The Anti-Gift Guide Holiday Gift Guide

fwiw: this isn't an anti-capitalist or anti-influencer rant, I promise! Instead, it's a set of tools to help YOU give great gifts, year after year, that keeps gifting personal and connected.

I’m just going to say it — I don’t love gift guides. I admit they’re useful (to a point) and do have their place (more on that later—keep reading) but relying solely on them feels like it takes away some of the personalization and connection that makes gifting, well, gifting.

The ‘Gift Guide’ was a staple of department stores, going as far back as the 1920s when Neiman Marcus first published their 16-page Christmas Book¹. Since then, retailers have sent out catalogues and pamphlets helping customers shop for the holidays.

In more modern times, we’ve seen online publications (notably, Goop) create curated lists of favorite gifts for “everyone” (or in the case of Goop, for…no one?) Bloggers followed suit, and now it seems influencers and creators of all levels are cranking them out.

Identified by collages made in Canva and littered with affiliate links, I believe the gift guide truly does have good intentions. Gifting is hard. It’s emotional, involves our loved ones and our finances, and …