One of my favorite parts of Christmas is picking out gifts for people. To be honest, I have more fun giving people gifts than receiving them. It's always a great feeling when someone opens your gift and you can tell they absolutely love it. So, I thought I'd share some of my tips for finding the perfect gift.
1. One easy way is to ask if they have an Amazon Wish List. Sean and I both have lists and throughout the year I add items to it and then let my Mom know so she can have a large number of items to look through and choose from.
2. Check out their boards on Pinterest (if they have one). A lot of people, like myself, have a board titled something like "Want to Buy". Or just browse some of their other boards, I also have a board that has all items I like on Etsy. Another added bonus is you can get a better idea of what things they like just by looking at their boards.
3. Speaking of Etsy, it's a great place for gifts. They have a whole page dedicated to gift ideas for anyone and everyone.
4. Really think about who you are buying for and what their interests, hobbies and obsessions are. Do they love their home/current state? Maybe a cute t-shirt or vintage map of their state would be appreciated. Are they obsessed with all things 80's or vintage toys? Browse Ebay and buy them the Lite Brite they never got as a child.
As a example for #4: My Dad has always lamented the fact that my Grandmother gave away his pedal car (which was a yellow dump-truck) when he was a child. Since vintage pedal cars are ridiculously expensive, I went a cheaper route. In the past, Hallmark dedicated a series to these pedal cars and had the exact car that my Dad had as a child.
When my Dad unwrapped his gift, he teared up. My Dad is not the crying type, so his reaction was unexpected, but I loved the fact that a gift brought back such great memories and emotions for him.
5. Holiday magazines always have tons of gift suggestions. It's one of my favorite parts of the holiday issues. In fact, just this year, I got two gift suggestions for people out of these magazines. In my opinion, Real Simple, Martha Stewart and Food Network Magazine are the best when it comes to these suggestions.
6. Make it personal with a photo gift. Over the years, I've made more than my share of photo gifts. I've made photo puzzles for my brother who loves puzzles, photo books about family trips for my mother, photo collage posters for friends and calendars for my grandmothers.
7. Maybe some kind of experience is more up their alley. This year for Christmas, I got my Mom and I tickets to go see the Nutcracker ballet. It's something we've talked about seeing for several years, so this year I thought it would be fun to do something together and would be a nice memory for us.
Do you have any suggestions or stories about finding the perfect gift?
My husband is OBSESSED with Mississippi State Bulldogs. I was shopping last week with a friend here at Fort Carson and saw this framed picture that has all this historical stuff related to Mississippi State. It's hard to explain but it's a really cool picture done by an artist who does it for sports teams... football, hockey, etc. Anyway, it's big, framed, and regularly sells for over 400 and I got it for 209. So of course I had to buy it. I can't wait to see his face when he opens it. It's going to look great right by our bar area in our house
ReplyDeleteSearching pinterest boards is so smart...thats what I did for two friends this year, and I think they will be really excited!!
ReplyDeleteMy son has a pedal car. It was a gift and we know just how expensive it is. I just have NO idea where I'll let him ride the thing... he'll dent my walls if it happens indoors! That thing is huge.
ReplyDeleteWhat a sweet present. So thoughtful.