Ideas for Christmas Presents 2020

on December 6, 2020

I am writing this article on 6th of December, the day of Saint Nicholas, celebrated in Moldova and Romania and most probably in a few other countries too (on this particular date).

On the morning of 6th December, children wake up and check their boots as the ones that were good all year will get sweets and satsumas or oranges and the naughty ones will get …. a stick.

And of course, children will also get presents for Christmas.

Being originally from Moldova, for me it was a bit striking to see how commercial the idea of Christmas is in the West. And not only because of the religiousness, as I am not that religious and will not get into this kind of conversation, but for the pressure of getting expensive gifts (for some people). I mean yes, we were getting presents, but if you want to try and imagine, we correlate the smell of oranges with these holidays (Saint Nicholas, Christmas and NYE) as it was a luxury for Moldovans to get this kind of fruit so we only ate it on special occasions.

And I am not trying to make anyone feel guilty about it and you don’t need to worry about us, because Moldovans have a looooooot of food and we celebrate everything twice so by the end of January we feel like we ate 2 years worth of food in 2 months. And what’s this dry January thing? It doesn’t exist for us, because we have Christmas again on 7th January and New (Old calendar) Year on 14th January.

So if our neighbors saw our decorations for longer than acceptable in the UK, I am just following traditions / being lazy! :)))

Oh but let’s go back to Christmas presents. It doesn’t matter if you want to spend little or a lot, Christmas is about the festive spirit and being cheerful and kind. And as it has been a particularly difficult year for everyone, some might want to compensate that with extra gifts. But we don’t want to fall into the consumerism trap, right? (read my thoughts on the Black Friday Bonanza here).

So I thought I should come up with a few ideas and tips for you just in case any of them might help.

Give a present that the other person will need and use (it sounds too obvious, but if you want to avoid an unwanted gift, make lists and suggestions and exchange them. We have been doing this for a few years and it works. For example I would send a link to a particular type of oil paints that I needed in my art as it makes it so much easier, I know exactly what I want and I spare the other person the trouble of wasting time on research and ending up buying maybe colors that I already have or a medium that I don’t want to use; and I was getting an email for example with a link with something related to cycling that I would never know about and that is so much easier, I just click, buy, and pack it nicely for Christmas. Easy-Peasy lemon squeezy and everyone is happy! Oh yeah, and practice some acting skills to look surprised). You can also set a limit for a budget, make it like secret Santa (by the way, when I organized last time a Secret Santa in the office, I emailed everyone and said, I don’t care who gets my name, just get me £5 worth of dark chocolate!)
And talking about dark chocolate, you can get someone a subscription box with chocolate (you can choose dark chocolate or milk or mixed), we had one from Cocoa Runners for a few months and it felt like a right luxury!
Get a voucher for a meal in a restaurant (and now it’s more important than ever to support restaurants. We got this kind of a present for 2 years in a row and we loved it! they are usually valid for 1 year so you should be able to use it safely once it is permitted to go out, depending on your area). Or for that matter, buy a voucher for something else that you think the receiver will enjoy.
Make a hamper (this is so much fun! we did that for a couple of years and gave as presents to family. Buy a nice rustic basket, I am sure you can find one online! And fill it up with the things that the person you are giving it to will enjoy, maybe visit your local farm shop, local wine merchant or even a supermarket. A few examples of things that you can put in are: olive oil nicely bottled, you can even go further and infuse some nice herbs in oil; chutney; alcohol (wine, gin etc); a bar of chocolate, a box of tea or/and coffee; biscuits. You see where I am getting at, things that people can use around the kitchen. And if you are feeling lazy or you don’t have time, you can order a hamper that is already nicely done for you and of course one of the most lavish ones are the hampers from Fortnum & Mason and we were lucky enough to receive one a few years ago and I still have the basket where I store some of my stuff and I am using the tins, I even took them with me in the motorhome to store my vast collection of teas in!)
Buy a cookbook (that is if the person that you are giving it t loves cooking. And if you are listening to my podcast, you will find inspiration from amazing chefs and food writers and you can check their books)
Buy something handmade (encourage artisans, artists and buy something bespoke and that will last for a very long time)
Don’t buy anything (yes, that’s an option. Last year we spent Christmas in Spain with the motorhome and we had a nice meal with a bottle of Cava and that’s all we needed. This year we decided in advance that we won’t buy any presents either and to be honest we do that for our birthdays as well, we usually go out for a meal but since the pandemic it is harder to do that so a meal inside with a glass of wine. We seemed to have reset our priorities in life in the past few years.