Start Early (avoid lines, avoid rushing, avoid chaos!)
Plan Ahead (always have a list, always have a plan, kind of like grocery shopping)
Have Backup Ideas Ready (make a second list of backup idea, a few general ideas that could work for almost anyone - see below for my backup list)
Hit the Sales (buy right after Xmas, or way before, or if your gift ideas are non-holiday-related buy them whenever they're on sale throughout the year)
Make a Day of it (if you have to buy for 20 people, plan a day at the mall or outlets with some friends, this way it's more fun and less grueling)
Avoid Weekends (if you can, try to take a day off here and there to shop so that you can avoid going to shopping centers on the weekends, when they're more likely to be insanely busy)
Okay, so those are my general tricks about holiday shopping. Now I'll give you some specific ideas for gifts that you can use for almost anyone. These gift ideas work for co-workers, family members, and friends.
Gift Baskets:
- Winter Theme - include all of your favorite winter things (I got this idea from an old roommate). I included hot cocoa, warm slippers or wool socks, a warm scarf, a good book, a holiday ornament and a mix CD of winter songs I had made. But I have endless variations of this, as the first Winter Basket series I put together was for a group of small families, and then last Xmas we sent a basket like this to my in-laws. So the basket we sent to my in-laws included more holiday toys and ornaments, a winter-scented candle, and a couple of other small gifts that tied in. That's what's so great about gift baskets, they can be any size you want.
- Holiday Theme - a variation on the winter theme. This basket includes everything holiday-related you can find, socks, a CD, an ornament, a tapestry or advent calendar, a book, anything and everything. Our family Secret Santa usually has a $50 limit, so I try to work within that range when putting together gift baskets. Though I have put together $20 gift baskets for Secret Santas at work, and I just downsize my original idea.
- Music, Art, or Poetry Theme - I am a poet, and I have a large contingency of musicians, artists and writers in my group of friends. These gift baskets work well even for birthdays. I gave a friend who was about to return to art school a Painting Themed Gift Basket for her birthday and she cried tears of joy as she unwrapped it. Most art supply stores like Pearl, etc. have everything you could need for an Art basket. A poetry basket is easy to put together starting in a bookstore. For Art, I usually include a sketchbook and charcoals for sure, and sometimes some brushes and pencils and even once, small tubes of Gouache paint. For Poetry/Writing, I usually include a journal, a book or two, and a nice pen or set of pens. Sometimes I include a gift card to a bookstore or a gift made out of re-used magazines (a small hanging mirror framed with re-used magazine beads was my favorite). For Music, I usually include an iTunes gift card, a CD or two (or a few used records, depending on who the gift is for), and one time I included these awesome coasters I found that were made out of re-used records.
- Book-Lovers - this is kind of a variation on the Poetry/Writing theme. I have a friend whose a librarian whose birthday & holiday gifts have always been (and probably will always be) variations of this theme. I usually include a book (for her, a first edition bought online at ABEBooks.com) or two or three, a gift card to a bookstore, and a set of either handcrafted or beautifully made bookmarks. I have included book-themed journals, magazines, a hollow book, bookends, and even once I took her to a book-signing as a part of her gift.
- Coffee or Tea-Lovers - these are so much fun to put together! I love coffee myself, and my mother loves tea, so I have created many versions of this theme throughout the years. For coffee lovers, I usually include a pound or two of really amazing coffee (locally roasted, organic, fair trade, micro-roasted, etc.), a gift card to a coffee shop (I'm blessed to live in an area with many small coffee shops I can choose from instead of just Starbucks, but Starbucks is a great idea for someone who lives far away because Starbucks is everywhere). I also usually include a large mug (or I buy he/she espresso and then include espresso mugs). Sometimes I include one of those gourmet sweet spoons you can mix into coffee, sometimes I include a small French press, and sometimes I include lots of bags of coffee and not much else. For tea lovers, I also usually have a mug, and a gift card (Teavana is a great tea store, and you can buy from them online). I also include tea, always, whether it be boxed and individually bagged, or a bunch of looseleaf tea (if it's looseleaf, I usually include tea-sacs to go with it, or a tea ball, or a small looseleaf teapot). A nice companion to tea is a really awesome sweetener (this could work for coffee, too, depending), like a jar of local honey or a container of organic stevia, agave, or raw sugar. You can also include a tea party in your gift basket, simply write out an invitation and plan to have he/she over for tea.
- Fashion(ista) Theme - for people who love clothes and accessories. I have one friend who will not give herself license to buy herself expensive clothes and accessories, but she loves fashion magazines, leafing through them and dreaming she could afford designer handbags. So one year a bunch of us pitched in and put together a selection of designer apparel for her that she will always treasure. Since then, I have modified this idea into a generic fashion gift basket which can work for almost anyone. I include mostly accessories, things like scarves and belts and headbands, but if I know the person well enough to guesstimate his/her size, I'll go out on a limb and buy him/her a shirt or a sweater, something that looks like it will fit between sizes. I live in the NYC metro area, so I have just as many male friends as female who are into fashion, like most metropolitan areas, and my male fashion-forward friends love it when I give them fashion-related gifts. I also usually include either a copy of a fashion magazine, or, if it's a big present, a year subscirption to one. Vogue is my favorite for female gifts and GQ is my favorite for male gifts.
- Four Seasons Theme - a year-round variation of the Winter theme. Two years in a row, I drew the same name for my family's Secret Santa. The first year I had given her and her partner a Winter theme gift basket, and she had loved it so much I wasn't sure I could top it. So I came up with the idea of the Four Seasons gift basket(s). For that special gift, I gave her four individual gift basets, one for each season, and I included variations on the winter idea.
- Summer: I included gourmet iced tea packages (Tazo makes great iced tea as well as hot), a funky ice tray from Ikea (that one was shaped like arrows, but they have them in all sorts of shapes), a set of beautiful plastic tall cups she could use on the patio, and a box of those silly drink umbrellas. I have since put together variations of the Summer basket for birthdays and other holidays that included outdoor placemats or tablecloths, a beach towel or two, a straw beach bag (I once wrapped a Summer-themed gift in a giant straw beach bag instead of a basket and it was gorgeous!). I have a few friends who go to New England every summer (we travel to either Maine, Vermont, or Martha's Vineyard most summers to avoid the heat), and I usually include something specific to their locale in their baskets, like saltwater taffy from the Vineyard, or a lighthouse candleholder for people who go to Maine. For our friends who travel down the shore, I usually include a different selection, such as a beautiful glass bottle to fill with sand and small seashells, or a nice large throw blanket for the sand.
- Fall: Mulling spices are a definite for this basket, as well as a leaf-inspired frame for an Autumn Family photo. A couple of years ago I helped teach underprivileged children arts and crafts at a summer camp and we made branch and leaf drawings with them, glued onto paper. I took this idea home and created a few beautiful plastic frames with silk leaves and tree branches glued onto the edges. These won't last forever, of course, but they made beautiful gifts for a few friends who were in need of presents. Another idea I've used is to buy a simple frame and press newly-fallen leaves into the space, instead of giving it to him/her filled with a photo or one of those fake photos they come with, a few pressed leaves can help tell someone you care. Autumn scented candles are fantastic-smelling (my favorite is pumpkin spice), and you can buy a candleholder to match. A variation on the mulling spices idea is to buy a bottle of wine and included mulling spices which can be used to mull wine.
- Winter: See the top of this post for Winter Ideas.
- Spring: This is my favorite season, as I adore flowers, so most of my Spring baskets have been heavy on the flower inclusion. My favorite way to include flowers, though, is to include either a gift certificate to a local florist or to buy a year's worth of floral deliveries for the person. I went to a bridal shower last spring and we gave her a Spring basket. We included a year's worth of floral deliveries from a local florist (all written and packaged in a small box), a gorgeous Belleek vase filled with flowers, and a matching frame filled with pressed flowers. A variation on the flower theme is to include floral designs, such as a floral-printed silk scarf and a floral design silver necklace. For the Secret Santa Four Seasons gift, I included a set of floral-printed linen napkins and ceramic floral napkin-holders (my family is very "green," so we always use cloth napkins, and they make a great simple gift for any season and in any print). I also included a watering can for her flowers, it was a Smith & Hawken watering can shaped like a flying pig, and she's had it proudly displayed in her house ever since!
- Four Seasons, cont.: If you want to make one gift basket for all Four Seasons, I suggest buying items that are similar, such as four sets of items for the Home, like a Spring candle and candleholder, Autumn cloth napkins and napkin-holders, a Summer beach towel, and a Winter holiday ornament.
- Foodie Theme - for those who love food in all its forms. This basket can suit just about anyone, and you can buy these goods at any time of year. I'm blessed that my town has a Farmer's Market for the majority of the year, so I don't have to go far to put together a basket of goodies for anyone, but I still stock up and keep these items on hand just in case I have a birthday dinner to go to and I forgot a gift, or some such gift emergency arises. Food is a great gift for the holidays especially because so much of it is being eaten, and the person receiving this gift will be grateful that she/he doesn't have to buy these things yet again. I like to bring these baskets to the hosts of holiday parties every season, and it's great to see gratitude mixed with relief on a host's face as I hand her/him a basket full of food. The items I almost always include are: crackers, jam, cheese, artisan bread, fancy nuts, and either wine or sparkling mineral water. I have included paper napkins in some baskets, and I have included jars of stuffed olives or gourmet mustard in some. This basket is so flexible that it can fit almost anyone, and it can be ready at a moment's notice, which is why I give them out so much!
- Wine Theme - a variation for the wine-lovers. I usually include two bottles, one white and one read (unless the person only likes red, like my father), a fancy wine opener or pouring contraption (most department stores carry tons of wine "toys"), a novelty cork top, and a wine glass or two. I made a larger version of this basket for a Jack and Jill bridal shower once and included two bottles of wine and a bottle of champagne, a champagne bucket, a novelty ice tray, a set of four wine glasses, and a fancy bottle opener. The couple loved it more than I could have hoped for, and now all my friends are hoping to get one, too!
- Local Theme - I have some family members and friends who are very partial to where they live. They think that the place they have chosen to reside is the best place in the world, and they won't stop until they convince you to move there, too. Examples include Asheville, NC, Athens, GA, and, of course, New York, NY. I started putting together local baskets a few years ago for some friends in Athens, GA, who still believe it to be the only place to live. I gathered local food, beer, and crafts from a bunch of different shops in the city, and I put together a beautiful basket for them which they will remember forever. I even wrote them a card which read, "Your city is truly a wonderful place to be. Enjoy these gifts from the city to you." This type of basket can be done anywhere. I am currently putting together a Martha's Vineyard basket for an aunt and uncle who recently retired there, and, of course, think it is the only place to retire. People are very attached to where they live (or where they vacation, which can work also), and so they love receiving gifts which show that you are paying attention to their adoration of their locale. Find some local artisans, whether it be craft beer, micro-roasted coffee, homemade bread, pottery or jewelry, and put together a basket which proves to your friends or family that you love them as much as they love where they live. You can order almost anything online now, and tons of local artists and artisans have shops on Etsy.com, so don't think you can't put these together from afar.
These are all my gift basket ideas so far. My next post will be about handcrafted ideas for gifts, so stay tuned! Feel free to comment below and let me know what you think, or add to my list of gift basket ideas.
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