The Ultimate Mindful Lifestyle Holiday Season Gift Guide [2020 COVID-19 Edition]

⧗ 20 Minutes Read

111+ Gift Ideas for all the Important People in Your Life

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Intro Holiday Gift Guide

Wanna get into the gift ideas straight away? Check the TABLE OF CONTENTS to get right into it, you’ll find all gift ideas only a click away!

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Christmas and COVID-19

You guys, it’s the Holiday Season and Christmas is right around the corner. This year however, things will be different for the most of us.

I personally love the Holiday Season, but the fact that I love the most is to spend Christmas with my family and loved ones, especially my mum. I won’t be able to do that this year unfortunately. Like so many of you, my mum and me will spend Christmas apart, in different countries, to be on the safe side. A year has passed now the last time we saw and hugged each other. It was the last time, I sat in a plane to travel. And if anyone would have told me that, I would have not believed him.

Anyway, here’s a little summary of the things I love and will miss doing this year with my mum: the festive decoration, the fairy lights (!!!), that homey vibe, the focus on family, all the cooking and cookie baking (oh the cookie baking smell), those holiday markets, the cold, the Glühwein, that powdery snow… I’m not anywhere near snow or the cold in the Desert – and due to the current situation we canceled our travel plans, as we think it’s for the best.

If you need support ideas for how to spend the Holidays by yourself or without your family, have a look at this post, that I wrote a few years ago, that suddenly became much more relevant this year: How to be OK when spending Christmas alone. This season I’ll celebrate on a much smaller scale with my husband only and we’ll zoom my mum and his family in the hope that it’ll add a bit of holiday vibes to all our mini celebrations.

One of my happiest Christmas memories is my mum and me decorating our tree back home in Germany as colorful as possible. Every year, she bought the most beautiful glass balls with intricate details no matter which color they were… which led to us having a bigger tree each year, so all decoration would fit! Hopefully we can do this again next year.

How to give thoughtful presents despite COVID-19

For me the most stressful part during Christmas always was getting presents for my loved ones. They should be useful yet pretty and also thoughtful – and on top of that I’d like them to be sustainable and as waste-free as possible.

And I don’t know why, but I ended up buying gifts on the morning of the 24th of December quite a number of times. It’s not like Christmas happens every year… On the same date. Ahem.

To scratch my own itch, I put together the following gift guide and updated it to be as COVID-19 friendly as possible – I hope you find it helpful and will be successful in finding the right present for each person in your life (in time).

Please see this guide as an inspiration source. In no way, I want to encourage you to spend endless amounts of money, on the contrary, you’ll find plenty of ideas here that are either on the very affordable side, free (as in DIY), or would be a one-off purchase (as in on the more costly side but will last a lifetime).

I hope you have fun scrolling through the myriad of ideas and please let me know if you think one of your ideas fit well in this list – I love to add useful things. Just write me an email.

DIY Gifts Everybody Will Love

• Homemade chocolate. It’s so quick and simple, you won’t believe it. And your friends will love you for it. Here is a recipe to get you started.

• A homemade body scrub. Who doesn’t love a good scrub with heavenly scent?

• A self-made photo album as a memory of all the adventures you experienced with your friend.

• Video compilation of all your travels in the past year. If you have no clue about video making, iMovie (Mac) is quite easy to use. Or the (free) Quik app by GoPro makes it a breeze to put together a nice little video.

For Your Plant-Based Friend

My Favorite Picks

Details & More Options

• “How Not To Die” by Michael Greger of . This book is about how food choices can revert even life-threatening diseases and live a healthier and longer life and is an absolute life changer.

• The accompanying “How Not To Die” Cookbook for healthy plant-based recipes.

• “Thug Kitchen – The Official Cookbook”. Even the absolute die-hard meat-eaters will love these recipes.

• “Vegan for Everybody” Cookbook by America’s Test Kitchen. Easy plant-based recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and in-between.

• GEFU Spiralizer. Best thing I’ve ever bought for my kitchen a few years ago. It’ll make you veggie noodles out of almost everything e.g. carrots, zucchinis.

• Want to share instant Christmas Recipe Inspo? How about gifting your friend this amazing Plant-based Cookbook full of Christmas Recipes by Avantgarde Vegan BEFORE Christmas?

• Dinner Giftvoucher. How about you invite your friend to a homemade plant-based dinner or maybe there’s a new fancy plant-based restaurant in town?

For the Wine Lover in Your Life

Is it wine o’clock yet? Well, during the holiday season it sure is more often than not – and I love it! Wine was something I only began drinking in my 20s. And I started appreciating it probably in my mid to late 20s.

The whole science behind wine making fascinates me and the fact that there are so many different facets to a good wine.

Red wine is something I’m getting into slowly but surely, especially since our trip to Italy and the Barolo region.

But most of the times, I stick to a refreshing white or rosé the day away (lol).

So here are three beautiful gift ideas for the wine aficionado in your life:

My Favorite Picks

Details & More Options

• If your wine friend also appreciates a good book where they’ll find a lot of information, get them the Wine Folly: Magnum Edition, which is a beautiful coffeetable book with a ton of rich background information for them to show off at the next wine tasting.

• Speaking of wine tasting: How about you gift your friend a wine tour including a tasting of the closest cellar if you happen to live in vicinity of a wine region? At some point this situation will get better and you both would have something to look forward to next year.

• Your friend is into red wine but hates the fact that they need to let the wine breath for an hour before they can drink it?
  
  Get them the Vinturi Aerator, works like a charm, is easy to clean and looks great when not in use. And, most important, your friend gets their red wine right away without having to wait forever!

• In case your friend is really advanced in the world of wine and you don’t mind splurging a bit for the holiday season, here’s an innovative tool: The Coravin Model Two.
  
  It’s a preservation system, that only pierces the cork without damaging it. Once the wine is poured, the Coravin seals the cork off again with pure argon gas. With this superior technology, the wine won’t be spoiled (unless it was already prior to that).
  
  It’s an exclusive gift and for sure something special for whomever you’ll get it!

For Your Explorer & Travel Friend

My Favorite Picks

Details & More Options

• Noise-cancelling headphones for example from BOSE e.g. the model QC35 II. I have the model QC25, those are not bluetooth enabled, but that doesn’t bother me too much.
  
  Best thing I bought for myself in 2015 ago – until then I wasn’t aware how LOUD the inside of a plane is. Since I don’t travel much at the moment, I use them while working from home all the time, and these are also great for working in an open office environment when you need to focus, or when traveling by train.

• AirBnB Gift Card so your friend has somewhere nice to stay in a post COVID-19 world.

• Audible Subscription. Listening to audiobooks during commutes or while traveling gives me so much joy. Sometimes you simply find yourself in situations where you can’t read a book in tranquility or don’t have the muse to do so. I listen to audiobooks nowadays on the couch at home all the time while knitting.

• Spotify Subscription. Yeah, there’s not much else to say. Music without ads, whenever and wherever you go.

• A weekender like this great looking and functional Herschel Duffel Bag. What a beautiful present that would make for future travel plans in 2021 for example.

• Your friend and you want to go on a trip together but didn’t have the time yet? Plan a short roadtrip for a weekend to the next big city or national park and create a pretty voucher for it – also something great to look forward to next year!

• A passport cover. Ban.do has a bunch of very pretty, fun and girly ones. Ted Baker also has a couple of options for her and him; the design and quality are nice and classy.

For The Entrepreneur/ Founder/ Freelancer Friend

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Your friend is about to start their own venture? They’re super busy with their side hustle? Or a freelancer? Since I went into full-time freelancing in 2017 AND started this beautiful blog on the side, I know exactly what it feels like. It’s effing hard, you lack sleep and it requires a lot of willpower and energy.

I applaud your friend though, because it’s always a very exciting journey and you learn so so much! Entrepreneur sounds very glamorous when it’s really not… People will very often only see the success that will eventually come after years of hard and unnoticed work.

The most important thing you can get your friend first and foremost is being understanding and patient.

My go-to gift are notebooks for the entrepreneurs in my life. Why? Well, first off, I’m a planner obsessed person. I LOVE planners and notebooks, so it’s no wonder I own a bunch of them.

Second of all, because of Bullet Journaling and Time Boxing. Bullet Journaling is a planner method I started in 2016, before going freelance full-time, and it helped me a lot getting organized in an easy and fluff-free way. Time Boxing is a strategy to get all the stuff done you listed in your Bullet Journal and has been discussed by Cal Newport as well as Nir Eyal in detail.

I was using all kinds of lists beforehand already (checking of lists makes me happy, yeah, I’m that kind of person), and bullet journaling organized my list system in an even better way. Introduce your friend to these systems, if they don’t know it already, a pretty notebook as a gift (and the youtube link as well as both articles) is a great start!

Your friend is more advanced? Check below more handy gift ideas including books for founders, bloggers and writers!

My Favorite Picks

Details & More Options

• My favorite notebooks for bullet journaling are from Moleskine and from MUJI. The difference between those is the pricing and the cover options. MUJI notebooks are more plain (as in blank pages with different options: ruled, squared, empty) and minimalistic – and more affordable.
  
  If your friend likes a notebook, that has already some kind of structure (e.g. page numbers, index, preprinted calendar etc.) and comes with a couple of sturdier cover options, then the Moleskine notebooks might be the better choice.

• A third option: I’ve come across some beautiful planners from Ban.do and am seriously considering adding a few to my notebook collection. They range from 12 month planners to 17 month planners and are all bright, colorful and fun to look at!

• My newest design favorite: Designworks INK Notebooks.They offer a stunning selection of notebooks with great looking cover slogans that can be used year-round (no start or end date, but a smart headline on each page for you to choose the current date).
  
  All are covered and textured cloth in stunning colors and feel heavy and expensive (great thing that they are reasonably priced!).

• Nice pens for the notebook. My favorite ones are for creative people, but I use them for everything I write down (and I write a lot by hand): Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pen Black Bundle

• Go all in with a classy stationary set by Rifle Paper Co. (my heart!). Look at these gorgeous options!

• InCase laptop sleeve with magnetic opening. Sleek and stylish and so useful!

• Where does your friend work from? Consider gifting them a membership from a nearby coworking space, if they’re living in the crammed starbucks next door.
  
  Coworking spaces have a ton of benefits, not only are there people with the same mindset and goals, these spaces spark conversations, widen your friends network and people help each other out since they’re in the same boat.
  
  WeWork has quite a large network worldwide. Another beautiful option for women only is The Wing. However, due to the current situation, The Wing scaled their operations back massively, yet is offering a Digital Membership to stay connected. I could not find gift card or voucher options on their sites so it’s probably best to call them to find out more.

Must-have books for Entrepreneurs:

• “The 4-Hour Workweek” by Tim Ferriss.

• “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill

• “The Greatest Salesman” by Og Mandino

• “The Richest Man in Babylon” by George Clason

• “The 48 Laws of Power” and “Mastery” both by Robert Greene

• “The Lean Start-Up” by Eric Ries

• “Start With Why” by Simon Sinek. An absolute essential book for anyone starting a new venture.

Must-have books for Bloggers & Writers

• “Crushing it” by Gary V. An ode to hard work, hustle and the power of social media.

• “The War of Art” by Stephen Pressfield. A must for every writer or creative person. Like a kick in the butt.

• “Stephen King on Writing”, part memoir and part how to write great things people will love.

• “Ogilvy on Advertising” by David Ogilvy (yep, that’s the original Don Draper), it’s old but it’s gold. Most (if not all) of the things he talks about are still relevant today (and it was published 1983).

• “Elements of Style” by William Strunk and E. B. White. A writing essential even for the non-writer.

Still stuck? Check entrepreneur.com and their huge selection of gift ideas for more inspo!

For Your Self-Care Loving Friend

I’ve written about self-care quite a lot on my blog, it’s one of the most important aspects of leading a balanced and fulfilling life in my opinion.

If your friend isn’t convinced, please feel free to share a very in-depth post about the topic with them: The “Ultimate Self-Care Guide”, where I try to answer the most common questions about self-care and share tips and techniques on how to create a self-care routine that “sparks joy” as Marie Kondo would say.

If your friend is a self-care lover or just started getting interested in the topic, the following are a couple of great gift ideas!

My Favorite Picks

Details & More Options

• A beautiful blank journal to finally start writing about anything e.g. gratitude, emotional things, life stories, ideas, emotional baggage… I use a blank MUJI notebook for this as well.

• As a kid, I LOVED coloring books! I grew up as an only child and am introverted (also a little shy at first), so coloring books were the perfect excuse to not immediately play with kids I didn’t know. A few years ago, the adult coloring book craze began and I got a bunch!
  
  Whenever I need some time for myself and want to do something fun and creative, I get my coloring pencils and books – and it’s heaven! “Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book” is a beautiful one and the author published a whole series of nature related coloring books (e.g. if the ocean is more your cup of tea).

• For more guidance on journaling, there are quite a lot of options out there at the moment. One I particularly like is the “Becoming Journal” by Michelle Obama. There are great journaling prompts and it makes it easy to start with journaling without overwhelm.

• Your friend wants to start meditating but doesn’t know how to? How about gifting her or him a Headspace subscription? The app is easy to use and makes meditating a breeze.

• Wanna do something together with your friend? Get them a voucher for a yoga or meditation class and enjoy the experience together.

• A collection of essential oils for example this gift set. Your friend will appreciate you even more, I’m sure. Essential oils can be used for so many different scenarios, I really like using them to create a calm space, or to rub my feet prior to sleeping e.g. with Lavender oil.

• Scented candles by Diptyque. Those are wonderful and last forever.

• Dior Lip Glow. That’s my go-to lipbalm and the only make-up product I use nearly every day. It’s THE BEST! Or how about a Sephora Gift Card and your friend can choose the self-care pampering products she enjoys the most!?

• A voucher for a hairdresser your friend always wanted to go, but never did. Or a voucher for a skincare/facial appointment in that spa your friend is raving about (but never goes).

Must-have self-care books

• “A Woman’s Worth” by Marianne Williamson

• “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed

• “Tiny Beautiful Things” by Cheryl Strayed

• “Daring Greatly” by Brené Brown

• “The Gifts of Imperfections” by Brené Brown

• “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff” by Richard Carlson

• “Big Magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert

• “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin

• “Very Good Lives” by J.K. Rowling

• “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” by Marie Kondo

Environmental Conscious/ Friendly Gifts

My Favorite Picks

Details & More Options

• A reusable water bottle like this one here by Corkcicle (I have two of these and don’t wanna miss them!) or this one here by Swell.

• Plant trees in your friend’s name and be part of the battle against deforestation! OneTreePlanted is a non-profit organization based in Vermont with the mission to planting trees around the world aka reforestation.
  
  With 1 USD you can already help plant 1 tree. What a great iniative that especially in our day and age is so important to support!

• A pretty reusable shopping bag: For example these here by Baggu.

• Shop from “The Package Free Shop”. Their mission is to support society to produce less trash. Big mission that every single one of us needs to get on board with eventually (the sooner the better).
  
  Their “Zero Waste Kits” are Starter Kits with everything made of sustainable materials e.g. wooden toothbrushes, reusable straws, reusable cutlery for when you’re on the go etc. Their promise is to ship everything waste and plastic free.

• Your friend likes to sip her/his drinks with a straw? Here’s a great list of reusable ones!

• A charity donation in your friend’s name towards a cause close to their heart: Maybe your friend is an animal lover and supports a local shelter? Or how about gifting a certificate for offsetting your friends (estimated) CO2 emission with Atmosfair!

For the Introvert in Your Life

My Favorite Picks

Details & More Options

• There are more introverts in your life than you might think (hey there, nice meeting you!) and this is one of my favorite books on this topic: “Quiet” by Susan Cain.

• A voucher for a long quiet walk through a calm forest (best with snow!) or national park.

• A voucher for a night in to watch movies and eat homemade junk food.

• Uh, important item for the couch to read, watch movies or take a nap: A really soft, fluffy and comfy blanket. I own this one in light pink and love that it has sleeves!

For the Music Lover in Your Life

My Favorite Picks – Vinyls

Details & More Options

• Here comes the Spotify Subscription again lol

• Compile a playlist just for them e.g. on Spotify and name it after your friend (remember making mixtapes on cassettes?).

• Your friend is in a retro mood? Get them a classic vinyl! Have a look at the examples above. I’ve got all of these and love each one.

• A voucher for an upcoming concert (if there is such a thing at the moment?) of their favorite artist or tickets if available.

• An iTunes Voucher. And your friend is free to choose whatever tunes to listen to!

For the Movie Lover in Your Life

My Favorite Picks

Details & More Options

• That’s an easy one: A Netflix Subscription. Not much more to say.

• If you’re friend is obsessed with shopping on Amazon but doesn’t have a Prime Subscription yet, get him an Amazon Prime Gift Card!
  
  With this subscription, your friend will also get access to Amazon Prime Video with a lot of great series, movies and even Amazon produced exclusive content such as Jack Ryan!  
  
• A special cinema experience together with you (bigger cinemas often offer dine-in experiences or drive-in cinema).
  
• An iTunes Voucher. Yep really, that’s still a thing!

For Your Fitness/ Workout Loving Friend

That’s a more tricky one. Depending on the kind of workouts your friend loves, there are a bunch of different options.

My Favorite Picks

Details & More Options

• A high quality yoga mat like this Manduka PROlite Yoga Mat, or this Lululemon Yoga Mat or this Alo Yoga Mat (if you’re not sure maybe a voucher of the brand might be better and your friend can choose the right mat).

• A gym membership trial at their dream gym.

• Bootcamp class packages from places like Barry’s Bootcamp or Orange Theory.

• You cannot go wrong with gym clothes, socks, a nice gym bag or shoes. I’m a big fan of Nike, everything I own from them is of great quality and doesn’t wear out that easy. Again, a voucher might be better, so your friend can choose the right fit and style.

• Is your friend also on the move a lot? Get them some handy equipment like these push-up handles that can be packed easily in any suitcase.

• Last but not least, a good pair of gloves can make or break a workout. These wear out rather quickly so even if your friend already owns a pair, they will be thankful.

For the Bookworm in Your Life

This list could get potentially really REALLY long… Since books are the air I breathe, I don’t even know where to begin. But I’m determined to keep it sweet and short (also check the books for entrepreneurs, books for bloggers and writers, and self-care books listed above).

My Favorite Picks

Details & More Options

• “Becoming” by Michelle Obama. That’s kind of a no-brainer. Everybody loves that book.

• For the ones that love spy stories and/or historic novels: Anything from Ken Follet. My personal favorites are “Eye of the Needle” and his historical fiction series starting with “Pillars of the Earth”. This Christmas, I’ll gift myself his latest book “The Evening and the Morning”.

• “Crazy Rich Asians Trilogy Box Set” by Kevin Kwan. It’s a lighthearted and funny love story set in Singapore and the US (the movie was quite funny as well but I prefer the books).

• A “Harry Potter” Special Edition Set. I’m a huge Harry Potter Fan (hello to all fellow Slytherins) and this is definitely something you could make me very happy with. There are different sets to choose from starting from paperback all the way to leather-bound sets.

• Your friend is more of a “Lord of the Rings” Fan? Check out this awesome looking vinyl bound The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings Set!

• A drama I read when I was 13 years old (and consider now a classic) is “Not without my Daughter” by Betty Mahmoody. It’s based entirely on true events.

• For your artsy bookworm friend: “The Gift of Calligraphy” and “The Secret Lives of Color”.

• Have a look at my Holiday Reading List for more inspiration.

• If you want to get your friend a classic, here’s a list of the greatest books with the Top 50 classic books showing on the first page.

• Still need more inspiration? Have a look at the various book gift guides from Penguin Random House.

For the Photographer/ Videographer/ Content Creator Friend

My Favorite Picks

Details & More Options

• A new lens. If your friend is starting a YouTube Channel, get them a 50mm prime lens and you’ll be loved forever (make sure you know the camera make of your friend, a Nikon lens doesn’t fit a Canon and vice versa).

• A microphone. This Rode VideoMicro is a great choice for beginners.

• Lights. Especially if your friend shoots video indoors. A ring light is an amazing addition if your friend already has lights (also if they don’t).

• Your friend (or partner or family member) is special to you and you don’t mind splurging? Upgrade their camera body to the newest version (this could potentially be very pricey).

• Something that the photographer/videographer in your life will be always thankful for is fast and vast storage space, so get them an SD-card with enough GB or a portable hard-drive with at least 2TB.

• Something else that’s very useful is a power bank that can be connected to your friends camera. No more dead battery in the middle of nowhere.

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I really hope this gift guide is useful to you. The most important thing though is to enjoy the time with the people that are important to you no matter how we’ll achieve that this year (as mentioned above, for us it’ll be through zoom most probably)!

And the best presents I was gifted or gifted to my loved ones always included to spend time together… This is so much more valuable than any materialistic thing you can get in my opinion – and we’ll have something to look forward to once we can get close to each other.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and much love!
Nina

P.S.: If you have no clue how to wrap your present to make it look beautiful, I found this video for you with some gift-wrapping hacks. You got this!