Gift Guide Avoids Holiday Debt

Most people think of Christmas as a time for cookies, gifts, and celebration, all the while forgetting that the aftermath is usually a $30,000 Visa debt. Though it’s hard to change the fact that Christmas gift shopping leaves a heavy dent in your wallet, looking to a gift guide makes the money-draining process just a bit more bearable.

To save you the effort of looking through the various irrelevant or outdated slideshows courtesy of Cosmopolitan or TeenVogue, this guide will have your holiday gift shopping covered, whether it’s for your new girlfriend to your Great Aunt Rosie who thinks that Billy Ray Cyrus is still cool.

For literally anyone:

No matter what kind of person you are shopping for, he or she probably enjoys music, so headphones are always the go-to choice in times of gift-giving distress. I can’t give you a reason why Beats headphones are better than, say, Skullcandy or Bose, but they’re iconic and they come in pretty colors. Plus, you can never have enough pairs of headphones. Just imagine, a pair for school, home, work, or the car!

For the Beauty Junkie:

Everyone likes a pleasant aroma. The Body Shop offers best-selling body butters that smell like fruit, vanilla, and heaven. They also do an amazing job at moisturizing, which is a bonus.

For the CBS Binge-watcher:

Go behind the scenes of the undoubtedly awesome Mr. Barney Stinson with Neil Patrick Harris’s Choose Your Own Autobiography. This innovative spin on a classic, factual nonfiction puts the U in autobiography with an interactive feature that allows the reader to choose their own path while living Harris’s crazy life.

For Dad:

Does your dad have a phone? Does he drink anything out of a glass bottle? Opena Case, the phone case/bottle opener will definitely allow his Christmas apple cider opening to be successful without having to cut the cap off with a Swiss Army pocketknife.

For Mom:

For Mom, I always, always, always look to Anthropologie. Ok, so she never holds wine tastings, but maybe if she had those little $40 wineglasses she would.

For the Athlete:

In my experience this gift is usually a t-shirt or a baseball cap, but that doesn’t mean yours has to be. An underrated but awesome gift (or really just a great purchase in general): a mini hockey table that would make their 10 hour road trip to that January tournament in Nevada less mind-numbingly boring.

For the Cousin You Never Met:

In my opinion, no gift guide is complete without a fragrance. Did your mom just tell you that this year you must get a gift for that cousin you didn’t even know you had? And then when you reluctantly began browsing online, you realized that you don’t even know if this cousin is a guy or a girl. Enter Calvin Klein’s CK One. This unisex fragrance will ensure that your guy cousins don’t get a Barbie doll in the mail.

Then again, you may find that nothing on this list really hits the mark. If you’re lazy like me, or just really didn’t want to take the time to get to know your best friends over the years, just drop by CVS with $25 and pick up a Visa gift card or something.