Alternative Christmas Gift Ideas

It’s (nearly) Christmas!!

It’s December which means you can officially get excited about Christmas! Santa, trees, reindeer, turkey, champagne for breakfast (I’m not here to be judged).

And presents!

I love finding that perfect gift for someone, knowing they will actually adore it and will forever remember that Christmas when someone bought them something they loved. Possibly something that they’ve never been bought before, something unique, different, maybe even a bit quirky…

Well I have everything you need right here… well not everything but some things, or at least some good ideas for things that your peoples might like…

• Make a donation in their name to a charity. This is probably something you should discuss beforehand with each other, I know it’s the thought that counts but if they’ve bought you an all expenses paid trip to Barbados and are expecting something of equal monetary value and you present them with a piece of paper that says “I donated £10 in your name to the Hamster House – Home for neglected hamsters” it might not go down too well…

• Adopt a llama for them. No you don’t give them a llama, although that would be an awesome gift… You pay a month or years subscription for your chosen animal, be that a llama, a dolphin, a tiger and your gift recipient receives letters from the animal and photos of the adopted animal. It’s a lovely way to aid in the welfare of animals and who wouldn’t want to adopt a tiger!

• Give them the gift of your time. If Christmas is one of the only times you get to see this person then make a proper day of it. Set a day in the run up to Christmas to spend with them. Go for a hot chocolate, wrap presents together, watch Christmas films. 

• With the chaos of Christmas it’s easy to get stressed and one of the last things you want to be thinking about is cleaning the house or the dreaded oven! Give someone the gift of a “spring clean” or have their oven professionally cleaned! Most cleaning companies offer one-off cleans and some even provide an oven cleaning service in with that.

• Give them a years subscription to their favourite magazine.

• Pay for Christmas dinner. You can get Christmas day wrapped up in a box these days. Companies such as Abel and Cole, Riverford and Hello Fresh offer recipe boxes with everything you need for that perfect Christmas feast!

• Why not get a group of friends together and instead of buying gifts for each other you could volunteer at a soup kitchen or collect donations for a food bank.

• For the nature lover in your life there are lots of cool, quirky gifts from places like Wildlife Trust, National Trust and Friends of the Earth who have this cute Bee Saving Kit! 

  

  

• Are there vouchers you could get a certain someone for a course they want to go on? Maybe they want to learn a new skill or re-train for a new career but are finding it difficult to fund their dreams. Their gift from you this Christmas could be the first steps towards a new life.

• Lottery tickets or scratch cards are always a  great gift, especially if you’re not feeling too flush yourself. Plus if they win they might share 😉 My friends and I always do secret Santa but this year we’ve opted for each if us throwing a tenner in the kitty and buying loads of scratchcards! 

• Nothing. Sometimes the best gift you can give someone is nothing at all. Remember that not all people like Christmas, some actually despise it, (I know, madness right?) and we like to call these people miserable Scrooges, I’m kidding! Christmas can be a difficult time for some, try to keep that in mind when you’re pestering someone for their Christmas list. And I don’t mean those people who say “No, I don’t want anything” so you get them nothing and they cry, those people are morons and deserve everything they get… which is nothing.

“What about what I want?!”

If you’re fed up of people buying you loads of ‘stuff’ that you don’t want or need for Christmas and you genuinely cannot not deal with another bathroom gift set then why not ask people to sponsor you instead. What they’re sponsoring you for is completely up to you…

• No alcohol over the Christmas period…. hahaha!
• Stop smoking and donate to a cancer charity.
• No social media for a month.
• No chocolate from now until Christmas day.

The possibilities are endless, pick a challenge and a charity and away you go!

Why not organise a fundraising event for a local charity? Maybe a children’s hospice or a donkey sanctuary, a homeless shelter or food bank…

Christmas presents don’t have to be toys, chocolate, bath sets, socks and smellies. They can be anything, they don’t even have to be a physical gift. Let your imagination run wild!

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year xx