It’s officially the Holiday Season! If you’re struggling with ideas for gifts this year, we’ve got you covered:
When getting gifts for friends and family, it is always hard to strike the perfect balance of meaningful, useful, and not too expensive. I think homemade gifts get a bad rap, but they are some of my favorite gifts to give and receive. If you can knit or crochet, consider giving a homemade scarf or stuffed animal. If you are a skilled painter, a piece of your art is so meaningful and can be a great piece of dorm decor for a friend. If you don’t consider yourself very artistic, collect your favorite pictures of you and the person you are gifting to and create a scrapbook of memories. If you are getting a gift for someone who likes to read, annotating a favorite book for them can be super special. For a quick, non-homemade gift, I think you can’t go wrong with a disposable camera, something cozy like Warmies heating pad stuffed animals, a board game you could play together, or an Etsy mug related to one of their favorite things filled with a bag of coffee or hot chocolate.
- Caitlin Boyd ‘24
I love gift giving and presenting more personal items to my family and friends during the holiday season. If you’re looking to buy something, you can never go wrong with Old Navy Holiday Pajamas–they have the cutest holiday prints, good prices, and my friends and I love our matching sets (and now they’ve even added more options for pets)!
If you’re not super artistic but want to make something, here’s an idea: get a Bath & Body Works candle, which go on-sale practically every week, change the scent name and label to make a pun, or new name the recipient of your gift would appreciate, and then decorate the outside of the candle. I once changed the “Winter” scented candle to “Winter is Coming” and wrapped the outside of the glass in a Game of Thrones print, and changed the “Champagne Toast” (one of their best scents) to “Champagne Problems” and decorated the outside with Taylor Swift lyrics. I think giving a candle is practical and adding that personal touch makes it even more special.
And, if you want to get some small gifts or stocking stuffers, Redbubble always has a deal where you can get 10 stickers for 50% off. If you go for this bigger package, you can try to find a couple stickers per person, and go through the site’s infinite design options. There are stickers for song lyrics, movie and tv show quotes, artistic designs, specific colleges, names, and literally anything else you can think of!
- Maria Sell ‘23
For the holidays, I usually tend to get my friends and family members multiple smaller gifts. Anthropologie has a lot of cute candles, mugs, and jewelry at reasonable prices. I have been getting some ideas by viewing their “Gifts Under $25” section on the website. Last year, my sister got me a monogram mug from Anthropologie, and I use it every morning. They no longer sell the exact mug she gifted me, but I will link a similar one that is available on their website. Anthropologie also has very nice hair accessories. I am personally a fan of their claw clips–I got them for my sister last year and she wears them almost every day–you can get a pack of 3 for $24, which is a bit pricier but they are high quality, and I think they are a good splurge for a gift. If you are like me and like Anthropologie, but don’t always like the expensive prices, I recommend browsing some of their more affordable gift ideas for friends and family this holiday season.
- Sarah Hennig ‘24