My workplace has what I consider the perfect balance of co-worker gift-giving at Valentine’s Day and in December, which is that maybe half of the people do little gifts: that’s enough involvement that I don’t feel silly if I feel like giving other people little gifts (this past Valentine’s Day I taped foil-wrapped Dove hearts to paper classroom valentines), but also I feel free to skip it if for any reason I don’t feel like doing it. And I like my co-workers a lot (they’re one of my top reasons for liking my job) AND I like gift-giving, so I am inclined to participate this December.

However. I am noticing how difficult this is. (I find it the fun/happy kind of difficult, or else I would just skip it.) If I count only the co-workers I regularly work with and interact with, that is FIFTEEN PEOPLE. Keeping in mind that I am the lowest-paid employee and I make less than $10/hour—how much do I want to spend on a gift that needs to be multiplied by 15?

Which leads to my second issue: most of the inexpensive things I can think of that would work for a group of 15 people are things no one really wants. That’s not the deal-breaker: I got several things I didn’t really want from co-workers last year, but what I MOSTLY got was a nice warm happy feeling that they had given me a little holiday giftie (and it was especially fun bringing home a little PILE of little holiday gifties)—so I am going to assume it works the other direction, too. But I WOULD like to maximize the chances that it’s something SOME people MIGHT want.

For example, one of my co-workers last year handed out festively-packaged bars of soap. Well, that is a GREAT idea: inexpensive but you can get a fairly nice bar for $3, and library workers are not well-paid so we’re all more accustomed to the $5 ten-packs; festive (because of the packaging and because of the scent); practical, and if you don’t use bar soap it can easily be re-gifted or given to a shelter/pantry. But…she used that idea, so now I’d feel like I was copying. I could do…festive hand soaps? That might be nice. Practical and even fun, for those of us who like seasonal hand soaps; easy to donate for those who don’t; easy to tie a festive little ribbon around the little neck.

I want to avoid all the Pinteresty-type things I see where someone puts in a TON of time and effort to make a small cheap gift look like it also took a ton of time and effort. Even more, I want to avoid all the Pinteresty-type things I see where someone puts a ton of time and effort into something they THINK will be small and cheap—and yet with all the supplies they have to buy for it, they end up making something that is ALSO expensive (for example, anything in a mason jar). I would rather amp up the whimsy of the small and cheap: big bow on a single packet of expensive cocoa mix, for example. We all know these gifts are going to be small and cheap! Let’s at least spend the money on something someone MIGHT WANT at that price point. If a single serving of hot chocolate mix is $3, that might be some very yummy hot chocolate mix, and something I would not otherwise have tried!

Oh, and I’m not leaping to the idea of book/library-themed items. We DO all love books and libraries, natch. But: (1) we all have a fair amount of book/library-themed things already and (2) it’s just such a quick little non-leap, it makes it feel too generic/workplacey—like “What would my co-workers at a library enjoy? How about something library-themed?” But I wouldn’t RULE OUT something book/library themed, so you should feel free to mention it if you have a book/library idea. It’s easy to imagine doing a 180 on this for the right idea.

You may notice I keep carefully saying festive and holiday and seasonal and December. That’s because another complication is that I’d prefer to avoid Blatant Christmas. I assume my co-workers all understand that the timing of our workplace gift-giving is suspiciously Christmas-centric, but that doesn’t mean we can’t show a little situational awareness. So I am hoping for SNOWFLAKE and WINTER and so forth. If the scented soaps smell like balsam fir, I am not going to say “NO: IT CAN’T SMELL LIKE PINE, BECAUSE PINE TREES AND PINE WREATHS ARE CHRISTIAN CHRISTMAS SYMBOLS”; but I am not going to give out little soaps with decorated pine trees or pine wreaths on the wrappers, if you see the distinction. Little forest creatures in a winter scene that includes pine trees and a starry sky: yes! Little forest creatures in Santa hats around a star-topped pine tree looking up at One Big Star in the sky: no.

 

Here are the things I am NOT taking into consideration:

1. Some people are allergic to certain foods / chemicals. I know. And if I KNEW about any particular allergy, I would certainly avoid it. But this is an inexpensive co-worker gift, the kind where over a dozen people all receive the same item—and, perhaps this is naive, but I have a secure and shining faith in the ability of each of my co-workers to throw out or give away anything that won’t work for them while still receiving the warm intention of the gift.

2. Some people don’t like scented things. I know. And if I KNEW about any particular aversion/sensitivity/allergy, I would certainly avoid it. But this is an inexpensive co-worker gift, and I feel confident in the ability of my co-workers to throw out or give away anything that won’t work for them, while still receiving the warm intention of the gift.

3. Some people won’t eat homemade foods. I know. But this is an inexpensive co-worker gift, and I feel confident in the ability of my co-workers to throw out or give away anything that won’t work for them, while still receiving the warm intention of the gift.

4. Some people don’t want any more “cheap crap.” You know, I don’t think I have ever done a post on relatively-inexpensive gifts (teacher gifts, party favors, etc.) without receiving several comments making this point, almost always using those exact words: “cheap crap.” It gives me a wince of revulsion each time, to think of people regarding other people’s warmly-intended small offerings in that way. It is not how I regard the appropriately-inexpensive items other people give to me. If you are someone who regards such things as “cheap crap,” perhaps you could think of this as indicating that one of your roles in the universe is to be a conduit for getting these items to someone who WILL appreciate/enjoy them: one person’s cheap crap is another person’s fun/nice little treat, and I am sure the universe would appreciate the help of One Person to help get the apparently-incorrectly-directed item to Another Person.

 

Okay, so here are some of my ideas so far, for co-worker not-Christmas gifts at around $3 or less:

• The aforementioned hand soap. I could do a Mrs. Meyer’s, maybe the nice pine one or the orange clove one; it’s more like $5, but maybe I’d find it on sale / maybe I could just relax a little.

• The aforementioned festive bar soap, even though it feels like copying my co-worker. I don’t think she will care or think about it. I’d be pretty confident of finding a nice selection of these at HomeGoods/Marshalls/TJMaxx for about $3 each.

• Something from See’s Candies. They don’t have all their Christmas stuff up yet, and probably most of the good options will be too Christmassy (foil-wrapped Santas, for example)—but if they had, say, bags of foil-wrapped snowflakes or something, I could buy those plus enough cinnamon or mint lollipops to give one each to everyone, and break them up into little parcels. I’d have to be careful because this is the kind of project that can easily end up going over budget: “Oh, now I need festive little bags to put the things into, plus festive little ribbons…” and so on. Pretty soon it’s a hundred and fifty dollars’ worth of candy/packaging divided into fifteen portions that look like they cost about a dollar each.

• I could make fudge. I make what I believe to be good fudge, and it is the kind where you use a candy thermometer and it takes careful timing and can easily go wrong, so I don’t know many other people who make it. The two most expensive elements would be the baking chocolate and the little festive paper boxes I’d need to buy to put it in.

• I could find the theoretical individual packets of expensive hot chocolate I keep mentioning as examples, if they exist. Does anyone already know of such a thing existing? I mean like two or three dollars for a single-serving packet.

• Packets of fancy marshmallows (I remember last year Target had some cute snowflake-shaped ones), or a cocoa topper, or one of the many options for heavily-laden stir-sticks/spoons you put in coffee or cocoa or tea. I have received these sorts of things several times and have always enjoyed them: I’m not going to buy MYSELF a dark-chocolate-and-crushed-peppermint-coated cocoa stick, or a honey-and-lavender-coated tea spoon, but I would love to receive one and try it. (This idea may lead you to think of the idea of cocoa bombs, but my BOSS did cocoa bombs for everyone last year, and I definitely don’t want to duplicate HER idea!)

• A flameless candle, plus batteries for it. I have SO enjoyed mine, and I’ve seen them sold in bigger multipacks at HomeGoods/Marshalls/TJMaxx. Maybe I could find a multipack where all the candles are the same size, for a nice price per candle. This strikes me as a SLIGHTLY weird gift to imagine giving/receiving—but not really any weirder than the small indeterminate knitted thing someone gave us all last year and none of us wanted to ask what it was so we still don’t know. And for someone like me, who already has some flameless candles, it would be fun to add to the existing grouping; while for someone who doesn’t have any, it might be the fun kind of weird where they take it home and try it because what IS this thing??

• I can imagine just going right ahead and leaning into the weird idea: like, going to HomeGoods, seeing nice spatulas, buying everyone a spatula and tying a jaunty ribbon on each one. Or, here’s a gift-wrapped package of snowflake-themed baggies for you! Here’s a neat ruler, I put a bow on it! Here’s a jar of cookie-decorating sprinkles! Why not? Who cares? This isn’t going to make or break anyone’s festive season. Plus, they already know me.

• A festive baggie or festive little box including, say, a seasonal lip balm (I’d get the normal packaging since I’ll just be opening it and throwing it away, except the tree package has four lip balms for $5 and the regular packaging has only three for the same price), plus an assortment of individually-wrapped candies. I like the way this leans into the Token Gift intention—the 3D equivalent of holiday card in the mail. It says: This is a little token of festivity, of the sort I thought Anyone Would Like! I am giving it to you, festively! The festive transaction has now been completed! It is clearly no big deal if you did not get anything for me!

• If I were buying for a group where everyone celebrated Christmas, it would be fun to give everyone a Christmas ornament. I can’t think of any way to make this non-Christmassy, but I include it here for anyone who IS looking for small Christmas presents. Individual Christmas ornaments are sometimes surprisingly expensive, so if I couldn’t find anything I liked in the $3-each range (though Target usually has a bunch of cute ones at exactly that price: retro deer! dressed birds! dog in a top hat! a hippo!), I’d look for SETS of ornaments I could divide up.

I should have mentioned this earlier, as we are already more than halfway through autumn—but perhaps you’ll channel your “It’s getting dark so early”/”The flowers have all died”/”It’s too soon for Christmas lights but I WANT THEM NOW” energies into putting things on this year’s holiday/birthday wish list so you’ll have them next year. The best time to plant a tree, etc.

This is Swistle’s Fall Lighting Pack, brought to you by an assortment of Swistle’s Dear Friends. (Inspired by their genius, I have since made gift sets of these three items to send to other friends with Seasonal Issues. Fall is my favorite season but it comes with a feeling of sliding into the abyss.)

First, the flameless candles I know I have mentioned before (these were given to me as a housewarming gift by my wine-and-appetizers friends):

I feel like the product image makes them look kind of cheesy, when in real life they are just so nice. They are made of real wax, which I think makes a difference. Also, it means that if you drop one, as I did, it may crack, as wax does—so I now have 1-2/3rds sets, because I bought another 3-pack. And I have had them for several years and ONLY THIS YEAR realized that if you use the “timer” function on the little remote, they will turn off automatically AND ALSO TURN BACK ON AGAIN AUTOMATICALLY. So, like, if at 4:30pm I use the 6-hour timer button, they will shut off at 10:30 pm and then come back on the next day at 4:30. What I don’t understand is how this eluded me before, since it happened on its own this year; perhaps I hit an additional button? perhaps in earlier years I shut the candles off manually instead of using the timer? Who can say. Anyway, these range in price: I have seen the 3-pack as low as $13ish and as high as $29ish. (I bought my second/replacement set when they were $13-something and I could no longer resist.)

Second, the leafless lit birch trees, which I just realized I bought for myself. I was about to say a dear friend gave them to me, but it was that a dear friend RECOMMENDED them to me, and I bought them on her recommendation—but I think of them as being From Her:

(Again, I feel the product photo does them a disservice. And what is that wall behind them, is that a shower wall?) It took me about a year, I think, to order them after the friend recommended them, even though she was FERVENT in her recommendation: along the lines of “Trust me: you need these in your life.” And still I hesitated! Well, never again. When the Autumnal Lighting season is over, I plan to keep them up but decorate them with teensy Christmas ornaments. These go up and down between about $21 and $35 for the 2-pack. And THEY TOO have a timer function: if you press the little On button twice at, say, 4:30pm, they will come on for 6 hours every day at 4:30pm and go off at 10:30pm. (Or you can hit the On button once and they will stay on until long after you go to bed and forget to turn them off.)

Third, a gift from the same friend who fervently recommended the birch trees, which is probably why in my mind she also gave me the birch trees: maple leaf string lights.

Clearly it is just very, very difficult to capture the magic of a lighted item. I have two different strings of these because my friend put the two options in her cart to decide between them but then accidentally placed the order, and it is fate: I have the long string in the living room, where they drape around the curtains and decorate the television, and the shorter string tucked around my desk. I think the lowest I’ve seen them is $7/string for the short ones (and they will range up toward more like $10), and $13-14 for the long ones (ranging up toward $20). There are a bunch of other sellers, too, if you want different lengths or more functions, and let’s just leave that unintentional double entendre where it lies. We are grown-ups here. Snickering grown-ups.

Also. These items ALL take batteries. The maple-leaf lights take two or three AA batteries, depending on what type of string you get. The trees take three AA batteries each. The candles take two AA batteries each. It’s LED lighting so the batteries last quite awhile, but it’s still a lot of batteries. So this year I have added rechargeable batteries back into my life. (It seems like for a long time now practically everything has been rechargeable via USB cable.) I bought this Energizer charger at Target (you can also get it on Amazon):

And I bought four more AA batteries (the charger comes with four) before noticing that the charger-with-four-batteries is only a dollar more than just the four batteries, and more chargers means more charging. So I have another charger-plus-four-batteries in my cart right now, and will likely end up getting TWO more. (This is an old house, and it is clear to me that every time they did a remodel there was someone who said “WE NEED MORE OUTLETS,” because we have more outlets than you might expect in a 200-year-old house.)

Uh oh: with Rob’s graduation and then an unexpected isolation, Henry’s 15th birthday has snuck up on me. I have 10 days. His wish list is almost useless: unavailable D&D books; not-yet-published Randall Munroe book; a strong laser pointer (no); seeing a play in person (good idea but not yet); a cool watch (saving that idea for his 16th birthday); a Swiss Army knife (I don’t know about that); a fleece hoodie (harder to find this time of year; also I am not 100% sure I know what he means by “fleece”).

He likes theater and fiction-writing and cats and Dungeons & Dragons. He likes wearing rings, but he already has two, and I’m not sure how many is the right number and how many is Too Many. He likes reading, especially Terry Pratchett and D&D books, but he has all the Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams and D&D books, plus the fun rustic-looking leather journals and the mini figurines and the Unseen University t-shirt. He likes fun socks, but already has a fair number of fun socks; he likes fun t-shirts, but already has a fair number of fun t-shirts. He likes Strange Planet but we already have the books and he already has a t-shirt. There is a line in a book of Christmas short stories by Jeanette Winterson where Santa mentions that gifts were for when people had very little, but now they have too much, and I think wincingly of that whenever I am trying to shop for Christmas/birthdays.

I might pre-order him the Randall Munroe book, because otherwise he’d have to wait until Christmas, and by then he’d probably have gotten it from the library; and he might be old enough to enjoy the anticipation of a gift coming later. But ONE of his gifts this year was a trip over spring vacation to a museum he wanted to go to, so I’m reluctant to do more “not now” gifts.

And he wants a Steam gift card, which seems reasonable, but not much fun to unwrap. He likes candy! I can get him some candy! But that won’t cost much.

I beg those of you with kids of this type / in this age range: what gift successes have you had recently?

I would very much appreciate gift ideas for middle-aged husbands. Here are the ideas I have so far:

A UGearsModels…model. He’s asked for a few of these over the years. It’s like a toy! (These are also good for teenagers who like building things.) Paul likes the ones that are sort of related to his job, so he can bring them into work and everyone geeks out over them.

 

Scale spoon? Literally I got a Facebook ad for this. It is a spoon that weighs things. The reviews are…mixed. But Paul lovvvvvvvvvvvvvves our kitchen scale and is constantly weighing ingredients, so I thought this might be fun to try. I ordered it January 10th and it is still not here.

 

Back-scratcher. Like, the more things he can do for himself, the better, is how I am feeling these days.

 

The Happy Isles Magic Puzzle. I got this idea from Life of a Doctor’s Wife. I was partway through reading her post, and immediately departed to go order the puzzle, and then came back to read the rest of the post.

 

Mega Smarties. Just HUGE Smarties. He loves these things and will buy them for over TWO UNITED STATES DOLLARS PER ROLL at a local store. I know Buy Local is theoretically better than Amazon, but also TWO DOLLARS PER ROLL COME ON.

 

After the joint stocking-stuffers-we-buy-for-ourselves post, commenter Jd said:

I would also like to suggest a joint what are you buying the teens or tweens in your life post. While I don’t mind when people add suggestions I’m really interested in what is actually being given this year.

And I saw that comment and IMMEDIATELY cut-and-pasted it into a new post so I wouldn’t forget. I like the distinction of “suggestions” vs. “what is ACTUALLY BEING GIVEN,” and I agree with Jd’s assessment: I don’t mind the former, but the latter is what I really want to know / what I really find useful.

I will go first.

Shashibo Cubes. It looks like these are almost sold out; when I ordered, there were maybe a dozen or more different ones to choose from, and now there are only a few. My 10-year-old nephew had these on his list, and I went to the site to see what they were and ended up buying one for William (20, so, not a teen, but close) and one for Edward (16). I still don’t really know what they are, but they look intriguing, and it is harder and harder to find Fun/Novel Toys for kids as they get older.

 

Strange Planet t-shirt. I got this for Henry (14): he saw it over my shoulder while I was looking for something else, and he laughed, and I said “Would you want that shirt?” and he said yes, and this is not a very interesting story. I also bought it for my nephew (10), along with the second Strange Planet book (Target link) (Amazon link) (he already has the first one).

 

I bought this cute budgie shirt for Edward. I was looking at it for myself, and he saw it over my shoulder, and this is not an interesting story either, but long story short he liked it and I bought it for him.

 

I also bought Edward an Old Navy sherpa-lined sweatshirt, because he loves cozy things. (I did not pay $50 for it; there was some sort of good sale at the time.)

 

I don’t know yet which kid will get it, but I bought the book They Can Talk (Target link) (Amazon link) for SOMEbody.

 

Elizabeth (16) had Trixie and Katya’s Guide to Modern Womanhood (Target link) (Amazon link) on her list. I have no idea what the content is like, but I found out recently that she’s watched all the available episodes of the TV show Sex Education, which I am almost too embarrassed to watch IN THE HOUSE BY MYSELF because it is so explicit, so I feel the “Might this be too shocking for her?” ship has long sailed.

 

Last year Elizabeth wanted flannel pajamas, and I got her some Old Navy ones on a good sale, and they were a big hit and she wears them all the time, including wearing the tops as shirts and the pants under her ripped-up jeans for warmth. So this year I got her a couple more pairs. They’re going in and out of stock, so if you don’t see the ones you want, it’s worth checking back later.

 

Elizabeth wanted a bunch of mushroom- and star-themed stuff. These Hot Topic mushroom earrings, and these mushroom rings, and this mushroom necklace. Some mushroom socks and star earrings that are now out of stock, which eases my pique about all these items being on a better sale right now than the one I bought them on last month.

 

These star earrings from Aeropostale, and I also got her the star photo-clip lights, and the celestial nail stickers and mushroom t-shirt that now seem to be sold out. It’s making me a little twitchy to see how much is sold out.

 

And this super-soft star sweatshirt was on sale for Black Friday, so I bought that for her, too.

 

Henry really likes red buffalo plaid, so I got him these sheets.

 

Henry had “ring” on his wish list. He already has this one in black with his initial on it in a fancy font, and he wears it all the time, and so I was just browsing Etsy looking for something he might also like, and this one made from a Japanese coin caught my eye.

 

I got my niece (12) a selection of body mists from The Body Shop. I don’t know if she’ll like them or not, but it’s a fun gift to GIVE, anyway, since her mother and I both loved stuff from The Body Shop in our teens. And I was trying to think about what I liked at age 12, and some of my favorite gifts were the ones from my aunt who would give me the same gifts she was buying for her 16-year-old daughter, so I got things that were thrillingly too old for me, like a bottle of perfume I used to scent kleenex and stationery; a thin delicate gold bracelet I almost immediately bent out of shape; and an icy-pastel-button-down-shirt/hot-colored-sweater-vest/plastic-pastel-pearls combo that was EXTREMELY IN STYLE with older girls at the time.

 

I got this fidget toy for a couple of the kids when it was on a Black Friday sale for $7-something.

 

These popping fidget thingies are very popular at school right now. Elizabeth and her friends all bought matching ones, which is good because I could buy this 4-pack without having to decide which of my children I like least.

 

Weird But True Christmas (Target link) (Amazon link) looks like it’s probably a little too young for my kids, but I got it for Henry’s stocking anyway. (I was very interested in a review of it, which pointed out that it can spoil the Santa myth if your kids still believe in that. That’s something I forget to consider.)

 

This Starface gift set was more than I like to spend on a stocking item, even at the $13 sale price, but it doesn’t seem right to wrap an acne treatment set and put it under the tree, either, if the child hasn’t REQUESTED such a thing. So it’s going into Elizabeth’s stocking. She and I normally use little invisible circle treatment patches for pimples (I got very few pimples as a teenager, but perimenopause has welcomed them back into my life more regularly), but these go for a different approach: the patches are brightly-colored/holographic star shapes. If she doesn’t want to use them, I will.

 

Similarly, even at the $10ish sale price, I don’t want to wrap shaving supplies, even a cute set of them, and put them under the tree for Henry (WHO NOW NEEDS TO START SHAVING, I say incredulously to those of you who have been here since he was a newborn). I consider this to be “stuff I would have just picked up for him at Target during a regular shopping trip,” but with a $5 upgrade to something more special, so it’s really just a $5 stocking thing.

 

This Christmas kittens t-shirt was a BEFORE-Christmas present for Henry.

 

I hope lots of you have gift-buying reports, too; I need more things for Henry especially.

The Galentine’s Day packages are all done and everything has arrived, so now I will not feel like I’m spoiling any surprises if I discuss what was IN them. And also, this will enable you to assemble a Swistle Target care package for yourself or for someone else, if that’s something you would like to do!

I asked each winner these questions:

• Does the recipient drink coffee? tea? cocoa?
• Allergies / sensitivities / dietary restrictions?
• Prefer a sort of FOOD-BASED box or more of a NON-food-based box?
• Favorite color, in case something has a color choice?
• Would hair elastics or hair clips be of any use?
• Anything else that might be helpful to know?

and I used those for my starting point, for thinking about the person and getting an idea of them. Perhaps you will be a little irritated by the pervasive non-parallel structure of those questions, as I am, and yet not be motivated to fix them, as I also am not.

For MANY of the packages, I began by choosing a mug to contain the answer to the first question, and because mug-plus-hot-drink feels cozy and affectionate to me. This section of the post may be a little discouraging, because hardly any of these are in stock anymore. (Some of them may still be available in the actual Target store, which is where I found the first mug for myself after it sold out online.) But the way I FOUND these mugs was by searching “mug” and/or “OpalHouse mug,” and that is where I would start if I were doing this again: Target always has an assortment of cute mugs, and there’s no need to have These Exact Ones.

My favorite color is green, and it’s hard to find things in green. So if someone answered that THEIR favorite color was green, I tended to choose this Cup of Happy mug, guessing that, whether or not they would have chosen this mug or its message for themselves, they would nevertheless enjoy its rare greenness. I also chose it for people who did NOT say their favorite color was green, just because I liked it and thought it was a pretty good cheerful mug for a care package.

More examples of mugs I chose:

Hello Gorgeous mug. Friendly! Flattering! It doesn’t have to be weird that your mug is making a pass at you!

 

You’re Doing Great mug. The one I sent had different colors/design, but that one is now out of stock, replaced by this one, and I would have just as happily sent this one if this were the one available at the time. This seemed like an especially good mug for a care package sent in These Uncertain Times, I thought. WE ARE DOING GREAT, CONSIDERING.

 

This Is Going Well mug. I have this mug and enjoy it on days when things are not going well. (I also find this Nope mug persistently amusing, for reasons I can’t quite put a finger on.)

 

Floral mug. This one wasn’t available yet when I was sending packages or else I definitely would have sent it in some of them. I include it now in case you are thinking of putting together a pretty Mother’s Day package for someone.

Next! I added the coffee and/or tea and/or cocoa to put INTO the mug. For coffee drinkers, I often chose this pretty bag of Starbucks coffee:

It seemed so cheerful and hopeful to be talking about spring. If I were creating a care package at a different time of year, I would pick whatever seasonal blend was available at the time.

Or sometimes I sent this cold brew concentrate, either black or caramel, because that seemed fun and like something someone might not buy for themselves as easily as they’d buy a bag of coffee grounds, and because I was surprised it was available for shipping when it is so heavy and liquid.

 

Sometimes I added some of these little flavored creamers I like:

 

For tea drinkers, I liked to choose a Harney & Sons tea, because it comes in such pretty tins, and because it seems like the sort of thing a person might not just casually buy for themselves the way they’d buy a $2 box of tea at the grocery store. I chose WHICH tin based on (1) what the recipient said about tea (caffeinated/herbal, their usual preferred flavors, etc.) plus (2) what the recipient said about their favorite color. I would reluctantly allow the tea itself to outweigh the color of the tin, but it WAS fun when someone said, for example, that they liked herbal teas and the color green, and I could send them a perfect combination:

But sometimes the fancy tin took up too big a chunk of the budget for a particular recipient (i.e., there were other things I MORE wanted to send them), or I had some other reason for wanting to send a different tea, so sometimes instead I sent one of my own less expensive favorites, such as probiotic tea in lemon ginger (tastes better) or lavender chamomile (more emotionally soothing).:

Or one that isn’t necessarily one of my favorites, but falls firmly into the Fun To Try and Maybe You Don’t Already Have It category, such as Tazo Glazed Lemon Loaf.

 

For cocoa drinkers, sometimes I sent a box of Lucky Charms hot chocolate, because I had just mentioned it in a post about some fun things I’d added to a Target order, and I thought that might have made other people interested to try it too. I chose this option more often if I knew the recipient had children because, for myself, I wanted to try one envelope of it and that was enough, and it’s nice to have children to surprise with the extras. I also chose it more often for recipients who seemed like they needed some fun/joy, because I found the entire concept delightful: the odd product combination! the little envelope of familiar cocoa, attached to a little separate envelope of cheery marshmallows!

 

But sometimes instead I chose to send my new favorite weird fun-to-try hot chocolate, which is this cinnamon one I bought for pure novelty and am now on my second box of:

 

And sometimes I added a bag of fancy Smashmallow marshmallows:

 

Next! I added TREATS and SNACKS. Because this care package idea started as a Galentine’s/Valentine’s thing, I liked the idea of a box of chocolates; I often chose a box of Ferrero Rocher, which is one of my own favorites:

 

For the earlier packages, I often included a bag of Valentine’s candy, like Valentine’s Hershey Kisses, but then those sold out. For a few, I included a bag of Cadbury mini eggs:

Sometimes I included a box of this cookie-brownie mix, which is another of my own favorite treats:

 

Sometimes a bag of kettle corn, which has been one of my dearest friends during this pandemic:

 

And/or white cheddar Popcorners, another of my favorites:

 

If the recipient was doing keto, I sent one of my own top favorite keto treats, these Quest peanut butter cups:

 

NEXT! Fun little beauty/care items! Pretty much everyone got a nail polish. Sometimes I chose one based on the recipient’s favorite color, but otherwise I mostly chose this smacks-of-spring Lacey Lilac:

 

I have one of these wee little pots of Vaseline lip therapy next to my reading chair, and I don’t stop being charmed by how wee it is, and I liked how the pink/rose thing fit into the Valentine’s/spring concepts, and so I sent out a lot of these, too:

 

I had a lot of beauty face masks accumulating in the bathroom cabinet, and recently I stopped trying to save them for a special occasion (especially since I would never use them before a special occasion, just in case I might have an unexpected reaction), and just started USING them, so those were on my mind when I was trying to think of fun little beauty things. Sometimes I chose one based on the person’s favorite color, not because the color of a face-mask package MATTERS, but just because I think it makes your eyes happy if you open up a box and see a color you like, and because I knew I didn’t know what kind the person would want ANYWAY, so Favorite Color seemed as good a way to decide as any. Or I would choose a pink/red one, for the Galentine’s/Valentine’s theme. Or I would choose a hydrating option (because it was winter) or a lavender option (for stress) or a peeling option (for fun).

 

I was going for a Tenderly Taking Care of You theme for these packages, and so I sent out a lot of my favorite Pond’s face cream:

I love this stuff, and it feels like one of those products that endures because it just keeps being good. Products with charcoal or herbs or algae may come and go, and those are enjoyable too, but Pond’s just keeps being Pond’s and it’s comforting to use something so reliable.

 

I also sent a fair number of Thayer’s rose petal facial mists, which I use—among many, many other facial mists, because once I started acquiring them it was difficult to stop:

 

Hand soap is a Love Language now, so I think every single person got one of those. As long as the recipient didn’t mention an aversion/allergy to scented things, I generally sent my own favorite, which is Everspring lavender bergamot, and I chose the foaming kind because it’s more fun and because that’s what I buy because it’s more fun:

 

Toward the end of the packages, I stumbled by accident on THIS gorgeous creature, and chose it for I think every single one of the remaining packages:

It’s ORANGE AND PINK! The tiger’s TAIL is on the back of the bottle!! It says “Be gentle with yourself” on the side!! What could be more perfect for Galentine’s Day???

 

Then it was a matter of adding miscellaneous things based on my sense of the recipient. SOME recipients became notecard twins with me (these cards are EXTREMELY MY VIBE):

 

SOME recipients joined me on my current Trying Weird Cereals journey (I take one day off from keto per week, and the FIRST THING I eat on those days is CEREAL):

 

SOME got cozy socks, until it started feeling too springlike for that:

 

They’re out of stock now, but while I was still trying to find heart/Valentine’s items, SOME recipients got heart-shaped paper plates:

and/or a heart-shaped melamine plate:

and/or glitter heart stickers:

and/or these heart baggies:

Once the heart baggies sold out, I switched to sending these elephant/heart ones:

 

When it became March and I switched from a hearts theme to more of a spring theme, I sent a lot of these spring floral string lights, which I also bought for myself:

and one or the other or both of these spring bunny/floral melamine plates, which I also bought for myself:

and sometimes the coordinating paper napkins:

 

SOME recipients got fabric face masks, especially if it worked with their favorite color:

 

SOME recipients got a cheery dish towel. First I was sending out a heart-patterned one, but then that sold out, and then I was switching to more of a SPRING thing, so then I sent this one in yellow or occasionally in pink:

 

If the recipient were a teacher, or someone else who would be doing a lot more hand washing/sanitizing, sometimes I sent moisturizing hand sanitizer:

or a repairing hand mask:

or an overnight hand treatment:

or this Neutrogena hand cream, which is really good and I’d forgotten all about it:

 

For recipients who seemed like they needed some color and fun, I sometimes chose this pack of bowls:

and/or a pack of LED light-up balloons:

and/or these little cuties:

and/or this fancy little gentleman (they have new ones seasonally; search “Spritz bird”):

 

I sent flower earrings once or twice, but then remembered not everyone has pierced ears, and some people have grabby babies, and etc., so I stopped:

 

I asked the hair-accessories question mostly because of these spiral phone-cord hair elastics, which I have and love:

and for this cheery springlike bow barrette, which I didn’t buy for myself at the time but now have added to my cart:

[Hello, I am here from the future to add a note to myself, and to you, which is to use the search term “Bullseye’s Playground” on the Target site (and then, I recommend, sort price low-to-high). Tons of odd not-very-expensive interesting things such as animal-shaped planters, fake tulips, inexpensive yoga equipment, seasonal dish towels, cute dish cloths, pretty jar candles, wall stickers, fairy lights—a bunch of stuff I wish I’d seen when I was making the packages. And tons of things in MULTIPLES (four plants, three jar candles, four towels, ten fake tulips), which would be perfect if you were ordering things to assemble gift bags for local friends.]

My brother and sister-in-law bought me several months of a Universal Yums subscription for Christmas, and I can HEARTILY RECOMMEND this idea. A box arrives FULL OF INTERESTING SNACKS from a particular country. Bubble chocolate! Veal-flavored potato chips! Stroopwafels! I sit down with the box and try a bite of every single thing, one after another, while reading the little booklet that describes what the deal is with each item. A DELIGHT.

Anyway, last month was Ukraine, and in the box were these fruit jellies:

which I am delighted to discover I can temporarily order more of from the Universal Yums site, because I LOST MY FOOL MIND OVER THEM. I am not usually a fruit-candy person. I am not usually a gummi/gumdrop-candy person. But I ate these one after another, and made everyone else try them even though that meant fewer for myself, because I needed other people to agree how good they were. (No one else in my household was as enthusiastic as I was, though everyone said Yes, Mother, Very Nice.)

Here is what I liked about them: they are meltingly SOFT. Gummi candies vary in BOUNCINESS, and I do not like the bounce, and these have no bounce. Gumdrops aren’t very BOUNCY, but they tend to be FIRM, and these were not firm. Here is what I am wondering: do you know of other candies like this, but readily available in the U.S.? I have heard Haribo highly praised, but it is WAY TOO BOUNCY. (I do not CRITICIZE it for this: it is SUPPOSED to be bouncy. But I am looking for NOT-bouncy.) I have tried Sunkist Fruit Gems, and those are VERY CLOSE to what I’m looking for, but not quite soft enough, and also the flavors except raspberry feel like they’re burning my mouth with citric acid.

 

NEXT TOPIC. Stain treatments. I already have spritz-on stain treatments I like, but I wanted to ask if you have favorite add-a-scoop-to-the-whole-load-of-laundry kinds. My parents moved, and when they moved they left us a lot of cleaning supplies, and so I finished off their tub of Oxi Clean and I really liked having something like that to use, especially for reusable pads and so forth, but also to put in with the littler boys’ laundry, since at least one of them still wipes his face/hands on his shirt/pants. I am wondering if Oxi Clean is the well-established Best, or if there are others you would recommend.