Year after year, holiday after holiday, the same old problem occurs. It seems like every time the holidays approach, the harder it is to buy someone a gift, and quite frankly, it’s awful!
I can never for the life of me figure out what Christmas/holiday presents to get for my friends and family. Let’s face it: we’re not made out of money (even though I really wish it were true). Nonetheless, having such great people in your life makes them worthy of getting wonderful presents.
Here are a few reasonably priced gifts, varying from something classy and comfy to DIYs!
Gift basket
Gift baskets are wonderful! They’re a bunch of little gifts, making up one big gift. Gift baskets can fall under many themes as well. There are self-care gift baskets, movie night gift baskets, and since the holidays are around the corner, a Christmas gift basket!
To stay true to the holiday season, here a few ideas on what to include in a Christmas gift basket. First pff, everyone loves candles and Bath and Body works is always having promotions. Walmart has great smelling candles as well, and if you’re looking for something that also smells Christmassy, there are vanilla scented and apple pie scented options, among others! These are all usually under ten dollars.
Something else to add to a gift basket is hot chocolate and marshmallows. There’s nothing like coming home from the biting cold to a nice warm cup of hot chocolate. Hot chocolate packages or a hot chocolate tin container can be found at any grocery store for less than five dollars. Hot chocolate can be replaced with coffee and/or tea, whichever one your gift recipient prefers.
The next best gift basket is focused on self-care. In this you, can include face masks (my favourites are the Garnier sheet masks and the Freeman face masks – both of which are less than five dollars), slippers (try Ardene) and some chocolate or candy, because we all know candy is beneficial to our well-being.
DIY
The next gift idea is a DIY (Do It Yourself! DIYs are fun and exciting to make. Here are a few ideas:
A DIY doesn’t necessarily have to be an object. You can give your family and friends some homemade treats, like rice krispy treats decorated in Christmas colours, cupcakes, or even homemade toffee and cookies!
If your friends aren’t snackers, another option is the perfect knit scarf or blanket. For those of us who don’t know how to knit with needles, there is an easy alternative and it is called arm knitting! You can find yarn from Michaels or any craft or fabric store, and at a reasonable price too. And with that, you can arm knit a beautiful blanket or a scarf. To learn how to arm knit, you can find a bunch of tutorials on YouTube.
You can also buy gift mugs or any other chinaware and decorate them yourself. All you need are some Sharpies, rubbing alcohol, glitter, and Mod Podge, depending on how you plan to decorate. For a glitter mug, you coat the mug with Mod Podge, add glitter over top in whatever design you like, and then apply another coat of Podge on top to seal in the glitter. For the Sharpie alternative, draw your design on the mug, let it dry for a few hours and bake it in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes. The last design is with a Sharpie and rubbing alcohol. Make sure your mug is nice and clean, draw on your design with the Sharpie, and drop rubbing alcohol over top. Baking instructions are the same as above. More DIY ideas can be found on Pinterest.
Easy
The last set of gift ideas are for those of us who prefer a ready-made gift, rather than something made by hand.
Amazon constantly has deals on the website and looking through categories, you’re bound to find something cute, cool and practical at a reasonable price. I recently bought a stuffed toy and an LED, Bluetooth nightlight, both under $20.
Another gift idea I came to find is a customized whiskey glass. It’s classy and cute with the added bonus of being customizeable. Here is a link of a customized whiskey glass. Although it is a wedding website, it does not necessarily have to follow in that theme. The glass is only $9.99! It wouldn’t hurt to get some liquor to accompany the glass.
Make-up is also a good gift for the creative people in your life. For cheaper options that still maintain good quality, try your local drug store and look for E.L.F., wet n’ wild, NYX, or L’Oreal. To get something a bit pricier, try Sephora, which has great brands such as Urban Decay, Milk and Benefit.
A pajama set is another thing you can never go wrong with! Hudson’s Bay has a variety of pajama sets ranging from $20+, and the store has many promotions and one-day sales so keep a lookout.
For handmade and unique Christmas gifts, Etsy has many beautiful, delicate and intricate items. Some of their items can get pricey with shipping fees and the quality and design of the items, but reasonably priced items are also available such as jewelry.
Christmas gift shopping can be a hassle so I hope this was enough to inspire you to go out and find what you were looking for!