While many of us are still numb from recent events, expressing love and gratitude for those near and dear can become a path to healing and give us strength for upcoming battles. Gifts are a tangible expression of caring and how much we value each other. Receiving a gift warms the heart, but I’ve always found the giving even more satisfying.
(I am not compensated for suggesting these items; they just looked cool to me. I do not own them, so I can’t attest to their value or the website’s honesty. All the links were functional at the time I wrote this blog in November 2024.)
Gifts of Time
Parties
Reconnecting with our people, sharing in-real-life physical space, is especially heartwarming. Could you host a gathering this season dedicated to beloved activities that have fallen off the edge of the plate? Board games? Charcuterie? Hiking? Frisbee golf? If you miss your friends and fun times together, odds are they do, too. Someone needs to step up—maybe it’s you.
Service
An excellent and often overlooked activity for a group of friends or a family is volunteering together. Be it a day of stream clean up or serving meals at a shelter, you can make the world a tiny bit better and hang out with your people at the same time.
Health
Get out and active with your friends, perhaps as a charity 5K team or by simply going for a hike or picnic together. Yoga class is fun with friends, and a pool party, indoors or out, can’t be beat!
Gifts You Can Wrap
Celtic Tree of Life
I love this laser-engraved birch Wheel of the Year Calendar. The beautiful tree of life design is surrounded by runes, with corresponding seasons, moons, and months indicated. An attractive and useful décor item. https://www.foreverygift.com/celtic-tree-of-life-calendar-wheel-et1576749083
Eyeglass Cloths
Who would have thought eyeglass cloths could be so cool? Microfiber cloths feature classic book covers reproductions. From Nerdwax.
Celestial Orb
For times when cosmic guidance is required, look no further then these magical lights. When lit, the spheres display images of the Moon, Saturn, or the Milky Way. From Happyhaves Aromatherapy.
Bookish T-shirts
Your friends will appreciate the attractive designs from Bookwormgear.com. High quality T-shirts feature inspirational quotes from our favorite authors as well as “plot reveals” and witty slogans.
Book Wallet
Carry an adorable mini book that is actually a wallet! Sporting an authentic book cover reproduction, they hold all your essential credit cards, cash, and identification securely. In two sizes, with anti-theft option.
Games
A lot of great games are available for holiday gifts, but how about a recipe calendar and game in one? Good Soup (reviewed here) has a fancy fresh new edition, which included the game rules, soup of the month calendar, a twelve-sided die, engraved wooden soup spoon, and stickers!
Gift of Reading
Here’s a gift that costs you nothing (unless you care to become involved to give books to even more children): Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. Dolly Parton provides free books, mailed to subscribers’ homes each month, for children age five and under. The program currently operates in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland. New regions of availability start up frequently. Check the website to see if the program is active in your area.
In this era of increased book banning in schools, support your local school libraries by making your opinions known to school and library boards. Know, share, and support resources that distribute banned and challenged books including: the American Library Association, The Banned Wagon, and American Booksellers for Free Expression.
If you want more ideas, check out my suggestions from the past: 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2019.
And Now a Word from Our Sponsor
Like the blog? Subscribe (form at the bottom of my website) to never miss an issue. Want more? Subscribe to the mailing list to hear first about new books and receive a free Sean Joye short story, currently only available to subscribers.
And, of course, I’m selling books. My latest novel, The Big Cinch won a best novel award last year. It is also available from Bookshop.org. More supernatural noir stories: The Resurrectionist and Water of Life, are available at Amazon.com. and Bookshop.org. Order my novella, Wolfhearted, or from Barnes and Noble if you prefer, here. It is also available as an audiobook, here.
St. Louis Writers Guild’s latest anthology, Members Anthology 2024, contains the latest Sean Joye short story, “The Haunted Guild.” Love Letters to St. Louis, is an adorable letter-shaped volume of short stories, poems, essays, and illustrations included my first science fiction story, “Welcome to Earthport Prime: A Self-Guided Tour.” A perfect gift and profits benefit the guild’s young writers’ program.
If you’ve enjoyed one of my books, tell the world! Consider leaving a short review at Audible, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Goodreads. The direct link to review Wolfhearted on Amazon is here, The Resurrectionist, here , and Water of Life, here, or visit my Shop off the landing page menu to review at Barnes and Noble. Thanks in advance. Reviews put the book in a more prominent position on Amazon.