‘Tis the season to be giving, but sometimes it’s just so hard to find good gifts. Finding the perfect present can be time consuming, stressful and expensive, but it doesn’t have to be.
There’s something about the time and effort someone puts into a homemade gift. Cookies are always a winner, and a fun way to distribute them is to host a cookie bake, where everyone brings their cookie recipe to one house, bakes them and then everyone gets a doggie bag of assorted cookies to take back home.
As for more long-lasting gifts, there are plenty of options. Sure, there are tons of pictures of you and friends on Facebook, but you can’t look at them unless you’re near a computer. Print out a few and make a collage or photo album for friends-these days, there’s a real novelty in having prints.
Even a creative, artfully done gift card could make a lovely gift. Feeling really artsy? How about giving your friend a wallet made from the leftover duct tape you still have from fall move-in? (If you like the idea but don’t have the time duct tape wallets can be found at uncommongoods.com for $20; convenient, but a little steep for something made out of tape.)
If you have a chance to get off campus and shop, Urban Outfitters never fails to have eccentric, unique offerings. Edible shot glasses made of candy canes come in a set of two for $9. They have a wide array of crazy literature-crazy enough to make getting a book as a present exciting. Places like H&M also carry trinkets and accessories that are out of the ordinary.
One of the saddest things about the end of fall semester is saying goodbye to all of those friends going to study abroad. Granted, it was their choice to go off and have amazing new experiences in exotic locations, but they’ll be missing friends. These friends are the perfect candidates for something sentimental to remind them of how much they are loved by their friends back in the States.
If you want your globetrotting friend to be able to take a little piece of you with them, the photo department at Walgreen’s is a great place to start. Here you can get an assortment of items, such as stickers, mugs, stuffed animals, playing cards, calendars, frosted steins and more, printed with the picture of your choosing. All of these items cost less than $25. You could get your girlfriend a poster with that picture of the two of you having a ball in your dorm, or get her a pillowcase with Patrick Dempsey’s face on it-inside jokes are always priceless.
If you’re looking to give your soon-to-be-abroad friend something less joke-like and more practical, you can do a little research on the country she is going to and get a travel book or set of maps for the area. Does your friend have a favorite candy or other non-perishable food that she may not be able to get out of the country? Send her off with a secret stash.
Looking for something distinctly St. Louis for your friends at home? Buy local. Bissinger’s is a gourmet chocolate company that started right here and has locations throughout St. Louis (including the Galleria). St. Louis is also home to one of the country’s 12 Anheuser-Busch breweries. Visit the gift shop to purchase paraphernalia for the of-age Budweiser-enthusiast in your life.
With finals at the door (or already here), it may be easier to do all your shopping from your computer. There are tons of fun sites out there that give you the option of searching for gifts by price, occasion or recipient. For anyone and everyone, gifts.com is a good place to start. On this site, you can find good gift matches according to the personality of the recipient. Findgift.com is similar but allows you to search for specific people and occasions.
For your Jewish friends who sometimes get overwhelmed with Christmas stuff, Popjudaica.com has a plethora of funny options. Check out the Hebrew Bazooka Joe bubble gum, the “Chai Maintenance” apparel and the underwear with the word “tush” across the.well, you know.
If you really, really have no time whatsoever, there are two last resort options. The first: re-gifting. It’s doable, but be careful not to accidentally give a gift back to the person who gave it to you (it was funny when Will Ferrell did it in Old School with the bread maker, but it doesn’t go over as well in real life). The second, safer option is the school bookstore or Bear Necessities.