The most precious gift you can bestow during the hectic holiday season is your full attention and time. Appreciate what you have together.
Gift-giving during the holiday season is complicated. For starters, not everyone celebrates the same events during the holiday season that stretches from late October through the middle of January. To make things worse, there are more times when you need to give a gift during the holidays than any other time. If you’re invited to Thanksgiving dinner, you should bring a gift to the host. Then there’s Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year’s, and any number of other little holidays along the way.
As a general rule, any time you’re invited to someone’s home during the holidays, whether it’s for a cup of coffee, a big meal, a celebration, or any reason at all, you should have something to give as a sign of friendship and thanks. With that in mind, I’ve come up with three different gifts that suit just about any occasion, and that any host would be happy to get. These gift ideas may seem simple, but I’ve found that a simple gift idea is often the best kind.
1. Wine
A gift of wine (or beer, if you think your hosts are more the beer-drinking type) is perfect during the holiday season. Let’s face it: the holidays are mostly about eating. Between the bounty of Thanksgiving and the traditional meals served for Christian and Jewish holidays, food is probably the number one focus of our November-to-January holiday season. Wine is a perfect gift for a party involving food. After all, pairing food and wine is a science unto itself. As for what sort of wine to bring, I follow one simple rule. I try to keep a small collection of both red and white wines, and I only gift wine or beer that I would actually drink myself. Put a little thought into it, and try to match the occasion to the wine. A New Year’s Eve party is the perfect time to bring an inexpensive sparkling wine, while a dinner party around Thanksgiving is the time for a full-flavored red.
2. Food
So we’ve already established that food dominates the holidays. If you’re invited to a party, even if it isn’t a dinner party or a party built around any other meal, bringing a little bit of food with you is a great way to show your host that you’re willing to contribute. You don’t even have to cook the food you bring: I’ve found that a pre-fab veggie tray or a nice loaf of bread picked up fresh from a bakery is a much-appreciated gift of food during the holidays.
3. A Personal Note
Depending on how well you know your host, sometimes your presence alone is a gift unto itself. This is especially true if you’re travelling a long distance to take part in a party or celebration. When I can’t find an appropriate gift or find myself without a good bottle of wine to bring, I tend to write a short note on a card and hand it personally to the host. You can make the note as personal or as general as you want. The point of giving a card to the host is to thank them for inviting you, and to show your appreciation by taking some time out of your day to write them a personalized note.
