Gift guide for meaningful giving

Have you ever felt completely overwhelmed with Christmas gifts? Like everybody is telling you what to give and somehow it becomes this large thing which isn’t really fun anymore and only pressure? Me too which is why I am sharing my gift guide for meaningful giving with you today.

Christmas is about giving but not because some magazine tells us that but because God gave His son. Giving to others is only a sign of trying to give back in that season. It is also part of showing someone that you love them – as are things like hugging someone, telling them with words or spending time with them.

This gift guide for meaningful giving really grew out of my own desire to take a different approach to Christmas gifts. To get away from the pressure and create experiences, moments, and memories and actually give things people will enjoy (or so I hope).

A few words of explanation: You might save a little bit of money with those kind of gifts but that is really not what this gift guide for meaningful giving is about. You might still buy things but the intention behind it is so very different. Also to me time is more valuable than money and so some of these gifts might have less worth in money but more worth in the time spent preparing them.

This guide is also more of a guideline to get your own ideas going than a guide to just go and copy or go and buy. I will share all the links to the ideas combined with thoughts about them to give you even more ideas.

At the end of the day I just really hope it helps you and puts the fun back into Christmas giving. So here it goes:

Gift guide for meaningful giving

Food related gifts

I love food related gifts whether somebody gives me a special kind of salt or bakes a cake for me. If there were a 6th love language called food it would be mine. I have made all of these food gifts before and they are all amazing. I also added 2 products if making cookies sounds too daunting to you.

1. Apple and Rosemary Buttermilk Quick bread
2. Infused Honey
3. Coffee from coffee circle which is not only directly traded but also gives back with every kilogram that is sold. With this gift you are basically  giving twice.
4. the best healthy homemade granola
5. Blue saphire salt by Ankerkraut. They are a family run business.
6. Simple and pretty cookies. Just do me one favor. Take them out of the oven right before they are done. They will be endlessly better. I promise.
7. Superfood Hot Chocolate jars

Wellness gifts

Who doesn’t love the scent of a good body lotion? But now imagine someone made a lotion for you with your favorite scent or a bath salt that will have you relaxing on a rainy evening? There are tons of more things that you could do from buying tea or giving someone a coupon to a massage.

1. Lavender mint bath salt
2. DIY smudge stick to burn or for a good scented room. Also looks really pretty.
3. Aesop hand lotion
4. Foraged Fir Tip Tea
5. All natural Homemade lotion

The gift of words

We all know that words have the power to change things. And giving someone words can be done in so many different ways. I listed some beautiful and encouraging and challenging books here but you could also give someone a beautiful notebook and use the first few pages to write them something nice and encourage them. Or you could buy pretty paper and write someone a letter. Never underestimate the power of a well-written letter (think Pride & Prejudice).

1. How to split wood, shuck an oyster and master other simple pleasures
2. California surfing and climbing in the fifties
3. William Shakespeare’s Star Wars
4. A Kitchen in France: A year of cooking in my farmhouse
5. The Artisan Soul. Crafting your life into a work of art
6. Essentialism. The disciplined pursuit of less
7. Date night in
8. Epic hikes of the world
9. Together is better

The gift of time

Sometimes we think by giving time it only means spending of our own time. But maybe you have married friends and you want to give them time to spend it together. And as a good friend you could gift them a date. Now here the ideas are endless. Give them tickets to a concert or a musical or like the example below create a date for them at home they can enjoy after the kids are in bed. They could cook together, drink wine, and dance in the kitchen to a romantic soundtrack. In short they will create memories together. As a single I love investing into other people’s relationships.

1. Pyramid Pillows by ZWEI Design
2. Itynera from Italy
3. Standup candle holder by ZWEI Design
4. Pepper Pesto
5. Spaghetti
6. Spotify playlist
7. Wine glasses

I hope this gift guide for meaningful giving is helpful to you and sparks your creativity and encourages you to be more intentional and less pressured.

Much love

Ramona