Holiday Gift Guides For Folks, Gals & Kids
Big news, folks! We wrapped up our makeover at the Children’s Hospital, and we cannot wait to share all the photos – hopefully on Monday! So today we thought we’d Friday things up with one giant gift guide for everyone who has been asking for it (last year we shared our picks for lads, ladies, and children across three distinct posts, but this time we thought we’d simply smash them all into one big gifty rundown). And in the interest of thriftiness, there are plenty of under-$15 things along with a ton of $30-or-less finds.
Here are a bunch of things that we are digging for children – along with a few baby items now that we have one on the way.
1. I enjoy cruising around on Etsy (shopping there makes me more confident that it is not something one of our nieces or nephews might already have) – like this $25 whale puzzle that is homemade and especially charming.
2. This harkens back to Clara’s baby days, but a relative got us this sleep sheep as a gift, and it was so convenient to snap to her carry-along car seat for keeping her snoozing when we popped into restaurants or other people’s homes.
3. Clara would go nuts for this excellent $15 wooden vegetable garden for her dollhouse. She loves little interactive items like this, where you can in fact “plant” things like carrots and then pull them out to harvest them.
4. This $23 eco friendly beehive toy is another one that we are tempted to grab for Clara (kids can work on their fine motor skills while they pinch each bee and place them into the honeycombs). And you know we like bees…
5. This $9 book never fails to make us laugh when we read it (crayons have feelings too!).
6. Clara and fairly much every kid she knows are into sharks, so I think they’d get a kick out of this shark bath towel.
7. This $35 mouse doll is handmade and crazy cute. Is it weird that I want one?
8. Clara got this $15 magnetic dress-up set as a gift from her cousin Elsa for her birthday and is in love with it. They are little wooden dolls with magnetic clothes that you can easily change (sort of like paper dolls, but with magnets instead of tabs).
9. This $7 wiggling worm toy looks cute for a certain bun on the way, but I cannot tell if it is too early to get him a Christmas present? Someone say “no way!” so I can click “add to cart.”
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Here are some things I thought would be lively for moms, sisters, friends, or any other ladies out there.
1. These festive cheers glasses would be sweet filled with anything from candy to a bag of hot cocoa mix – and a few of them with a bottle of wine would work too.
2. Ceramic house ornaments. I enjoy them. In fact I would not be mad at Santa if these folks showed up in my stocking this year – especially since they are on clearance.
3. I enjoy poking around on Etsy for my sisters-in-law or my best friends, and this little customized necklace (she’ll make any state or animal) is fairly remarkable indeed.
4. This clean-lined necklace is on my wink-at-John-and-send-him-the-link list this year. I enjoy the long-ish chain and the mixed metals.
5. This little heart sweatshirt is on sale for $15, and I think everyone from my niece to my mom could rock it.
6. A gleamed out little pillow (on clearance for $17) could fit the bill for your home-loving (or Nate-Berkus-loving) friend.
7. I enjoy a little colorful clutch like this for corralling everything from makeup to other odds and ends in my purse that would otherwise be floating around and falling out.
8. Photoshop humor wins every time. I’d totally buy one of these crop-tastic shirts for myself and one for my art director friend.
9. I am a large fan of Katie Daisy’s Etsy shop, and I think this $18 Here & Now print is one of the sweetest reminders to stay in the moment.
10. Brown leather studded gloves (under $30) are a chic little gift for someone who is into fashion or warm hands.
11. This is my go-to tech gadget that I have seen in a while, and it is only $9. It plugs into your outlet and cuts the power to any charger/device/appliance that is connected to it at a certain interval (ex: after two hours, when it is fully charged). So the laptops and phones will get juiced up, but will not keep sucking power from those outlets all night long once they are full.
12. These blue tights would be such a lively stocking stuffer (pun intended) – and they are on sale for $8.50.
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Last but certainly not least, John got in on the lively and put together this “Dude Guide O’ Gifts” – so I am handing him the mic for the last third of this post:
1. I am two issues into a $24 Mental Floss subscription that I got for my birthday this year and I am already hooked. Any trivia geek or factoid cowboy will have a field day with this magazine.
2. Since I am not fancy sufficient to give someone an actual phone (or ask for one either), a new case is a pleasant middle ground. This wood-ish iPhone case on ScoutMob is marked down to simply $16.
3. I have kinda been jonesing for a cordless circular saw. A friend let me use theirs lately and I enjoyed not messing with extension cords. But perhaps that is simply the saw addict in me talking.
4. Our showhouse builder loaned us his old ear-marked copy of this book and it sucked us right in.
5. Threadless has tons of cool stuff, and I enjoy that you can get it on shirts, hoodies, mugs, or the ol’ classic poster. This cool-ly colorful Linear Landscape print starts at simply $8.
6. Thick glasses + mustache + Etsy shop = congratulations, you are now the owner of the ultimate hipster shirt.
7. Not to go all Rob Kardashian on you, but I think we can all stand to own some not-so-serious socks.
8. This $19 “Old Town” throw is a good guy-friendly blanket for sending some warm wishes. The brown is fairly neutral, but the geometric city print is a pleasant upgrade from the generic.
9. Our garage is right now lacking in the light department, so every time I see the sign for this $20 work light at Lowe’s, I realize it’d be a strong gift – especially for the tool guy in your life. You can consistently use more light. And clamps. Someone put that on a t-shirt or something.
10. In preparation for my annual “watch less TV” resolution, I enjoy the idea of stocking up on family friendly games like this Telestrations one that I keep hearing so much about. And if you are feeling less than-family-friendly, we hear that Cards Against Humanity can be fairly lively too.
11. Subscription boxes are the gifts that keep on giving. I have my eye on StrideBox, which comes stocked with goodies for runners. But there is also one for bike enthusiasts and a bunch of others on this review site.
Did you folks see any go-tos among the mood boards above? Do you have any especially tricky-to-shop-for relatives? And are you breaking out all the saved-from-last-year gift bags and ribbons to get everything wrapped up? You know Sherry is.
Update: You can check out all of our go-to holiday decor finds here – many of which are under $15!
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