Holiday Gift Hacks

*Thank you Beall’s Outlet for sponsoring this post. Regardless, I only recommend brands I truly love and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I’ve loved gift-giving as long as I can remember. And not just giving the gift – I mean the whole process. Thinking about the person and what they might like, developing a theme, searching for those products (and trying to get the best deals), wrapping them, and then watching their faces light up when they open them. Even as a little kid I remember enjoying all these steps, and begging my mom to let me help with wrapping all the gifts and even making the cards to go with them. And naturally the holidays are when we do the most gift-giving. Years ago, someone even commented that I gave really good gifts and I remember it as one as the best compliments I’ve ever received. I love that we live close to a Beall’s Outlet which has the brands, variety, and prices, to make it easy to get gifts for everyone on my list, as well as the essentials for wrapping them all up. In all these years of giving gifts, here’s what I’ve picked up on as my best gift-giving hacks:

–Make a list of everyone you need to shop for early. Try to have a list before Thanksgiving of everyone you need to get a gift for. Also make note of any hints they’ve dropped about what they might like. I’m not a huge fan of everyone buying everyone else exactly what they wrote on a list but, especially with kids, it is good to take their wishes into consideration. I also like the surprise element and I enjoy putting thought into my gifts. Having a list early on helps your brain start thinking about what to get, and keeps you on alert when you’re out and about or browsing for additions to gifts you’ve already purchased.

–Quality over quantity. It’s never about the number of gifts – it’s more touching to gift someone a quality gift that they will cherish for a long time. That’s why it’s important to take into account the brand and the product that you’re purchasing. At Beall’s Outlet I love that there is a variety of brands and most of them are well known brands that I trust to make quality products. In the kids section, I found one of our favorite toy brands, Melissa and Doug, as well as some of our favorite book publishing companies, clothing brands, and even name brand products like Homedics in the technology section, and Batiste, Chi, and Conair in the beauty section! I’m using the beauty products for a white elephant gift I needed that I know will be a hit!

–Tie things together. And I don’t mean in the literal sense here. I mean to have a little bit of a theme, get things that tie together into that theme, and wrap those up together. For example: a cozy night theme where you buy slippers, hot chocolate, and a good book. Or a workout theme where you grab some workout apparel, a sports arm band for holding their phone, and sports headphones.

–Utilize One Stop Shopping. Going to a million different stores for all your gift needs could take forever and there’s no reason to subject yourself to that. I’m a huge fan of stores that offer one-stop shopping. You know what I mean – they carry something for everyone. That is Beall’s Outlet. I literally only had to go to Beall’s Outlet to get everything on our list. For Maddie Grace, they had baby dolls galore (all she ever asks for), art projects, toys with her favorite princess characters, and books. For Tripp they had building blocks, dinosaur toys, tons of books, and sports equipment. For Tom we found belts (all he says he wants) and socks, and some of the electronic goodies he’s been looking for at great prices. For the grandparents, we found picture frames and other home gifts. And for me? All I want is beauty products, which they had a ton of! In less than an hour I got something for everyone, all the wrapping supplies we need, and even some stocking-stuffers like holiday candies.

-Get Kids to Help with Wrapping. Okay, so Tripp was literally no help in wrapping gifts. In fact, he was doing the opposite of helping, but my 3.5 year old Maddie Grace was a surprisingly huge help in wrapping all the gifts. For the paper wrapping she kept track of where all the supplies were, held the tape for me, and wanted to put the to/from sticker on every package. For the gifts we were putting in gift bags, she helped put everything in the bags and stuff them with tissue paper! This seriously made my job so much easier and she loved every minute of it! It also helped that we made an event of it and played holiday music, had hot chocolate, and she got to open a couple of little things early!

There you have my very top hacks for making holiday gift shopping and giving as easy and stress free as possible. I’m so glad to have all of our gift shopping, and wrapping, done with so we can focus on enjoying all the other holiday festivities! Check out this video of our gift giving process:

Do you have any holiday gift giving hacks? Have you completed your holiday shopping yet? I’d love to hear from you below!