4 Ways to Make Your Holiday Gifts Extra Special for 2020
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It’s been a weird year. But before we wrap it up and put it in the rearview we get to go through the annual tradition of exchanging gifts with the people we love.
But, for many of us, celebrations are going to look a lot different this year. When you can’t gather together it feels even more important to get the gift part “just right”. So we’ve come up with a few ideas to give meaningful gifts that can make you feel closer to friends and family, even if you’re far apart.
Personalized Momentos
From name jewelry to engraved home decor, personalization is a staple of gift-giving that offers something unique and shows you went the extra mile. But in a year characterized by social distance personalization can also help remind someone of people and places they miss.
Photo gifts are a tried-and-true option for doing just that. Custom canvas prints are a great way to take a picture from last year’s family vacation and turn it into wall art. Maybe you had to cancel this year’s trip, but a daily reminder of the fun you’ve had before can become something to look forward to.
If you can’t take the kids to visit their grandparents, photo gifts are a way they can be there all the time. Whether it’s canvas, a mug a blanket, a calendar, or something else entirely, it’s a chance to see someone every day, even if it’s not in-person.
MultI-Month Subscriptions
We tend to think of the holiday gift exchange as limited to a day or a handful of days giving and receiving. But if you can’t be together, it may feel a little less “special” than usual. Subscriptions gifts are a great way to extend the gifting for multiple months.
With a subscription, the recipient will be reminded of you every time they receive a new shipment and the types of gifts you can send are diverse enough for every hobby and taste. Know a talented home cook? SteakChop is a monthly shipment of fine-dining quality beef, chicken, and seafood. Got a coffee-lover in the family? VitaCup turns their morning coffee into a daily kick-start infused with vitamins and superfoods. A reoccurring flower delivery from EnjoyFlowers can brighten someone’s home every month, even when your face can’t.
Staying apart may be taking some of the usual joy out of the season, and maybe a subscription gift can’t replace that, but it is a way to keep saying “I love you” over and over until you can see them again.
Shared Experiences
People love experience gifts. A survey by Eventbrite found that “63% of U.S. adults (ages 18 – 65+) would prefer to receive an experience gift than a material gift”. In fairness, the survey was done BP (Before Pandemic) but in a year where experiences are more limited than ever, it might be even MORE important to have them. So gifts that help people have experiences, or even better, shared experiences safely from home can help make this year’s present extra special.
Virtual meeting platforms like Zoom, FaceTime and Google Hangouts give us the chance to “see” each other for a drink or a catch-up session. But they may not always make us feel like we’re really doing something together. But there are options for activities that can help foster that feeling of sharing an experience.
With a couple of subscriptions to Kindle Unlimited or Audiobooks for people who never sit still, you’ll have everything you need for a virtual book club. Add a little sophistication to your Zoom happy hour with 2 boxes of by-the-glass wines so you can share a tasting experience together, but apart.
Get a workout with people you love without going to the gym using Openfit or Livekick and take the same virtual classes. Sign up for Pimsleur as a group and study the same language and turn hangouts into practice sessions. Take this to the next level and start planning a trip in the future where you can all use your new language skills.
Miss sharing meals? Pick-up meal subscriptions for multiple households from EveryPlate and order the same recipes so you can cook together virtually. Or cook separately and sign-on after dinner to compare notes. Either way, it’s a chance to eat together across the distance.
Maybe it’s not dinner and a movie, a massage, or a spa day, but it is a chance to do something together. And no, it’s not really the same as a joyful party or Christmas breakfast but it’s a chance to share an experience with friends and family that will make you feel closer than you are.
Health Boosters
On the list of things, this year has brought into focus, health care is pretty close to the top. Whether it’s thinking about your own health or worrying about someone else, we’ve all probably put more thought than usual into what it means to stay healthy mentally and physically. So health-related gifts are on-theme for 2020. In fairness, a zombie apocalypse would be on-theme for 2020, but let’s stick to the positive.
There are tons of ways to give gifts that can help people with various aspects of their health. Like a workout streaming subscriptions for active exercisers or personalized daily vitamin packs that can replace someone’s generic multi-vitamin.
For a major lifestyle impact, give someone a subscription to Noom to help them build healthy habits, sign up both of you and go on a fitness journey together. Or help someone get answers to important health questions with a home health test.
If you want to keep it simple, you can improve the quality of someone’s daily life with little things. Help someone get better sleep with an adjustable pillow or weighted blanket. Give an air purifier or a water purifier to make basic survival essentials even healthier. You can also give someone a gift that keeps their fur babies healthy with fresh food and treats for dogs and cats.
Health-related gifts are a great way to tell people you love that you care about them, and you want them to stay safe and well until you can be together again.
There’s no replacing the things we’ve missed out on in 2020. But that doesn’t mean we can’t still enjoy spending time together, even if it’s just online. As you finish up your holiday shopping, keep an eye out for gifts like these that are more than just a “thing” and instead create opportunities to make meaningful memories.
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