Glittery Gifts

(And by glittery I mean things the recipient will remember and not actual glitter, which we both know is the herpes of the craft world.) 

Glittery Gift Ideas

• An Experience instead of a Thing. If you’re into the whole “one for you, one for me” holiday thing, or if you actually want to spend time with the recipient, include yourself in this. Give tickets to see a comedy show, theater, or a sporting event together.
• Go with a theme. After he was bitten during a squirrel rescue attempt, I gave a friend a squirrel gift every Christmas for at least a decade. It just never got old for me. Fortunately he now owns a hedgehog, so I’ve moved on.
• Give something that you can do together as soon as it’s opened. I recommend these great awful games: Cards Against Humanity (really bad, really funny, but really bad), Dirty Minds (meh, I play it with my Mother in Law, so it’s not so bad—either that or my MIL is just bad—it might be the latter), but the game Quelf is rather epic and suitable if you’re playing with kids.
• Absolutely anything you’ve made by hand. One of my favorite gifts ever was a walk-in sized butterfly cage my husband made for me. If you have a mad skill, share it. One of my best gifts this year was handmade. Check this out.

Outlander drawing by Laura Katherine Copyright 2014

Right? Crazy talent. Last year I made a lot of blown glass gifts, but all I’ve got this year is this. *insert obligatory, yet brief, book advertisement here*

Other than a few lame attempts at cooking meals, all I’ve made this year are books. Like that’s a small thing. My point is, whatever your talent is, share it!

• If you’ve discovered anything that thrilled you this year, it’s a potential gift idea. I discovered butter olive oil at a local shop, and I’m giving that to neighbors and friends. #ShopLocal (You can bake with butter olive oil! Totally amaze-balls.) (Attention Neighbors and Friends: Feign surprise when I show up with it next week, and tell me you’ve heard it’s amaze-balls.)
• Whatever happened to fruit baskets? I know someone who has a large collection of glassware and bowls. She has her local supermarket make fruit baskets with them. Isn’t that a great idea? I’m stealing it like an artist.
• If fruit and olive oil are too healthy for you, and you’re not into shopping either, order something they’ll be trying to work off for the next six months—something like Swiss Colony petit fours (my own personal brand of heroin).
• And if money is no object, you can go with a box of Godiva chocolates. If money is an object #RealWorld, wait until the day after Christmas when Barnes & Noble usually sells them for 50% off. #YouHeardThatHere #SomeThingsAreWorthWaitingFor

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Abandon All Pride if you play Quelf
But I won!

That’s enough of that. Hopefully I’ve given you some good ideas. I’ll try to get a blog out of FREE stuff to give, just in case you’re having a rough year financially or suffering through ten years of crippling student loans. 

In the meantime, what is the best gift you’re giving this year? Please put some gift ideas in the comments. Whoever you're giving it to will never know, because the only one who reads my comments are the people who sell Viagra. But maybe you’ll give them something else to think about.