Confession time- with my crazy life right now, I have become a lazy gifter. Which is sad because I love receiving good gifts! I’m the girl 5 minutes before I have to leave the house pulling an old gift card out of my wallet and putting it in a card I happen to have in my closet. So I’ve become the worst (well, I guess that no gift would be worst, but you know). This year I decided to take the time and actually give good gifts. I’ve included some ideas for you and some prompts so you can figure out what your family and friends will love and be the best gift giver ever!
What makes a good gift?
Here are the characteristics of what I consider a good gift:
an item that the person really wants but they won’t splurge for.
My little sister is the best at this- she knows my favorite scent (which is expensive) and gave me the matching candle and hand cream. I would never buy this for myself, but I adore it! She’s given me Chanel lipstick, lunch at a fancy restaurant- things I am too cheap to buy on my own but love receiving.
an experience.
For my birthday, my mom took my sisters and I to see Lion King. I love going to the theater, but don’t budget it in (time or money wise), so this was a real treat! It was fun to go to the new venue in our city and dress up for a night out!
a reminder of your love for them.
This is something that whenever you look at it, you remember who you received this gift from and how much they love you. When we were first dating, my husband gave me the most beautiful jewelry. For every major holiday/anniversary he’d give me a ring or earrings that he picked out from our favorite jeweler. I still wear the pieces to this day and I am brought back 10+ years and remember all we’ve been through.
a risk.
There are safe gifts out there- flowers, chocolates, gift cards. But the real gifts we remember were risks taken by the giver. They spent time and money and gave outside of the normal gifting ideas. This could be any item that you aren’t sure how it will be received. It could go amazing or amazingly wrong. Either way, it’ll be remembered. One time I had my wallet stolen from me. I was super poor and was so sad that I’d never get the $100 that was taken from me. I told my mom all about it and later she surprised with giving me $100 in a card. It was so kind of her (I could just cry thinking about it), but it was a risk- what if I was offended? I still remember how much that meant to me.
a well researched gift.
Knowing your subject and figuring out what they’d love is key to this one. Pay attention to any hints when you’re spending time together (even subtle things like “isn’t this pretty?”). Do some research- check out their Pinterest boards, ask their significant other what they want. One of my favorite Christmas’s was when my husband bought all of the items on my Amazon “save for later” list. I didn’t even realize how much I wanted them until they were under the tree!
Taking these into account, I partnered up with Shutterfly and got our moms 4 personalized gifts
a photo book
This is hands down the gift I’m most excited about! My mom usually makes me photo books so I know she’ll appreciate the time it took to make and just love the photos! I decided to make a book of pictures of her and my son Don over the past two years. The most time consuming part with gathering the photos (and that only took about 30 minutes). Then it was really fun to put them into a book! I found the spring florals template which is just perfect for my mom- pink, florals, and touches of gold! I loved that there were ready templates, but that you could customize them too!
a custom mug
I adore this mug! It has pictures of all of the grandkids when Don was just a tiny baby! The gold handle ties it into the photo book and will be filled with chocolate (which you can get from Shutterfly too! Yay for one stop shopping)!
a framed print
This is a gift for my mother in law so I used my favorite photo of my husband reading to my son. Isn’t Don’s face just the cutest in that photo?! The frame is nice and thick and there were a bunch of color options. My mother in law doesn’t have any current pictures of my family so I think she’ll adore this!
a personalized candle
To finish off my husband’s mom’s gift, I got her a custom candle. I figure it will look pretty in her house, it smells amazing, and it’s personalized with her name! Win, win, win!
So there you have it- 5 ways to get you thinking about how to be the best gift giver ever and then actual gifts that will make your friends and family ridiculously happy! I officially want to go make a few more photo books now that I see how easy it is to get the prettiest finished product ever. What are you getting your family? I’d love to hear in the comments!
This blog post is sponsored by Shutterfly. All opinions are my own.