Christmas is almost upon us. Have you finished all your shopping? Don’t worry, it’s still not too late. Why not try one of these last minute ideas for that hard-to-buy-for person on your Christmas list?
- Give a charitable gift in your recipient’s name. Through World Vision’s Gift Catalog, you can purchase various items which will be sent to Third World countries, including seeds, livestock, Bibles, mosquito netting, and educational supplies.
- Buy your favorite coffee drinker a Starbuck’s gift card. If they register the card online with Starbucks.com they’ll get a free beverage on their birthday. If they use their card at least 5 times they’ll receive all kinds of rewards, including 2 hours of free Wi-Fi daily, free refills on brewed coffee, free beverage customization (like syrup and milk options) and a free tall beverage with the purchase of whole beans. Package the gift card inside a coffee cup.
- Amazon gift cards are customizable and can be sent via email for immediate delivery. The recipient can purchase anything from toys to books to music or video game downloads from Amazon’s online store.
- Pre-load an SD card with old family photos and give it to your parents along with a digital photo frame. We made these for our parents one year and it was a huge hit.
- Walmart One Hour has some gifts available with their 1 hour service, including photo books. If you have a little more time, you can custom-make your own calendar online. Sites such as Walmart.com allow you to upload personal photos and add customizable dates (like those birthdays you are always forgetting!). They’ll print it all on a high quality calendar and send it to you in the mail.
- Try Page’s idea of wrapping candy bars in crisp dollar bills for your favorite teen.
- Last year Dawn Hays shared several inexpensive, themed gift basket ideas. You can read about them all right here.
- Gift certificates to a local movie theater, restaurant, theater show or sporting event make a fun gift. One year I bought concert tickets for myself and my husband, even though the concert was over a year away. He loved it. Another year I purchased one lesson with a golf pro for the two of us to share. It was lots of fun, even though we had never played golf before.
- Make homemade mixes that can be transformed into yummy treats later, when the holiday season is past. Gifts in a jar are economical and fun to make in bulk for teachers, neighbors and friends and can be filled with a variety of mixes, including hot chocolate, cookie, cake and soup mixes.
- If the recipient is a woman, you can rarely go wrong with high quality chocolate, candles, nice lotions or other beauty products, stationery and stamps, a plant or a nice kitchen gadget.
- Do you have a special skill you can share? Offer your friend a blog makeover, a few hours of babysitting, or a quilting lesson. The possibilities are as unique as you are! Use cardstock and embellishments to create a coupon describing your gift.
- A friend who likes cooking or decorating may enjoy a magazine subscription. Devotional magazines are also a good choice. Purchase the current edition of the magazine and wrap it up with a note, letting your friend know their subscription will begin in the new year.
- Here are some great last minute stocking stuffer ideas.
- Do you prefer giving homemade gifts? This list of homemade stocking stuffers includes lots of links for directions and recipes. Here’s another article with great ideas for homemade gift items.
About Molly Evert
Writer Molly Evert is a wife and homeschooling mom to 6 kids, who range in age from 2 to 18. She runs an educational website, My Audio School (http://www.myaudioschool.com), providing access to the best in children's audio literature. She also blogs at CounterCultural Mom (http://www.counterculturalmom.com) and CounterCultural School (http://www.counterculturalschool.com).
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