5 Ways to make holiday gift giving easier!

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The Christmas season is both awesome and stressful. Figuring out how to pull off all the extras on top of your regular tasks isn’t always easy. And don’t even get me started on Christmas gift giving. I don’t think I’m the only one who has people on my list impossible to buy for, right?

So I did my best to come up with good ideas and tips to simplify Christmas gift giving. The Christmas season and gift giving should be more fun than stress. These ideas can help you have less stress this year!

Organize your Christmas gift ideas

I’m big on lists. I’m the kind of person who makes lists for everything — and you know that’s going to include Christmas gift ideas! Until this year I’ve made my Christmas gift list in a spreadsheet. It works, but it gets a bit unwieldy as I do my best to add in product links. And then when it’s time to send those gift ideas to others (like grandparents), it gets a bit wearisome.

So I was super excited to discover the Amazon Holiday Gift List. I have used Amazon lists before, but I hadn’t tried the Holiday Gift List. The difference is that you can have one main list with various tags. Basically you can organize links to all your gift ideas for various people in one place. I know! It’s my newest, most favorite organization tool for Christmas gifts this year!

You can set the list to be private (meaning only you can see it), shareable (meaning only people who you give the link to can see it) or public (everybody can see it). Right now, I have mine set to private, but I’m going to switch it to shareable and pass it along to my parents and in-laws.

Once you’ve created your Amazon Holiday Gift List, you add items to it by clicking on the “Add to registry” button instead of the “Add to list” button in order to find your list. You can tag items from there as to which person they go with. For example, I created a list called “Christmas 2021” and created tags for each member of my family.

I have a second list called “Other Christmas Gifts 2021” with tags for extended family members, teachers and anyone else we are going to buy gifts for. Then I can organize my gift ideas for those folks as well. Then I’m free to share my family list with my parents and in-laws while also keeping my gift ideas for them a secret from them.

I’m quite loving the Amazon Holiday Gift List this year. My kids even used it to add items for themselves. My 12-year-old helped my 8-year-old add his items. Nice!

Other nice features with the gift list is that it keeps track of who buys what to make it easy for sending thank you cards and it also has a variety of different gift ideas on the main page to help you out as you come up with ideas. You can even customize the photo at the top of your Amazon Holiday Gift List!

Have some general Christmas gift ideas in mind

One of the most difficult parts of Christmas gift giving is coming up with ideas for everyone on your list. Christmas gift lists abound, though, to help make life easier. Check out the following links to ideas!

Christmas gift ideas for people who are hard to shop for: If you’re buying for people who basically have everything, you need these 40 gifts under $30 that everyone will love!

15 Christmas gifts under $20 for almost everyone on your list: If you don’t have much time, start with this short list that’s packed full of great ideas for everyone from your mother-in-law to your kids’ teachers.

Gifts for everyone: If you need to just explore and find all sorts of ideas, Amazon has you covered with lots of categories from fashion to toys to stocking stuffers. You can also easily look for gifts in price ranges to fit your budget.

Quirky, fun holiday gift ideas under $25 for everyone on your list: For gifts that are a bit out-of-the-ordinary and fun, this list has you covered with more than 44 Christmas gift ideas

Handmade holiday gift guide: This gift guide from Amazon is packed with ideas of personalized and unique gifts from some of the small businesses who sell on Amazon.

30+ White elephant gift ideas under $20: Find more than 30 ideas under $20 for white elephant gifts that are fun and not embarrassing.

Find a couple of designated hiding spots for Christmas gifts

I don’t like waiting until the last minute to get or order Christmas gifts. So I have to come up with a solution for hiding the gifts once they start arriving. I try to keep them in one or two spots so I don’t forget anything, which has totally happened!

The best hiding spots are ones that your family members seldom access. Use a plastic tote in your garage, the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet nobody else uses, a box in the back of a closet. But keep in mind where you put things. With your Amazon Holiday Gift List, you’ll be able to keep track of what you’ve purchased and know what you should have. You just need to make sure you know where they are!

Wrap as you go

Another great strategy for simplifying Christmas gift buying this season is to wrap your gifts as you go. First, it will make hiding them easier. Even if prying eyes find them, they won’t know what’s under the wrapping paper! Second, it will save you from having a wrapping marathon session.

Honestly, I don’t wrap each individual gift as I go, since in the early days of shopping they trickle in slowly. Instead, once I have a few then I do a small wrapping session to help cut down on my stress just before Christmas.

Ship Christmas gifts directly to out-of-town friends and family

Figuring out how to get Christmas gifts to friends and family who live away from us is easier than ever. While postal rates have increased, many stores include gift wrapping options and will ship straight to your out-of-town recipient. I’ve utilized this feature from Amazon for my niece and nephews who live states away. It’s usually $5 or so for gift wrapping and looks nice.

Another option for shipping directly to your recipient is doing a subscription box. With a monthly box arriving to their doorstep for however long you choose, you don’t have to do anything more than pick the subscription and pay. Pretty easy peasy! Amazon has a wide variety of subscription boxes in various price ranges for both adults and kids.

Digital subscriptions are another easy option for gift giving. A few years ago, my husband gifted me with Kindle Unlimited. There are so many books available to read for free. I’ve maintained my subscription because I like it so very much and find it even easier than downloading books from my library. I highly recommend it for readers! And “A Family Christmas: 25 Days of 5-Minute Family Christmas Devotions” is included in Kindle Unlimited.

Finally, if all else fails, go with gift cards so they can purchase what they want. I’m a big fan of Amazon gift cards just because you really can get anything on Amazon. You can even send the gift cards digitally, which is great if it’s a last-minute situation!