2017 Smart Bitches Gift Guide, Volume 6

We are getting closer and closer to Christmas, and we’re in the middle of Hanukkah, so let’s talk gifts that keep on giving, shall we?

In case you’ve missed prior editions, in gift guides past we’ve covered

• items that bring comfort and warmth 
• advent calendars
• all the lovely candles
• smart ass literary socks, nail polish, adorable zip purses, and more
• fuzzy socks, keepsakes, and nifty gifts for knitters and cross stitchers

This week, let’s talk subscriptions!

Subscriptions can make a lovely gift, especially if you give something that will keep surprising the recipient with things they really love, enjoy, or will use avidly. And boy howdy, are there a lot of subscription options for gifting.

Starting with boxes. You can subscribe to just about any box of stuff you’d like. You can gift a Loot Crate, an Ipsy glambag, Lit Cube, OwlCrate, Uppercase for a month or more – the list goes on.

You can send someone a StitchFix gift card (this would be a very nice gift for a new graduate, for example, or someone starting something new – though this edges a little close to my personal guiding rule of not giving things to people that suggest they need improvement in some way, but I trust you, obviously, to use your own kindness and discretion).

Friends and family of comics fans, take note! Elyse reports that Rich, aka Mr. Elyse, loves his Comics Bento subscription, and as he said in his review, the value for the money is tremendous.

We’ve talked often and eagerly about Bawdy Bookworms subscription box, and you can gift one to a friend (who will probably thank you effusively).

And, finally: Food! Graze boxes are monthly snack subscriptions that my family really likes, and I have an affiliate deal to share: use this link to unlock your 1st & 5th Graze snack boxes free.

Magazine subscriptions can make lovely gifts, too – especially if they’re for a full year of something that says, “It’s here! Time to go read and relax!” (I will be honest, my EW issues arrive on Saturday, and getting home after services to find it in my mailbox each week makes my Saturday pretty freaking great.)

Amazon has many magazine subscription deals right now. Often the deals rotate, and you can find a year for $5 or less. The trick is to set a reminder for a year from now to cancel or your gift subscription will renew – you’ll get an email about it beforehand, but I set a reminder anyway with a link to the subscriptions manager page.

Among the options:

• Family Circle– 1 year for $5.
• Martha Stewart Living – 1 year for $5.
• AllRecipes – 1 year for $5

And if the person on your list is more of a digital reader, you can give a gift subscription to a digital service like Texture, which allows access to a few hundred magazines through its app.

There are other subscription options for gifting that might make someone’s year a lot brighter. For example, you can give someone an Amazon Prime subscription as a gift. Or, you could give a an Audible gift subscription.

You can also send a Kindle Unlimited subscription for 6, 12, or 24 months to a reader you know. A printed certificate or card plus a mug, hot chocolate, and some slippers would make a really thoughtful gift for someone – one that would keep them reading for awhile!

There are also subscriptions on Etsy from individual creators that are really terrific, too!

Such as: stickers! RADdoodads has really fun, unique, and very cute stickers, and offers a three ($10), six ($20), and twelve month ($36) subscription options.

Recipients get a unique, handmade sticker in sets of 3 each month.  The stickers themselves are great, too – Fries Before Guys, anyone?

Just searching “sticker subscriptions” yields a bunch of options to choose from.

There are subscriptions for stickers, cards, washi, and other paper goods from OhHelloStationery, too ($20+).

One of my favorite gifts that I’ve given myself was a subscription for six months to Paris Letters from Janice MacLeod Studio. 

I read her book, Paris Letters, which talked about setting up her store after she asked herself the question, “How much does it cost to quit your life and travel?” Each month she illustrates a page from her daily walks around Paris, writes a letter, then sends copies to her subscribers. It sounds rather silly at first, but receiving a piece of mail that’s beautifully painted and contains a little vignette about the sights, smells, and experiences of that day was surprisingly exciting and pleasing to receive.

Three, six, and twelve month subscriptions are available for $10, $62, and $109, and the letters look like this:

For a friend who loves to travel or dreams of doing so, this might be a lovely gift.

HandMadeHabitat has a monthly candle subscription for three ($75), six ($140), or twelve months ($280). From the description:

Our Monthly Candle Subscription Service is a surprise package filled with beautiful all natural, vegan soy candles and special treats that you can only get from Handmade Habitat. 

Candles in this subscription will be from our Signature candle line or seasonal candle collections, in an 8-9 oz size candle.

For those of you who love to cook and experiment with spices, there are so many subscription and gift options.

The Kitchen Imp offers a six month subscription of organic spice blends for $115. Each month, subscribers will “receive 2 full sized jars of gourmet organic spice blends, as well as recipes for using them. Each tin makes 5 – 20 meals.” Not bad!

Socks? Sure! Friday Sock Company offers a mismatched sock subscription for 3 months up to a year ($39-140).

Ker-bloom’s letterpress zine is $20 for a year, and the reviews are stellar.

And…chocolate anyone?

Sweet Impact Chocolate, $80 for three months of chocolate.

Sarah S. also emailed me about chocolate suggestions:

I love the gift guides! I was thinking that I’d love to see some recommendations for fine chocolates/chocolatiers – good chocolatiers – that ship across the U.S.?

I can offer two of my own recommendations to start: La Chatelaine in Bozeman, MT has some amazing chocolates, though nothing is better than their standard truffle, in my opinion.

Also, French Broad Chocolates from Asheville, NC, near where I live, has good chocolates. While Chatelaine sells mostly truffles, French Broad sells bars and truffles both. My sister swears the raspberry truffles from French Broad are the best of all time. And FB always has a line out the door.

Seriously, “French Broad” is a terrific name for a chocolate store.

More subscriptions? SURE! Chocolate covered pretzels of the month start at $36.99. Honestly, just have a peek at the “chocolate subscription” options – including cookies, handmade chocolate, and more.

Also complete change of subject but I must tell you first that I have just learned you can subscribe to receive injera for three months. This is amazing.

Amanda suggested Etsy Mystery Boxes, which are exactly that – mystery boxes by theme or interest. Crochet? Yup. Knitting? Sure. As Amanda put it, “Often shops with overstock will put grab bags together – pins, jewelry, bath stuff, cosmetics, paper crafts, etc.”

Amanda also reminded me that you can gift someone a Passionflix subscription, too!

One month is $5.99, a year is $71.88, or you can gift a Founding Membership for $100, which is a two-year subscription with lots of extras included.

If someone you know loves British tv, you can give someone an Acorn TV subscription. (I’m always tempted to get one for myself, I have to confess.)

Two last things!

One: I LOVE hearing from you with suggestions for the gift guide. As I’ve said so often, if you’ve got ideas or suggestions, email me!

Second: Any and all holiday and every day shopping you do through our affiliate links is immeasurably helpful to keeping the site going. I’m including links below for your convenience. Thank you in advance!

     

Happy shopping!