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I know it's only October, but this is the time to consider what you want to give this holiday season. Did you know that Americans are planning on spending about $932 on gifts this season? Whether you need to bring a hostess gift for Thanksgiving or want your Christmas presents purchased early, here are some fantastic holiday gift ideas. Some require planning, and others are quick, last-minute gift ideas.
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- Fantastic Ideas for Clutter-Free Gift Ideas
- Create a gift that recipients can eat or drink.
- Homemade Consumables - Cooking / Drinking mixes:
- Spice Mixes Samplers for meats and vegetables:
- Mason jar Cookie Gifts:
- Cookie Baking Gifts:
- Homemade Pasta or Sauce:
- Homemade Cakes:
- Wine and Beer:
- Give the gift of the food of the month or other memberships.
- Food of the Month Clubs:
- Membership Clubs:
- Give Donations to Nonprofits on behalf of the loved one.
- Give Experience presents.
- Other gift ideas:
Fantastic Ideas for Clutter-Free Gift Ideas
Create a gift that recipients can eat or drink.
This gift requires planning. I have several nieces and nephews, and over the years, I created several theme gifts for them. Here are some of the theme gift ideas I did.
Cute Fruit baskets are a great option for family and friends, as well as coworkers and bosses.
You can even buy baskets designed explicitly for your recipient's dietary needs. This one is Kosher certified.
Assorted nuts are also a great option! Make sure these people are not allergic to nuts.
This one is unique for college students or anyone who loves cereal. It's a great gift to mail to your loved ones.
Homemade Consumables - Cooking / Drinking mixes:
Purchase herb mixes, Chai Tea Mix, and tools (Affiliate Link), and make a small basket. Check out our few DIY projects that you can give to people below.
This post shows you how to make these cute mason jar gifts for gift cards and candy. You can replace the top with a holiday flower, which would be great for Christmas.
This DIY post shows you how to make FRENCH VANILLA CHAI TEA MIX GIFT JAR. The tags can be smaller, and on the back of them, you can write what people do with the chai tea mix to make it delicious.
Here is a fun one I made for my nephews. It was all the things they needed to make beer bread. Learn how to make it on this post: A Great Gift for Men.
Making candles (Affiliate Link) is super easy; I recently made these candles (Affiliate Link) with vintage tea cups. They can use the candle and either donate the tea cup or wash it and use it. I made sure to make it with beeswax. Get the complete instructions on this post, DIY TeaCup Candle Project.
If you don't want to make it yourself, at SurLaTable, they also have a wide variety of Delivered Fresh Gourmet food (affiliate).
Spice Mixes Samplers for meats and vegetables:
You can make your own by getting the ingredients for your favorite made-from-scratch rub mixes and include a grocery store or butcher gift card. You can buy a cookbook of rub recipes and make them in batches for several recipients.
Whether your loved one is a meat eater or vegetarian, they will love these gifts.
If you don't want to make your version of a rub for meat or vegetables, just buy a sampler pack to send as a gift. Some options are Taste of America, featuring different areas of the country mixes, Popcorn mixes, Flavor-infused Olive oil mixes, and BBQ sampler options. If you click through, I will receive a small commission if you buy something on Amazon.
Mason jar Cookie Gifts:
Mason jar (Affiliate Link) cookie mixes can be made, or you can buy them. I like to make them myself and customize them for each person.
You can make your own by buying a cookbook that gives you the ingredients and quantities to make the mason jar (Affiliate Link) gifts.
Cookie Baking Gifts:
I love making cookies during the holidays. So, we would create plates and hand them out to our neighbors and the kids' teachers. Here is my Cookie Baking Grocery list for those marathon baking sessions.
If you are giving out a bunch of cookies to different people, buy some disposable holiday or clear plates and cover them with Colorful plastic wrap or plastic bowl covers that fit the size of your plate/bowl.
Homemade Pasta or Sauce:
We have made pasta from scratch and given it out as a favor with tomato sauce (Affiliate Link). Here's one I love to give as a gift with a bottle of homemade tomato sauce. HOMEMADE GNOCCHI RECIPE LIKE MOM MAKES. If you don't want to cook, you can buy sauce and already-made pasta.
I've done this for my nephew, who started living alone. It was a small can of tomato sauce, pasta, and a cute pasta bowl with a gift card for $50.00 from a nearby grocery store.
Homemade Cakes:
We made a small panettone cake recipe (an Italian fruit cake) and gave them as gifts. I added a link from a Food Network recipe.
Wine and Beer:
Customized for each person, or make your own wine and beer and give it as a gift. Check out the beer bread DIY gift idea: A GREAT GIFT IDEA FOR MEN
Give the gift of the food of the month or other memberships.
Food of the Month Clubs:
This no-clutter gift idea is great for those last-minute decisions for the loved one who has everything. This is fun for anyone who wants to give a gift all year round. I wrote a post solely about this on my sister blog; click on this Gift Ideas for Clients. Here's another article I found online about what food of the month clubs you can give as gifts. 15 Food Of The Month Clubs To Gift Your Food-Loving Friends (So, Everyone)
Some options for the Food of the Month clubs could be:
Wine
Tea
Coffee
Meat/Cheese
Cheesecake
Dessert
Cookies
Bread
Fruit Baskets
Snack box - great for college students
Membership Clubs:
You can also give the gift of membership places. Below is a list of gifts I have given, and they appreciate it.
AAA membership
Audible membership for a year or 6 months - Affiliate link
Children's Museums - like the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia
Disney+ membership
Science Museums - like The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia
Pennsylvania Horticultural Society
State or National Parks - America the Beautiful - National Parks & Federal Recreational Lands Annual Pass
Pool membership
Gym membership
Give Donations to Nonprofits on behalf of the loved one.
This is a great last-minute gift idea. Donating to a non-profit gift is great for people who don't like gifts and don't want them. It shows you care, but they don't need to receive anything but a piece of paper that says what you have done. Here are some great places to donate this: Heifer International: dedicated to fighting world hunger, and Habitat for Humanity: dedicated to helping the homeless. Here's an article for more information: Need a last-minute gift? Make it a charitable one.
Give Experience presents.
Another no-clutter gift idea is to give the gift of experience. This can be a last-minute gift idea, and many require planning. These are gifts that the recipients can go and do something instead of adding clutter to their homes. Here are some suggestions for this type of gift:
Affordable Gift Ideas
- Movie tickets - The Movie Tavern offers gift cards for their movie theaters for the perfect date night.
- Oil change gift card - Jiffy Lube offers gift cards for auto services.
- Gas gift card- Wawa gift cards, Shell gift cards, and Exxon gift cards
- Video Game Gift card - this could also be online games like Minecraft or Steam.
- Take-out restaurants - Grubhub offers gift cards.
Vacation/Unique Dining Out/Day Trips
- Unique or Theme Restaurant gift cards like Melting Pot (fondue theme restaurant) or Fogo de Chao (Brazilian Steakhouse)
- A Hotel Stay - Hotels.com offers a gift card option to give to others.
- A Moms night out - wine and art night session
- A Girls' night out theme experience
- A Boys' night out theme experience
- Cruise Gift cards - Carnival has gift cards you can buy.
- Theater tickets - Broadway productions - Broadway productions gift cards are available at Broadway.com.
- Ski trip tickets - ski.com and Expedia set up ski vacation packages.
- Spa Day tickets - buy gift cards from SpaFinder and send them via email.
- Sporting events like a major league baseball, hockey, or football game - MLB shop is where you can buy gift cards for baseball games. NFL Shop is the place you can go to find gift cards for football games. NHL Shop is where you can buy gift cards for hockey games.
- Trampoline park tickets - Skyzone is an option if they are near you. They offer memberships too.
- Water park tickets - here are a few options if they are near you. Splashlagoon.com or Camelback Resort.
- Zoo or Aquarium tickets - you can easily get a gift membership to your loved one. The Philadelphia Zoo offers a gift membership.
- Purchase a City Pass in different cities so they can explore the different attractions
Lessons
- Food classes like baking, cake decorating, and cooking - Sur La Table (affiliate) stores offer wonderful cooking classes for the entire family!
- Foreign language classes/lessons
- Learning something new classes from The MasterClass.com site.
- New sports lessons - swimming, tennis, yoga, YMCA membership
- New hobby lessons - voice lessons, guitar lessons, art lessons, photography classes, quilting classes
- Flight lessons - American Flyers offer the gift of flight beginner lessons.
I hope this post gave you some no-clutter gift ideas for the holidays. Now, you need to organize your holiday gifts; here is a post I wrote about just that. It includes a free checklist (Affiliate Link) to help you manage your gifts.
Now it's your turn. What do you like to give that doesn't create clutter in the recipient's home? Please leave thoughts below.
Please note the links above are affiliate links through Amazon, and at no additional cost to you, I will receive affiliate fees if you click through and decide to make a purchase.
Other gift ideas:
Below are some of our other DIY gift ideas posts; feel free to check them out.
Karen Grosz says
My favorite is experience gifts if you know the person well. Don't give something if you don't know them. They could be offended at worst and just not use it as the least. Know the person so you can pick something for them to do they would enjoy.
Jill Robson says
A great post Sabrina, I remember one year we gave my husband's grandparents the gift of our time. We gave them a coupon of a few hours of our time to do any tasks that they would like us to do for them.
Sarah Soboleski says
Great suggestions, Sabrina! The last couple of years I've been hosting a cookie swap with friends and I use the cookies as gifts. I know my favorite kind of gift is an edible one!
Autumn Leopold says
Brilliant post Sabrina! Is there any way you could make a printable of this? I would love to have one on my fridge to remind me and to even take with me while I shop! 🙂
Hazel Thornton says
These are great ideas, Sabrina! In addition, I'm still a fan of gift cards, but the more specific to the recipient's tastes, preferences, and habits the better.
Phoenicia says
Yes to this! As Christmas approaches I advise family and friends to buy small gifts. We simply do not have the room. I go through my children's toys periodically and store or discard of those they no longer play with.
Janet Barclay says
It's not very imaginative, but I tend to give gift cards or cash so the person can choose what they like. I love to make my own gifts too, but don't usually plan far enough ahead of time to make it happen.
April R. says
I love the idea of Experience gifts. My favorite quote is "The most important things in life aren't things". Stuff is just stuff, but experiences create memories and bond relationships!
Seana Turner says
Love giving something that the recipient doesn't immediately need to figure out how to store!