This year wouldn’t you love to give everybody totally cool gifts that they’ll really love? And wouldn’t it be great to order them all up early and have the rest of the season to anticipate their excitement? I sometimes think I enjoy the anticipation as much as watching them open their gifts!
We’re kind of talking about Christmas here, but really these could be for any present-giving occasion, all through the year.
Totally cool gifts for your hosts
I’ve divided these up into groups, but any of them are good for just about anyone! So don’t feel like you have to stay with the categories. For instance, ‘A Home to Share’ by Leslie Saeta is in the book section, but would be a fabulous hostess gift as well! Anyway, you get the idea.
Just click on the pictures to go to the shopping pages, and without further ado, let’s get into our totally cool gifts!
Custom engraved glassware
Say you go to an annual Christmas party and want to take a gift. Giving your host some custom glassware is perfect! I’vchesen some whiskey glasses and some wine glasses here, but there are tons of options.
The Augusthome Collection from Noisy Forest
Or how about some gorgeous linen napkins printed with classic works of art? These are beautiful when they’re new, and fade gorgeously as they age, to look even more like the famous canvases they’re inspired by.
Totally cool gifts for readers
A Home to Share by Leslie Saeta
If you read the same type of home and lifestyle blogs I do, you probably know Leslie Saeta from My 100 Year Old Home. She’s so amazing in everything she does, and now she’s written a gorgeous book with all new projects, flowers, food, decor, and her own special brand of fun! Anyone who loves a beautiful home will love this book!
Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton
This is one of my favorite books of all time – a totally cool gift you just can’t beat! It’s perfect for everybody! Full of wonderful photos, the author went around New York photographing interesting people he saw. Some are sweet, some are amazing, and some are hilarious, and the little stories about each one are fabulous!
I keep several copies on hand for last-minute gifts, because everybody loves this book!
Family Christmas gifts
Stockings by South House Designs
Wouldn’t it be fun to give everyone a new stocking this year? Your mantel would look so magical, and everyone would be thrilled to see what’s inside! Plus they’d get to take them home. (Unless you’re the keeper of the stockings in your family like I am in mine! Then you get to save them for next year and start a new stocking tradition.)
Plus if you get a new family member during the next year, South House Designs’ owner and master craftsperson Diane, will let you order some from previous years’ collections so the new person will match!
Southern Calligraphy
And those name tags! They’re custom done by Jane Dolan at Southern Calligraphy. The ones in these pictures are just two of her many styles – both of tags and fonts. They go so well with these or any stockings, and they just make everyone’s stockings so special!
You can use them for gift tags too, or tree ornaments, cubby or basket markers, or even door hangers. The list is endless!
Totally cool gifts for the kids
Personalized Books
People love to get something that’s personalized just for them. And little kids are no exception! These custom books would be so exciting to open on Christmas, a birthday, for becoming a new big-sibling, or any occasion!
I’ve just chosen two examples, but once you click the photos below, your choices are practically endless!
Click the pictures below for the shopping pages.
TubeLox Building Set
Ok, my kids had this and they thought it was a TOTALLY cool gift!! For years! I think my youngest got it when he was about five, and I moved pieces of it to this house when we moved here 14 years later! The things they built with these tubes changed over the years, but they were always amazing and completely creative.
Plus they’re sturdy! My boys used to stand on the panels, jump on them, toss them like Frisbees in the yard, and I think it was at least five years before one of those panels even cracked! Even then, they used it for another five years! Hours and days and months and years of fun – and not a screen in sight!
Keep your teenagers happy
As I mentioned, these categories are really just arbitrary – a simple place to start. Because even though I haven’t been a teenager for a long time, I’d really love one of these kits!
Make Your Own Neon Sign
This flexi wire can be made into words or any kind of shape your gift-receiver wants. Then it’s a work of art they can hang or decorate their space with any way they like!
Decompression Magnetic Pen
Ok – this is one of the most TOTALLY cool gifts! It’s magnetic, so it sticks to things, also you can make an infinity of shapes with it, and you can even write with it! This is so fun to play with, that everyone loves it, not just teenagers!
Wouldn’t it be perfect as a stocking stuffer too?
Puzzles and Art
Liberty Puzzles
This is another one I’ve had personal experience with, and it was the hit of Christmas a couple years ago. Liberty Puzzles makes really high quality wooden puzzles, with beautiful pictures on them, like this one below.
Plus, see how the pieces are really fun shapes? They have several different shape-families, if you will – this one is birds and things that fly. You’d think it would be hard to fit the different shapes together, but it actually makes it easier. And so much fun! It’s like two games in one.
Liberty also makes custom puzzles with your photos! This one below is of a show poster for one of my brother in law’s jazz festivals in China!
The pieces were all music and art oriented, like these photographers and starlet! THE most fun and special gift ever!
Custom Paint by Number
Here’s another option for totally cool gifts – a custom paint-by-number canvas! Just like for the puzzles, you send in your photo and the company makes a paint kit out of it! If you’ve got artists in the family, or one of your friends has always wanted to paint, this would be a perfect gift.
Toys for kids and grownups!
RetroViewer
Ok, I’m admitting it right now – this is my favorite totally cool gift of all time! I’ve written about these before, and I’ll do it again, because they are the most fun thing to happen – well – EVER!
RetroViewers are like the toys of our youth, only you get to make your own reels from your own photos! Take a look at this post if you want more specifics about the first time I used them and how easy it is.
Here’s a picture of everybody at my milestone birthday party unwrapping their RetroViewers – you can see how amazingly fun it was! 🙂 Each of my guests got one personalized just for them with pictures of things we’d done together over the years. They’re the perfect combination of something unexpected, fun, and so meaningful.
Great for everybody!
Other totally cool gifts
Initial Letters
These initial letters are absolutely fabulous! They’re hand-restored archival prints of the beginning letters in ancient texts! Ann Bender is an amazing artist, and each letter comes beautifully framed, with a little pocket on the back for an insert telling about your letter and where it came from.
Click the photo below to go to Ann’s website, where there’s lots more fascinating information about how she restores this artwork, and the history of printing.
I’m working on a gallery wall in my house with the initials of all my family members. Each letter is stunning on its own – and together they’re spectacular! There’s a picture of a whole wall on the website – you’ll love it!
Star Maps
This is SO cool! Under Lucky Stars is the company who makes these star maps. And the thing that’s extra cool about them is that they’re custom too! When you order, you tell them when and where, and they’ll print the stars as you would’ve seen them from that place and time. Say, the moment your gift-receiver was born, or the moment they said “I do,” or when they graduated from college. Maybe their first child was born, or they had their first date, first kiss, or first home.
Also they list the time and place on them, and a message. The ultimate in personalization! Click the photo to go to the Under Lucky Stars website.
And there’s even more to learn about giving totally cool gifts
These gifts are just scratching the surface of all the joy and fun of gift giving! For even more great gifts, and lots of secret strategies for saving time, saving money, and saving your sanity, check out Mantel and Table Academy’s mini-course How To Be the Best Gift Giver Ever!
A short, information-packed, five-lesson video course. You can learn all these amazing strategies – and more – in just an afternoon!
- The easy way to plan ahead and save time
- How to know what your recipients will love
- Beautiful and fun ways to wrap your gifts
- How to buy for the best deals
- How to find totally unique and personal gifts
- Taming the challenges of Christmas giving
- Fabulous instant gift ideas
- Printable checklists, workbooks, and templates
- And so much more!
Here’s what students are saying
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“What fabulous ideas! Barbara provides beautiful printable materials and handy organization tools that will help keep my gift buying on track all year long. There are many stunning, yet easy gift-wrapping ideas and superb gift-giving strategies in this valuable course. The resource links alone are a treasure trove of help! I will never stress about buying gifts again — even for my hard-to-shop-for family members.”
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~Chas Greener
Thanks so much for being here – I appreciate you more than you can know!
There are so many fabulous gift ideas on this list, Barbara! Both of my brothers-in-laws are hard to buy for plus over half of our family celebrates a birthday during the holiday season as well so this will come in really handy. Thanks so much for all the unique ideas. Hugs, CoCo
Absolutely! Wow – that’s a lot of gift-giving! 💛 So glad it was helpful! Happy November over there!
Hats off to you Barbara! What creative gifts! I loved those viewers in my teen years and they still look fun. Hope you have a great week!
Hi Katie! They ARE so fun! 🙂 Thanks so much for stopping by, and hope you have a great week too – can’t believe it’s November already!
Well, I don’t know who might be getting what else, but I am buying a set of those whiskey glasses for MYSELF!!!!!!!!!!!!! I like to do whiskey tastings here at la casa de Nichols, so it might be prudent for me to order A FEW sets! Cool! Thanks for the tip! I’ll think about “the spirit of giving” once my whiskey glasses get here!😂😂😂
Hahahah you’re a shopper after my own heart! When those glasses arrive, give me a call and I’ll help you test them out! 🤣 Hope you have a great week in the meantime my friend!
Absolutely Amazing Barbara! Sooo many amazing ideas. Thanks for putting all of this together (and for including my Christmas stockings).
I always had a sense you are a very thoughtful person — how else could you be such a great hostess? But now I KNOW my early perception of you wasn’t even close. Kudos on an amazing post and an even better eCourse!
Oh Diane, you’re the sweetest! Thank you! And thank you for allowing me to feature your beautiful stockings – I just love them! They’re in the course too! 😊 Thanks so much for stopping over! I hope you’re having a lovely weekend! 💛
Barbara, my original comment went to your email but I wanted to comment here as well. Thank you so much for all these wonderful ideas and suggestions. Very cool indeed! I am in love with those napkins (of course), but you have ideas for every potential person on the list. Thanks so much for sharing all your inspiration! Happy Friday and I hope you have a lovely weekend!
Hmmm – I didn’t get an email … I guess I’d better look into that. Thanks for letting me know! I knew you’d love the napkins! 🙂 And they just get better the longer you use them! Hope you’re having a wonderful weekend too – it’s starting to feel like cozy fall here! 🧡
Hi Barbara! I wanted you to know how much I enjoyed this post! You have so many fabulous suggestions for unique gifts! Those Christmas stockings are gorgeous and I love the framed initial letter! Pinning now! Thanks for the inspiration!
Hi Donna – thanks so much! I’m glad you enjoyed it. I always have so much fun picking out presents my friends will love, and these are some of my favorites! Thanks for pinning, and for stopping by! Hope you’re having a lovely weekend!💛
Such wonderfully creative ideas! I wish I’d known about that construction toy when my kids were young – they would have loved it! And the custom puzzles with the special shapes? Perfect for someone on my list! Love all these creative and customizable ideas – so special and personal. Kudos on the best gift list ever!
Hi Janet! Ooh you have a puzzle person on your list too? Everybody loves those Liberty ones! 😊 So glad you liked the list – they’re some of my favorite things. Hope you have a great weekend, and thanks for stopping by!