This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at U Penn chapter.
1. You may not need to go shopping at all. Some people love homemade gifts: especially parents and grandparents. The thing that matters most about gift giving is thoughtfulness. Putting in the effort necessary for personally made presents signals to the recipient that you care about them. It will certainly mean more than a gift card or some other generic store bought gift. Your handmade item may be worth less monetarily, but it will be extremely valuable to its owner. Need ideas? Knit a hat or scarf, make a mix tape or CD, or even put together a scrapbook of your time together.
2. Do it early. Waiting until the last minute is always tempting. We are college students, and thus are professional procrastinators. Regardless, waiting the week before Christmas to shop will be nothing but fruitless and frustrating. Every year without fail, most people find themselves in need of last minute shopping. The lines are out of the store and the shelves are picked over or bare. Guess what? We live in the 21st century. You can shop online. From inside, on your couch, in your pajamas, you can buy gifts for every member of your family and circle of friends. This, however, also requires forethought. Shipping around Christmas takes longer than usual, if you don’t order it a couple of weeks in advance, there are no guarantees you’ll be able to gift it in time.
3. Make a list before you go. If you head out thinking that you’ll just browse your way into finding the perfect gifts for all fifteen people on your list, you are kidding yourself. Browsing for gifts is time consuming and can be done from home on your computer. Think about what your friends and family like or need, write it down, then go out and search for those items. You will save your self an abundance of time, and end up with much better gifts.