub

·     Hand cream

·     Foot cream with fuzzy socks (for a deep treatment experience)

·     Nail polish (can also branch into a manicure/pedicure set)

·     Body wash and a loofah 

·     Body spray

For the Hair Care Gal

            This is a nice idea for someone who dyes their hair often or generally cares for their hair. This is also a nice list of things that everyone uses and would help them if you know they can't splurge for themselves on stuff like this.

·     Shampoo (a "boujee" one or a good purple shampoo for someone blonde)

·     Conditioner (go boujee or go home)

·     Hair mask 

·     Hair oil

·     Leave in conditioner

·     Hairspray

·     Hair treatment (such as a pre-styling spray)

·     Hair brush (one of those cool detangling ones!)

For the Tea Lover

            As I write this, I’m starting to wonder if I’m just writing lists of things I want because so far I am all of the people I’ve listed. Once again, as someone who loves tea, getting more tea and tea ware is a dream come true. 

·     Loose tea or a premade sample kit (David’s Tea will always be the best)

·     A pack of tea bags or an infuser  

·     A cute mug 

·     Matcha (I recommend this one)

·     A matcha kit (I’d say only if you know they like matcha already or you think they will like it)

·     A travel mug 

The only thing missing from this list that is required to make tea is water. Please do not include water in your gift. That would be really weird. 

For the Coffee Lover 

            This kind of goes hand in hand with the tea lover. But if there’s anything I’ve learned in life, it’s that tea lovers and coffee lovers have two completely different personalities…

·     Coffee (a nice flavoured one, something someone wouldn’t buy for themselves) 

·     A nice big mug 

·     Coffee-Mate powder (if you don’t like Coffee-Mate that’s your opinion but you’re wrong)

·     A flavoured syrup (vanilla or hazelnut is probably the safest option for personal preferences) 

·     A fancy stirring spoon (because why not?)

·     A milk frother (if it’s in your budget $$$ or you really like the gift receiver)

·      I want to include instant coffee in this list but it’s disgusting and you might as well give them coal. It would taste about the same. 

Once again, you do not need to supply the water. Or the milk. 

For the Baker

            I’m really making this whole post about myself I think. Oh well. If you know someone who likes baking or is trying to get into it, considering buying them some items from this list.

·     A cupcake pan (with silicone cupcake liners!)

·     A Bundt cake pan, loaf pan, or brownie pan 

·     Piping bags and a set of tips 

·     A baking cookbook 

·     Cookie cutters 

·     Measuring cups 

·     A cute apron 

·     A spatula, whisk, and rolling pin 

For your friend who talks about wine a lot more than necessary

            We all have one.

·     A bottle of good wine (or two)

·     A wine glass set (one with a funny saying that maybe hints at the fact that you’re concerned about how much wine your friend drinks)

·     A really nice wine stopper (as if they’ll even open the bottle and not finish it)

·     Wine glass markers (even though your friend probably doesn’t share their wine)

·     A cheese board 

·     Crackers and snacks (for when the bottle finishes and they have the munchies)

You could consider buying grapes and cheese but it goes without saying to probably not leave those wrapped in the bag for days….

            It will probably be no surprise that I actually made a note on my phone with all of things I thought I should include in this list. There are still some miscellaneous items that weren’t part of the categories I listed but are still nice things to add to gifts for more substance or variety.

·     A candle (or two or three or seven)

·     Chocolates or candy (or both!)

·     A calendar (for the coming year…..duh)

·     Pens and pencils (or both!)

·     A notebook (I can’t tell you how many people buy me notebooks because they know I’m a writer but I don’t have the heart to tell them I haven’t written my thoughts onto paper since 2003)

·     Homemade food (I always include homemade cookies in my gifts because I’m a housewife apparently) 

·     Christmas themed socks

·     A scarf or pair of gloves (or…..both!)

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           Thank you for reading this very festive post! 

            If you have any good gift ideas you’d like to share, feel free to comment them below. 

            I also wanted to add that any of these gifts could be put into a decorative basket with ribbons and cellophane rather than just throwing them into a bag. It’s a nice way to display your items. 

            I hope that this gave you some ideas and alleviated some of the stress of holiday gift giving this year. I know that when life is hectic it’s hard to sit down and think about what to give all of the people around you. But everyone deserves something special to open on Christmas morning.

            Hopefully my ideas sparked some thoughts for you!

            Thanks for reading and happy hohoholidays.