Healthy, Budget-Friendly Holiday Gift Ideas
As lovely as the holidays are, they’ve become really over-commercialized over the years. It’s fun to give and receive gifts, but many gifts will go unused. We are a culture of far too much stuff; we don’t need more objects to clutter up our lives.
More than that, it’s nice to be able to give gifts that people actually want and can use: consumables! Gifts that won’t take up too much space, that a person will appreciate, and that you can give without the hassle of trying to scramble last-minute for something. Gift exchanges can be an uncomfortable time if you’re only giving something because you feel obligated to rather than giving a gift because you found something you truly think the other person will love.
The idea here is to take the commercialization out of the holidays, and to replace it by having fun preparing gifts and giving them to your loved ones.
Are you struggling to think of some healthy, budget-friendly holiday gift ideas? Look no further! Here are some easy, inexpensive, personalized gifts that recipients are bound to be pleased with.
Healthy for the Body:
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Homemade food.
This can be anything—baked treats, savory snacks, or an entire meal. These are nice gifts because everyone needs to eat, so everyone can enjoy them.
But please, please keep in mind your friends who are gluten-intolerant, lactose-intolerant etc. I still feel bad about the time I hosted a wine and cheese and completely forgot about my friend’s gluten intolerance. We ran to the store for some zucchini so that we could slice them up like crackers (because all of the rest of the crackers had gluten in them. Whoops), so the evening was somewhat salvaged. But I definitely won’t make that mistake again!
It’s also not a bad idea to include the recipe (or at least the ingredients list) with your gift so that people know what they’re eating (and so that they can recreate it if they so desire).
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Homemade beauty products.
The mother dear asks me to make sugar scrub for her every year. Sugar scrubs can be put together within minutes and look lovely in a pretty jar! You can also put together all-natural cleaning solutions to be kind to skin and to the environment.
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Holiday packages and memberships.
Get a month-long membership to a yoga studio for the yogi in your life, or check out an online store such as 1-800-FLOWERS to order a special gift basket which will arrive for them in beautiful packaging. There are also things such as “Peanut Butter of the Month Club,” in which you can set up for your friend to receive a different jar of peanut butter every month for a year. There are many online companies with these sorts of things for just about every food under the sun.
Tweet ThisHealthy for the Mind
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A great book.
Can you really go wrong with books? Books are heavenly. Depending on where you get them (second-hand bookstores, the bargain section of the bookstore, online), they can be fairly inexpensive, too. I really like second-hand books, myself, because there’s something nice about reading a book that has already been well-loved. Sometimes you can find some really beautiful collector’s items at second-hand bookstores, too. Not everyone likes second-hand, however, so keep your friend’s preferences in mind when you’ll searching for a book.
Some excellent books by bloggers include How To Blog For Profit, Parenting with Purpose, What You Can When You Can, and my own The Business of Writing & Editing.
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DIY kits.
If you have a friend who is interested in sewing, crafts, painting, writing, knitting, scrapbooking, or something similar, put together a kit for them! One year my parents gave me a huge bag full of different kinds of material to use for sewing. It was fun to see the different materials they picked out for me (all with different textures, patterns and colours). You can do the same by getting a nice pen and ink with paper set for a writer, paints and paintbrushes for a painter, scrapbooking materials for the scrapbooker… you name it. Go to a crafts store, pick out a variety of items, and wrap them up in a nice box. Done!
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Incense.
Provided you choose a nice-smelling incense, this can be a really great gift that people can use for a long time. It’s also small and doesn’t take up too much space. Remember to get an incense holder, too, if you know that your friend doesn’t have one. Choose scents that most people like, such as pine or cinnamon. If you know that your friend loves a particular scent, then you’re golden.
The reason why I’ve included incense here is that if you find the right scent, it can be incredibly calming and relaxing. Certain scents, such as peppermint, also can curb your appetite (which can be a useful trick to incorporate healthy moderation into the holiday season).
What are some of your favorite healthy, budget-friendly holiday gift ideas? What gifts will you be giving this year? Share in the comments section below!
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I have to admit I have barely thought about gifts yet. Oh boy… but I am thinking of giving my mom some essential oils along with a list of ways to use them around the house.
Nice!
Ooo, great ideas, Sagan! We love consumable gifts. It seems like we have so much “stuff” already, it’s much nicer to receive things we can use up.
Not everyone likes getting or giving gift certificates, but they’re big in our family. Sometimes it’s for a favorite restaurant, other times it’s for experience-based stuff, like a massage or salon treatment or to the movies or a concert, which is one of the early presents I got my husband! 🙂 If you know the recipient’s musical tastes, making them a music compilation could be fun!
We usually bake and send some cookies along with our parents’ favorite coffees, although our parents are as into the sweets as they used to be.
Oh, and floral arrangements are nice yet consumable, too. There’s a tree farm in our area where people can make wreaths, and that’s lots of fun to do.
I think gift certificates are awesome. I don’t think they’re necessarily an impersonal gift – I think they can be really great!
Homemade goodies are a favourite 🙂
Great list, Sagan! My list of folks I exchange gifts with is small, and all of them already have too much stuff! I’m trying to mostly give consumables or gift cards to practical places such as a zoo membership for my sister and brother-in-law.
Zoo membership? Such a sweet idea!
Great ideas Sagan! Due to money issues, we are not gift giving this year but giving the gift of our presence. 😉 HA! I love giving gifts but I think in these days, we have lost the spirit of what the holidays should be about.. family & friends & laughter…. when it starts right after Halloween, we have a prob. I love your suggestions!
I so agree! Holidays are just too commercialized these days.
Cards. People just forget the beauty of good ol’ classic cards. Not the ones with just one phrase “Merry Christmas”, but one with real meaning and like a whole letter stuffed inside, full of memories and fun.
YES. My grandpa and I write letters to each other frequently and it’s the best thing ever. A nice thing to do for the holidays, too!
Great ideas!
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Great ideas…this year my family is just donating to charity in each other’s name and we’re getting together to visit and munch. Less stress and it brings it back to the things that matter. I really like to make gifts for people but this year I haven’t had the time.
I can’t wait to leap into the christmas spirit after I write my exam tomorrow…:)
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