Has gift-giving gotten boring and tedious, rather than exciting and meaningful? Try using these tips to help put a little more joy and excitement back into your holiday traditions:
- Give gifts secretly to those in need. Sometimes the greatest gift that you can give yourself is giving the gift of joy to someone else who needs it the most. Think about someone that you know who is sick or dealing with a lot of stress and send them something simple, even just some chocolate, comfortable clothing, or even just a good movie. Send them something anonymous, just to remind them that someone out there cares.
- Attach a ball of string. If you have any items that might be too big to wrap, grab a ball of string and make a game out of it. Tie one side of the yarn to the gift and hide it somewhere around the house, string the yarn out around the house to create a maze for your giftee to follow all the way from the tree. This is sure to add to the suspense and excitement.
- Give an experience. Memories are some of the greatest gifts that you could give someone. Rather than just getting them something off the shelf, sign them up for a trip, bring them skydiving, buy them a ticket to something that you know they want to see.
- Plan a scavenger hunt. A great way to make your gift-giving a little more exciting is to plan out a scavenger hunt for the recipient. Wrap up a clue that will lead him to another clue, eventually leading him to the location of the actual present. This will make your gift a longer, more entertaining event that everyone is sure to remember.
- Host a “Sub for Santa Party”. Rather than buying gifts for each other, give people a list of things to buy for the needy and have a party for everyone to wrap the gifts and deliver them to the people who need them the most.
- Creatively “wrap” cash. A versatile and practical gift to give to someone is always cash. But just because your gift is a bit more boring doesn’t mean you have to present it that way too. A great way to show the effort when gifting cash is to wrap it up to make it a little more exciting. You can wrap up a box with money inside to make it look like a different present, or hid it in something else, like socks. You can also try to get really creative with it and put it into something like a pizza box with a sign saying “you can’t live on pizza alone… you also need a little dough”, or something similar.