Friends, can you even believe we made it to the holiday season of this crazy, chaotic, and exhausting year? While the holidays look different this year (and they should look different if you’re doing your part to stop the current surge in the pandemic), we can still enjoy giving gifts to our loved ones even if we may not be able to see them in person right now. In fact, I think gift giving has even more meaning this year than most since your dollars can help support the many small businesses that have experienced hardship as a result of the pandemic at the same time as you find a thoughtful gift to show a loved one you are thinking of them.
As always, I take the responsibility of creating this guide quite seriously. A lot of time and careful thought goes into curating a list of unique and enjoyable gifts for many of those on your list, and this year I have put even more emphasis on supporting small businesses and in particular those owned by Black individuals. I truly appreciate your continued enthusiasm for this post, as well as your patience as you waited for this guide to be published. I hope you enjoy the final product as much as I do! While I have provided some links to easily accessible online retailers, I would truly love it if you took the time to seek out any of these items that might be available to you locally in order to support small and local businesses. If at all possible, avoid that enormous retailer taking over the world. You CAN do all of your shopping without it, I promise!
I strive for intentional giving for all occasions and to that end, I strongly urge you to only give a gift if it really speaks to you as something perfect for the recipient you have in mind. Otherwise consider a shared experience or quality time (planning a nice day together, sign up for a cooking or art class together, make a date for a regular book club, etc.) Those sorts of gifts are often more meaningful, and also help promote more conscious consumer habits. Also consider making a charitable donation in lieu of a gift to a cause that your recipient supports. These days there are so many worthy causes, but I have suggested a handful below just in case you need inspiration.
Please know that all of the items included below are selected by me alone – I do not accept requests from vendors to promote their items. All that said, let’s get giving!