Hey guys, so, yesterday I wrote a post called Gift Ideas For All where I spoke and suggested gift ideas for all ages and genders, today I’m going to write a post about meaningful and much more personal gifts that you can get. They might involve more creative effort but who’s not willing to put in a little effort for someone they love at Christmas, right?
I’m quite a personal and creative person and I’m also a very thoughtful person. I kind of get/give people presents based on things that I think I would like to receive as well as taking into consideration what they will actually like and their personality.
I’m going to give you some ideas but they are of course up for your own interpretation and you can change/edit the idea however you want.
A Personal Photo Canvas – I have wanted one of these for so long! There are so many photos that I would love to have printed on a canvas, especially this set of three photos that I took with my sister last year, they are like my favourite photos ever. Anyway, I think there is something much nicer about getting a canvas than getting a photo in a frame. I think it just looks more unusual and pretty. You can change up the size and you could even edit the photo slightly before getting it printed onto the canvas so it looks even better. Just remember to check the quality of the photo, you don’t want to pay to have a photo printed onto canvas only to realize it comes out all pixelated.
A Personalised Piece Of Jewellery – For my birthday this year my really close friends bought me a personalised locket which had a place for a photo of my choice as well as having my birthstone as a charm hanging on the necklace and a silver heart with my age engraved in it. I thought this present was really lovely and I’ve worn it every single day since they bought it for me unless it’s been unpractical to do so. It’s become a part of me since my birthday. Something like this would be a really great present, obviously it depends on your budget but there are lots of cheap jewellery places that will make personalised things. It doesn’t have to be a locket, it could be a ring, necklace, bracelet, anything that you think the person might like.
A scrapbook full of photos and kind words – My siblings and I made one of these for my Mum this year for her birthday and she absolutely loved it, it was such a success as a present. It was a lot of effort, but it was definitely worth it. It doesn’t have to be as much effort as we put in though. Just print out some really nice photos of you and whoever it is, write some quotes, some memories, some of your favourite things about them, habits they do that you really love etc. and voila you have an amazing Christmas present that they will cherish for the rest of their lives.
Create Them A Playlist – Someone I know did this for their sister last year for their birthday, whilst it’s not a physical present and you would most likely have to get them something else as well you could make this personal to them (and you) in some way. For example, the playlist that the person I knew created was every single Number 1 throughout the years since the year the person the present was for was born. I thought it was so lovely. So it could be that, or it could be a collection of their favourite Christmas songs, or songs that remind you of them, whatever it is, put it on a playlist and send them the link on Christmas – maybe give it a personalised title as well.
Memento Box – I had this idea the other day whilst shopping around town, so I bought some decorative boxes (I plan on re-decorating them anyway so they could have been plain.) and I’m going to fill them with loads of wonderful things and create a memento box for my friend this Christmas. I’ve already put loads of friendship quotes and life quotes in there written on gift cards that I punched out of card using my gift card puncher. I’m going to create a couple of ‘open when’ cards for her to open on specific days. I’m going to also print out some photos from all the times we’ve taken loads of photos and place them in the box as well as printing out e-mail conversations we’ve had and highlight all my favourite bits, going back to the very start of our friendship. I’m also going to write her some nice little letters to read, such as, a list of reasons why I love her and also a list of things to appreciate so she can go back to that when she’s having a sad or stressful day. I’m also going to let her know that she can add whatever she likes to the box from that moment onwards. For example, we write each other a lot of bucket lists so she could put all of them in there.
A Jar – This sounds ridiculous but I’m going to expand on what I’ve just said, I don’t literally mean just a jar. But you could fill it with loads of different things. For example, I have a memory jar, a quote jar and a bored jar. It depends what kind of person the gift is for. I think I gave my friend a bored jar a while ago, a bored jar is literally a jar filled with little pieces of paper all of which have an instruction on them, so when you’re bored you just go over to this jar and pick out one of the pieces of paper and do whatever it says even if you’re not really in the mood. I haven’t really used my quote jar all that often – maybe I should add it to my new year’s resolutions – but it’s a lot like the bored jar, it’s filled with pieces of paper but instead of instructions they’re quotes, so if you need a little bit of inspiration whilst sat at your desk reading the same paragraph in your human biology textbook for the 100th time you can stop and read an inspiring quote and then go back to studying. A memory jar is something that you fill with memories, you might have needed to start making this earlier on in the year though, but basically every single time something good happens that makes you happy you write it down on a piece of paper and place it into this jar, then at the end of the year you can open it and remember all the good memories – please refer to my post Document Your Life: Memory Jar. Anyway, instead of personal memories for yourself, like I do, you could fill it with memories you’ve shared with your friend/boyfriend/mother/sibling or whoever.
‘Open When’ Letters – I absolutely love this idea but unfortunately have not yet had the opportunity to create them myself for someone. For ideas or inspiration on ‘Open When’ letters you will find loads of awesome ideas by Googling it, it can be as expensive or cheap as you like. You might need lots of cards or letters and envelopes but other than that it’s all up to you. When I make ‘open when’ letters I’m going to fill the envelope with little gifts but you can just write letters. So basically, what you do is, you have a specific event, so you might write ‘open when… it’s your birthday’ and they can only open it on their birthday (if they follow the rules), or ‘open when… you’re sad’ and they’d have to open it when they’re sad. Whatever’s inside the envelope is completely up to you. It could be a personal letter or it could be a gift, whatever you decide, I think this is such a nice idea because it keeps the excitement until they’ve opened all of the letters (or even after), I think it’s nice to know that you can go back to a gift that someone you care about has got you and still gain something from it. It’s nice to be able to look forward to opening a letter on a specific day. It’s just all around nice. I plan on making one for my sister when I go off to university, although, nobody tell her that because it’s going to be a surprise! But I know how much she’ll miss me and I’ll miss her insanely too so I want to give her a little something that she can always go to when she’s missing me.
And there we have it, the end of my ‘meaningful gift’ suggestions. I really hope this helped and inspired you in some way to make your Christmas present extra special to that certain someone. There’s nothing nicer than getting someone a really personal and wonderful present full of effort from the giver. It just doesn’t get better than that. Although, of course, other presents are really great as well! Please leave any ideas you have for meaningful gifts in the comments as I would love to have more ideas for the future. Also, let me know if you use any of these ideas and how they turned out!
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Merry Christmas!
Inspired Teen 🙂
lifeofaninspiredteen 