Stocking Stuffers and Small Gifts for 2020
2020 has been a unique year with many of us spending more time at home than ever before. As we come to the end of the year and the upcoming holidays, we suddenly are faced with the annual holiday conundrum: what do I give my family or friend? What would they like? What would be useful for them?
I usually divide my gift ideas into two general columns: what is useful and what is something extra beyond their necessity list. These are pretty self-explanatory. If a friend is setting up his/her household, for example, he/she probably will need some cooking items for the kitchen. However, he/she may not necessarily need the poster, print, plant, or decorative pillow. You can choose to address the immediate necessities or can address the extras that will add a bit more enjoyment to their new home. Ideally, the gift should be a bit of both—useful, but not an immediate necessity. Or in other words, something they’d like and use, but not necessarily buy for themselves.
If you are looking for gifts that would be useful and nice during this strange year and into 2021, you’ve come to the right place! Read on for my list of small gift ideas:
For Your Hands
Due to COVID-19, we are washing our hands more than ever. For hand soap, I really like the company EO, which stands for Essential Oils. EO only uses safe and natural ingredients in their products. I really like their lavender hand soap and hand sanitizer (I would get the 6-pack of the sanitizer just because it’s more economical). The lavender smell is incredible and the hand sanitizer also seems to dry your skin less than other sanitizers. Of course, hand washing is super important to really stay healthy—and hand sanitizer is only used to disinfect if you are on the run (not as a replacement for actual washing).
With all of this washing though, you’ve probably noticed your skin getting dry. I know I tend to have dry hands during the winter season anyway, but this year has heightened that dryness. I tend to use this small tube of lavender hand cream from L’Occitane throughout the year for my dry hands. However, if you want extra hand care, I recommend Burt’s Bees Hand Repair Cream and Hand Salve. It has definitely saved my hands (and dare I say feet too) from cracked skin. You can also purchase it as part of a gift set.
Personal Care
One of the secrets in my closet are lavender sachets. Sachets are great to place in drawers or cubbies and help scent the folded clean clothes. Lavender sachets even help to deter any moths that may invade! Sachets are easy to find. I have used ones from the NY-based Lavender by the Bay or from the U.K.-based Cotswolds Lavender. If you are feeling a bit “crafty,” you can even make your own by choosing your own fabric enclosure and purchasing lavender buds.
Another of my personal care secrets is a lavender wheat wrap. I recommend this one from Cotswolds Lavender. A wheat wrap is a basically a tubular sachet filled with wheat and, in this case, lavender. It can be microwaved to become warm and used as a scented heating pad. The one I use can be draped over the back of the neck or shoulders, but you can also use these smaller ones for more specific aches. Wheat wraps are perfect for post-workout, soothing cramps, or simply to relax tense muscles. Or can just provide a bit of warmth over this socially distant winter!
Tea Time
There’s nothing better than to curl up with a cup of hot tea during the chilly winter season! For some calming herbal teas, I recommend pure lavender tea using dried lavender buds or this lavender/chamomile combination. For caffeinated teas, I’d recommend Harney&Sons Victorian London Fog or Hot Cinnamon Spice. The London Fog tea is what you’d expect of a basic Earl Grey and vanilla combination, but it also adds some lavender to the mix. The Cinnamon Spice is honestly my current season favorite: sweet cinnamon and black tea (not spicy at all). For a more Christmas-y vibe, you can also check out their Holiday Tea—-similar to the cinnamon tea, but with a stronger hint of cloves and less cinnamon.
If you are prone to using loose leaf tea rather than tea bags, such as in the lavender buds or the Victorian London Fog suggested above, then you will need an infuser, or instrument to hold the tea leaves while infusing in the hot water. You can get a basic infuser such as this one, which is metal and has a handle to swirl and take out of your tea mug, or you can get a teapot. I personally use this small ForLife teapot. I can get two mugs of tea out of it and it has a removable metal infuser bucket inside. To top it off, it is also stackable, with a flat lid to store other items on top! I first found it being used in the cafe of the Tate Liverpool Museum—obviously being perfect for serving teas and for storage! Here at home, I enjoy having my pot of morning tea stretched over a few hours.
This should give you a few ideas to get you started on gift ideas for this year! Stay tuned for upcoming posts on homemade gift ideas in early December!
