The Perfect Gift Guide for Christmas Shopping This Year

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I know Thanksgiving hasn’t passed us by yet, but one of my favorite things to do around Thanksgiving week is begin to make my Christmas shopping lists. I love thinking about how special each person in my life is to me and finding a gift that will be something they love or can really use. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are coming up right on the heels of Thanksgiving. So now is the perfect time to get organized to make sure your gifts get here on time. If you’re looking for some recommendations for your parents, friends, spouse, or kids, I got you covered!

Note: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. If you purchase through the link, What A Good Day earns a small compensation at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support!

Gifts for Parents and Grandparents

If you are looking for the perfect gifts for grandparents, check out Karen’s post, Gifts That Will Make Grandparents Feel Loved. She outlines lots of meaningful gifts that you can give to your grandparents or the grandparents of your children. 

As a mom myself, I can tell you that many of those same gifts would be meaningful to receive as a parent as well. But if you need some other recommendations, check out my ideas below.

Photo Book

I love taking pictures of my kids, as I think most parents do. But I just never have time to actually put those photos together into something I can keep. Parents are busy. So, for someone to take the initiative to make my photos into something I can look through like a photo book would mean so much! I think grandparents would love this idea too. 

Click here to see options from Shutterfly. 

date night

A Night Out

Another gift I think parents love is a night out. My love language is quality time, so I love experiences as gifts. Like I said, parents are busy, so for someone to give me gift cards or money specifically so I can have a night out that is already planned and paid for would be such a thoughtful gift. 

Some good options are:

  • Movie Tickets or Theatre Tickets
  • Tickets to Museum Events
  • A Nice Dinner
  • An Escape Room

You could even offer to babysit. And if you really want to go all out, make it a weekend getaway the parent can take with their spouse or a friend. 

Gifts for Friends

Gifts for Book Lovers:

Check out some of the great options for gifts on Litographs. The site offers beautiful shirts, scarves, blankets, and other creations made up of the words from your favorite books. You can see an example in the shirt pictured featuring Pride and Prejudice, one of my favorite books. They have a great mix of classics, children’s books, and modern fiction. 

Also, be sure to look into the candles from Frostbeard Studio. Their candles smell amazing and they have fun book-themed scents like Pumpkin Juice, Les Cirque Des Reves, and Sassenach. 

You could also check out one of our booklists to find the perfect book:

Great Self-Care Gifts

Something I’m planning to gift this Christmas to a couple of friends is a Self-Care Journal by Silk and Sonder. This is something I started using myself two months ago, and I love it! On their site here, you have the option of gifting a journal to someone. If you want to learn more, check out my post, Simple Self-Care You’ll Love: Silk and Sonder Journal Review.  

Or, check out some of these great self-care staples that anyone can use to pamper themselves.

Gifts for Spouse

Time Together

One of my favorite gifts I ever received was a few years ago when my husband booked a Disney World trip for us and surprised me. You don’t have to be that extravagant, but even planning a day with your person in mind is a great gift to show your spouse how well you know them and how much you love them. 

If you want something physical to gift that’s in this same spirit, consider purchasing The Adventure Challenge for your spouse and you to complete together. I’ve heard so many good things about this, and I might even get it for my husband this year.

Something Unique

One thing to keep in mind when giving to your spouse is that you are the person who knows them the best, so putting thought into that gift is important. But everyone is unique, and what I might get my husband might not work for your husband or wife. I’ve read lots of lists of gifts ideas for spouses and these are my favorites:

  • I love this gift guide from Good Housekeeping for men
  • And this one (also from Good Housekeeping) is a great one for women

Gifts for Kids

Ideas from Past Posts

I’ve talked about gifts we’ve given our kids before, and there is a lot of great content on What A Good Day to inspire you to make your littles feel special. Here are just a few.

Gifts My Kids Have Loved

  • Little People Playsets: All my kids LOVE these, and there is something for every child: the castle from Frozen, a car garage, a house, and even a nativity. 
  • Dress Up Clothes: My kids love to play dress-up, and there are so many great options like this set of superhero capes and masks, or this princess dress up trunk, or this set with a variety of fun costumes like pirate, chef, and policeman. 
  • Cars and Tracks: We race Hot Wheels a lot in my house, and I love that it was also something I did with my brothers when I was young. This six-lane track by Hot Wheels is pricey, but it has been worth it for us. My kids love it, and it folds up so easily. This one criss-crosses and allows cars to run until they crash. And if your kids like Mario, I can’t say enough about this track. My kids play with it all the time. Make sure you get a set of Mario cars like this one to go with it. 

Other Ideas I Love:

  • My mom has a gift tradition with my kids that I really love. They each get something to wear, something to read, something that’s fun, and something you need. Having the theme is fun for them and I think it makes shopping easier for her. 
  • A friend of mine actually gifts each child a day out with just them each year and they can pick anything they want to do.
  • You could also take a trip as a family. I know someone who does this with her grandkids and I think it will be so special for them to have those memories.
  • One thing we are doing this year that is doing one gift from Santa that is for all of us in with the individual gifts for each child. This might be a movie, or board game, or tickets to an event. I’m excited about adding that this year and I think the kids will be tickled that “Santa” thought about the whole family.

Gifts for Anyone

I love unique gifts like this! It’s hard to find photo gifts that feel trendy, which is why I love this. It’s sleek and modern but still sentimental.

Don’t tell my brother, but he’s getting one of these for Christmas this year 🙂 I’m going to use a song by his favorite artist and a photo of him with his sweet fur baby. He loves music, and I know he’ll love this.

I think this would make a great gift for newlyweds or new parents or a good friend. Click here to find it on Etsy. 

I love the site Uncommon Goods. They have so many unique gifts. This poster is one I received as a gift from a friend a couple of years ago. It lets you scratch off books you’ve read, and I’ve had so much fun reading the books and scratching them off. It hangs in my office, and it’s been a great conversation starter with new people I’ve met. They also have a version of for movies that I have gifted to friends who are movie buffs. 

In addition, they have this “Things to do” poster and this “100 Dates” poster. I think I might get one of those for my husband or family because I think it would be fun to hang in the house and track. 

I recently discovered a site called Elly and Grace that sells really comfortable, cute clothing with faith-based messages. I first heard about the site from a colleague, and this Daniel 3:18 hoodie is the first thing I purchased. I bought it for myself, and I love it so much. I’m planning to buy a couple of items from this company as Christmas gifts. 

Here are some of the things I really love:

The Best Thing about Gift-Giving

Gifts isn’t my main love language, but I do love seeing someone I love open something I chose carefully for them. We make Christmas shopping an experience, and I enjoy buying gifts for others even more than receiving them. My children are getting old enough to be part of that now, and that has me really excited about this year. 

So what’s your favorite gift you ever received or gave someone else? Have any recommendations for this year? Drop me a comment below! Have a good day!

 

Note:  Content of this post belongs to Jamie @whatagoodday.com. All images and content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. I’m happy for you to share this post but be sure to link to this post. Thank you.

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2 Comments

  1. Gifting can be so difficult as the grandkids become young adults. I have found that while I don’t like to do it, I give the gift of money, but add something small. Since my boys are excited about camping, I am able to give them a gift of camping equipement and the cash.

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  2. Pingback: The Best Book Gifts for Your Favorite Book Lover! - What a Good Day

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