43. Sweet treats for mom.

My mom is German but has lived in the states for as long as I've been alive. Her favorite breakfast is coffee and some sort of danish. It's a German thing. I found an authentic German bakery in a different city and got loads of German baked goods for her.

Now if I could just find a place that sells authentic German chocolate I could give her the happiest Christmas she's had in years.

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42. Bringing a memory back to life.

My father was in WWII Bomber Command, flying in a Lancaster. He was a rear gunner.

We have a photo of our father with his squadron on the tarmac (I assume at Fiskerton) under one of those mighty machines. The photo is terrible: dark, hardly able to make out any of the figures, let alone our father. Its value was in the nose art, which you can see - not clearly but you can make it out.

I took the photo to a restorer who has absolutely made this come alive. You can see all those young faces, gestures, uniforms, for the first time.

I've had copies printed and framed and giving one each to my brother and sister (Dad unfortunately passed in 2014). I think my siblings are going to be pretty amazed to see his squadron for the first time.

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41. Have a feel-good Christmas.

My sister is going to cosmetology school and getting ready for school and looking cute every day is doing really wonderful things for her mental health. I got her black fancy coffee mugs that will match her outfits and a floor length black silk bathrobe so she can feel pretty and put together even when she gets home. I also got her a pretty mirror for when she opens her own salon. I’ve loved watching her change from a sad girl with a minimum wage job, into this open, happy, growing girl who is making moves for her future. I’m so proud of her and I just want to support her momentum as best I can!!

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40. Tiny dancer for the win.

I go to antique and thrift stores a lot with my two roommates. One day about a month and a half ago she spotted a Bols ballerina bottle— for those who don’t know, Bols did a line of booze where the bottles had a ballerina and music box inside of it. It’s pretty neat, google it. Anyways she really wanted it and fell in love with it but it was 80 bucks— too expensive for her.

I ended up going on eBay and found one in even better condition, and I’m excited to see her reaction.

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39. This should get a rise out of him.

I bought my boyfriend a breadmaker. I bought like a top of the line one that adds ingredients at the right time and everything. On our first date he mentioned that he would love to own a breadmaker (hes a really simple man, loves really homey cozy things like fresh bread, cooking meals that you would find a family diner). This is our 5th christmas together and hes gonna love it so much I cant wait to see him that happy.

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38. It better be good.

My dad is obsessed with Stephen King, and every year I buy him a book but this year he basically has all of them. So I sat down and wrote him a horror novel myself (I’m a writer) but he has no idea and I sent it off and got it printed with a hard cover and everything. I’m so excited.

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37. Parenting 101.

My young son LOVES lift-the-flap books. Obsessively loves them. We’ve already checked out every single one at every library in our city. So i handmade him one with him as the main superhero and his dad as his “superhero in training”. Just gathered a ton of really funny pictures of them and made a whole story with tons of lift-the-flap surprises, including his dog sidekick. I can’t wait until he sees it!

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36. Thoughtful and practical.

My sister is away teaching English in another country. Her pet Cockatiel sadly passed away this year. I got her a small geometric Cockatiel charm and gold chain necklace. I bought it in August and is my favorite gift this year.

Also my mom wanted 20 cheap storage bins to stack her shoes in and I wrapped each one individually with random doodads in every single one.

Image by Susanne Jutzeler, suju-foto from Pixabay

35. The gift of Christmas future.

My dad is an active 91 yr old. This year he's getting an Oculus Quest VR headset. It never fails to make me smile to think that he grew up when radio was a big thing. He's seen all the various versions of TV and now (in 11 days) he's going to take the jump into VR. He's expecting a box of DVD's and books ...which I am getting him but no where near the normal amount. He's not suspecting a thing.

Image by Terri Cnudde from Pixabay

34. Keeping it in the family.

I got my dad a framed picture of him and his cousin Janie. She passed away earlier this year at 89 and was basically the matriarch of the family. She helped raise him and his siblings after his mom died and his father couldn't take care of them for a while. She was the one of the most giving and selfless people I've ever known and he doesn't really have any pictures of that side of his family so I'm hoping this is something that will make him smile whenever he looks at it.

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33. Like a bunny hug.

Designed and custom printed my best friend a sweatshirt (she's obsessed with sweatshirts right now) with art of her favourite characters from her favourite book. She's talked about wanting something from her book basically every day this month, and lamented that they don't make merchandise, but I can't say anything about it yet.

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32. Now that's awesome.

My fiancé’s grandma makes these really labor intensive stockings whenever someone enters the family (birth/marriage), and she just finished mine after a year of working on it. No one in the nearly 40 years that she has been making these has ever made her one, so she’s the only one in the family who doesn’t have one. She has no clue that while she’s been making mine, I’ve been making one for her for Christmas this year!

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31. A heartwarming Christmas surprise.

My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer around Thanksgiving. Because of her chemo treatments, she’s too weak to travel, and all of us kids live in different cities now. (Four siblings, some married, some with our own babies).

What she doesn’t know is that we’re all going to fly down and show up at her house so we can all spend Christmas Day together, grandbabies and all! I’m so excited, and it’s going to be hard to keep it a surprise!

On top of us all coming, we’re also going to recreate a photo from our childhood. She made us all matching plaid outfits and posed us for a picture - twenty years ago!

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30. Words mean a lot.

I got my mum two charms of me and my brother shes always saying she doesnt have any pictures of us and I've had the backs of them engraved with "you mean the" "world to us".

As for my dad, a trait I got from him is never having my hands empty, I've always got something in them, normally a pen to fiddle with, something he also does and so I brought a high end Cross pen and got it engraved. The name of the collection the pen came from also happens to be our last name so the stars aligned on that one.

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29. Wrapped around her little finger.

Engagement Ring! We have been together forever but everything else just took priority money wise. We had a little girl and bought a house. Marriage just never happened. In the last year she has made a point of saying the ring and wedding doesn't matter but I know she's just trying to be practical.

So I saved all year and got her a great ring. I can't wait til Christmas Eve.

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28. Something for her to keep all her stuff in.

My girlfriend never treats herself at all and doesn’t enjoy shopping for clothes and accessories. She only has one small purse that’s going on 6-7 years old.

I was in Italy last month and while I was in Florence I stopped in Benheart, a super highly recommended shop, and got her a new one that’s a similar style/colour.

She doesn’t like when people spend money on her so she’ll flip her lid a little, in a good way.

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27. Memorable present of the past.

My grandpa has dementia. Prior to that time, he was really into geneaology (it's something his own father was into as well). I got him a family tree sculpture that has small photo frames, and I've gone through old family photos and had the best ones professionally printed, and I've put them into this sculpture. It goes as far back as to the first photos that his father took with their first camera. So not only are there photos of the whole family, but you get to see how technology has improved over time too. He may not remember what he said five minutes ago, but he loves to talk about the past and I really hope he loves this gift.

Photo by Ylanite Koppens from Pexels

26. Pet portraits for all.

My boyfriend's mom has an older labradoodle. He loves the dog dearly, the dog loves him right back, and she's at his house every other weekend. My friend's dad does amazing charcoal drawings, so I had him draw a portrait of the dog, and I got a custom picture frame for it as well. The drawing was done back in October, and I have been dying to tell my boyfriend about it ever since. Only 11 more days until he can see it!!

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25. Artistic appreciation.

My best friend had kind of a rough year— ending of an abusive and highly codependent relationship, then I moved away for grad school after we lived together for four years, and I think she feels uprooted in a lot of ways. So I found this print on society6 of this woman laying down in the ocean and trees and rocks are sprouting from her body— she is her own island, and is creating her own roots for herself. It’s coming framed and stuff, and she’s an artist, so I hope she loves it!

Image by Couleur from Pixabay

24. Let's keep the love alive.

My husband bought a throw blanket about a year before we met. Now, 15 years later, it's done and we just threw it out. He was visibly sad about it... He loved that blanket - it went through many hangovers, sicknesses, baby rockings with him. I found one exactly like it on Black Friday!! He's going to love it!!

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23. Nothing wrong with bath bombs.

This might not be an interesting gift, but I got my girlfriend an iPad pro and an apple pen. She's an amazing talented artist and I've heard many good things about the apple pen. I really hope she likes it since there are a lot of cool features!

Also, I put two decoy gifts under the tree. One being a box of cat food, and another being a box of bath bombs. I hid the real gifts and will give them to her when she opens the "other gifts."

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22. Christmas goes high tech.

My daughter has really gotten into drawing. She's been drawing nonstop for like a year and has a particular attraction to digital art. This whole time she's been drawing on a free phone app or using the mouse on the computer. Not once complaining about her lack of appropriate tools. For Christmas we've gotten her a good mid range digital sketch pad (the kind where she can draw directly on the screen) and all the accessories she needs for it.

And a gift she made that I can't help but brag on is she drew a streaming mascot for her dad's streaming channel complete with different emotes. (All done on her free phone app) We'll present them to him in the form of coasters to use on his desk as well as a copy of the jpegs.

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21. Under the sea.

I got my mom a Disney World exclusive Dooney and Bourke purse that is themed after The Little Mermaid. She has always been a frugal and practical woman, but I had never seen her jaw drop for an accesory like that before. We rarely get to do vacations, and she said that it was too expensive. I still catch her looking up knock offs when she thinks no one is paying attention, so I know she wants one. I can't wait to see the look on her face, and I dread the inevitable lecture about financial responsibility.

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20. Party like it's 2019.

My husband is deployed this Christmas. I wasn't sure what to give him at first. Most of the items I thought to give him he couldn't use there and would just have to pay to have them shipped back home. In the evenings after work he and the other guys get together and play cards. So I sent him a party in a box. A box filled with a batch of each of two of his favorite home baked cookies and several different card games (cards against humanity, etc.). That way they can all get together and have a small holiday party with home baked goods.

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19. The gift of peace and quiet.

My girlfriend is moving half way across the world to live with me in February. We agreed no Christmas gifts to save money.

I have been secretly renovating the second bedroom into a workspace for her. She loves my dogs but they're a bit much for her and she mentioned she wanted a dog free zone in the house when she needs a break.

I'm setting it up with a couples work station, an accent wallpaper wall, fresh paint, a rug, cozy reading corner, and lots of framed artwork of old cars and stuff she loves.

She is uprooting her whole life to live with me, and I'm so excited to show her her new space!

Image by tookapic from Pixabay

18. This one's in code.

Just started dating this girl that checks off every one of my boxes and, for the first time ever, hasn't raised any of what I thought were the standard accompanying red flags. She goes by a certain nickname in her scene. Found her a lovely silver ring with the nickname's symbol on it. I'm also going to write her a letter about how I love that she's got her own alias already, but between the 2 of us, I have a new nickname for her that's a promotion from what everyone else knows her as. I'm broke and a romantic and the two don't always go so well together, but I think she'll dig it.

Image by Couleur from Pixabay

17. Manipulating time for the ultimate present.

Due to work and finances this year, my wife is spending Christmas with her family in Alaska without me for the first time...so she thinks! I’ve secretly worked it out with my work and her family and I’m flying there two hours after her and will actually get there before her (she has a connection, I do not) and will be picking her up even though I dropped her off!

Image by Ulrike Mai from Pixabay

16. Putting the shirt on his back.

My boyfriend owns his own business as a private contractor and is still in the beginning stages of his work. Sometimes he feels discouraged and tired. He only had one shirt with his company name on it. So, I went online and custom created some more shirts for him. It’s nothing people would think is awesome, really. But I know how much it would mean to him and I’m so excited to see his reaction.

Also, as the jokester I am.. I ordered an additional shirt with a house on fire, a fire breathing dragon, a wizard, and people running away with the saying “we can fix that” underneath the chaos.

Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay

15. They've got the best candy.

My husband moved from England to the US to marry me about a year and a half ago. I’m sure he has missed home this whole time, but he’s only recently really started talking about it. I can’t bring England to him...but I found British Food Depot, an American company that imports tons of British goods. So, I found a way to gift him comfort food and candy that he hasn’t been able to find here. Jaffa cakes, chocolate oranges, marmite, malteesers, digestives, curly wurlies, Galaxy bars... I can’t wait to see his face when he opens the huge box of British candy.

Image by Karolina Grabowska from Pixabay

14. Another carpenter.

My boyfriend loves woodworking, but we live in an apartment. So he found a community shop. The tools are old and bent but he gets it to work and loves it. He really likes turning stuff like bowls, plates etc. The lathes at the shop broke last month and he's been sad about it. This shop is entirely donated, so they don't have the funds to fix them and the owner of the only operational one decided to take his back since other shop goers kept breaking it (he said he would let him use it at his house but he lives 1.5 hours away). I bought him a silent midi lathe and will move stuff around so he can have a mini shop in our apartment and can turn as many bowls as he wants.

Image by congerdesign from Pixabay

13. This is special.

I wanted to share what my older brother did last year. He went to my parents basement and searched for all our old home movies - on cassette, mini cassette and even reel. He spent months digitizing the entire thing and put it in a USB thumb drive and gave it to all of us. We spent the entire holiday huddled around the TV, laughing, crying, teasing, reminiscing, it was glorious. It’s one of my prize possessions, and can’t believe I get to share my childhood with my family one day because of him.

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12. The gift of data retrieval.

My husband is on the nerdier side and an avid reader. He kept this log of all the hundreds of books he's read since college, but it was an excel document on a shared drive, which was lost during a change of employer last month. He was SO bummed and moped about it for a few days, couldn't access it or find it anywhere, was so mad at himself. I just knew the right person to ask and they were somehow able to dig it up! I bought a moleskin hardback book log journal that I wrapped up, and inside is the printed document.

Jen Batler

11. Too charming for words.

I have a baby grand piano being delivered on the 23rd for my wife. She has wanted one since we have been married (7 years) and I have said “someday” for a while. She has been taking lessons again (since childhood) for 1.5 years and is getting good.

I “hid” funds for a couple months to pay for it and had to take a day off work to go look at one 100 miles away.

Also, she is picking up her Mom and brother from the airport the day of delivery so it’ll be in our living room as a surprise when she gets back. She’s going to a party tonight so I’m going to wrap some decoy presents and place them under the tree.

She’s 7 months pregnant with our first child so I wanted to blow it out this year.

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