Racking your brain about holiday gifts?
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Here are some questions to ask yourself to find the perfect gifts, even if you’re trying to ball on a budget!
Individual or Group?
Do you intend on buying gifts individually, knocking them all out at once, or both? If you’re buying gifts one by one, it’s sometimes easier to make each gift special for each person. But, if you want to do a group gift, it can be hard to find something that is cheap yet still special for each person.
One way to get around this is to buy personalized gifts. You can find a plethora of gifts to fit almost any kind of friend group on sites such as Etsy, and you can even kick it up a notch by asking for each item to be personalized for each person you want to give it to. Whether it’s their name, a quote, or various colors, personalizing is a pretty cool way to gift, even for larger groups of people.
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What do you have in common?
How did you develop a relationship? Do you bond over anything in particular? Do you both enjoy (or even have a similar distaste) for something? There are so many ideas that can be generated through brainstorming things you might have in common. If you both love Lord of the Rings, geek out and get some LOTR-themed gifts. If you were in the same class together and wrote enough notes to rewrite the textbook, buy them a unique notebook that they would like and write a note in it to make them chuckle.
What have they said?
Thinking back to the past few weeks, months, maybe even years, what have they mentioned wanting? Perhaps they’ve just been wanting a new top, a new video game, or even a service like a massage. This is a pretty direct and straight-forward way to think up what gift to get.
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What have you noticed?
If you can’t think of anything they’ve directly said, perhaps you’ve noticed something. Have they been needing to replace their backpack that’s been falling apart since 11th grade? Are they from the west coast and attend college in the east coast without a real jacket?
Or maybe it’s something you’ve noticed they really like. Maybe they have a habit of drinking coffee every morning before leaving the house; you could get them a new travel mug, or nice holiday flavored beans. Maybe they love cooking; you could get them their own cutting board, personalized with their name (see above).
What is your price range?
One of the most important things to consider is, of course, your price range. You may want to consider this before you begin shopping, and allot a certain amount for each person you want to get a present for. Although it may seem like unique gifts must be expensive, it’s truly the thought that you put into it that they’ll appreciate in this holiday season.
If you want to go really cheap, perhaps you could go for something like food. Whether you bake it yourself or buy it in store, getting them their favorite food or holiday-themed pastry will make their day. Or, while you’re online shopping, scale the price ranges up or down to your budget so you can more easily find gifts that best suit you and your price point.
I hope you enjoy holiday gifting as much as I do!
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Cover image source: Pexels