Personal, consumable, thoughtful gift?
November 26, 2019 12:18 PM   Subscribe

I have a friend who gives me a landscape art calendar every Christmas. She buys the same calendar for herself, so I know we're looking at the same picture every month, and sometimes we discuss them. It's basically the perfect gift: personal, gets used up every year so she can buy me another one, doesn't take up any space, and makes me think of her when I look at it. I'm trying to think of similar gifts that I could give to her and/other other people but I'm drawing a blank. Any ideas?
posted by missrachael to Shopping (7 answers total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
Pre-address (to you!) and stamp half a dozen notecards+envelopes, and prepare a set addressed to her, and then promise that the two of you will take turns writing a note, one per month.

(Bonus if you glue photos that you took onto blank cards.)
posted by wenestvedt at 12:28 PM on November 26, 2019 [6 favorites]


Any _______ of the month. Tea of the month, beer of the month. Makeup subscription box? Nice consumables with a limited life span.
posted by Jubey at 12:32 PM on November 26, 2019 [5 favorites]


Magazine subscriptions!
posted by St. Peepsburg at 1:32 PM on November 26, 2019 [3 favorites]


Book to read together, music to share, tickets to a musical/movie, CD of the soundtrack
posted by theora55 at 2:06 PM on November 26, 2019 [1 favorite]


Online/digital crossword puzzle subscription (not for the novice though) or specialty magazine subscription (Fantasy&SF; Ellery for mysteries as examples). For online subscriptions (of all sorts), you could also mail your friend a print out of your favorite, or have a group blog where you discuss it like a long-distance club?
posted by spamandkimchi at 10:52 AM on November 27, 2019


I was recently gifted a year's membership to our local(amazing!) Japanese gardens. It's my favorite outdoor space in town and it is so nice to just be able to pop in for an hour or less(or more) whenever it strikes my fancy and it's been fun to watch the transition of seasons. Most of the time I'll text the friend a picture of something that caught my eye that day. Is there a theater/museum/zoo/garden/class in her town that she enjoys?
posted by nenequesadilla at 9:38 PM on November 28, 2019


This won't last all year, but: One of the best gifts I ever got was from my entire friend group, who all during the year secretly collected 25 little Sheltie-themed gifts (my dog's breed) and then individually wrapped them all kinds of creative ways (some in Sheltie wrapping paper!) and numbered them 1-25 for a personalized Advent calendar. I've got all the little magnets and stickers and whatnot scattered around my house making me feel loved.

And actually, they did this because of my tradition of sending (religious or secular, as appropriate) Advent calendars. I would always get the same one as someone else, and we would text about each day's surprise. People love Advent calendars and there are a lot of cool ones out there, and they don't have to cost very much at all.

Thank you to wenestvedt--that is a brilliant idea and I love it!
posted by HotToddy at 7:22 PM on November 29, 2019


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