Oh no! Is it Thanksgiving already!? We’re in the holidays!? Stop hyperventilating! The thing with holidays is, it’s meant to be a time to show people love – to gather round the table or fire or tree and share joy. Instead of of stressing about gifts, remember that it really is the thought that counts.
For us, this holiday season will be hard. It’s the first anniversary of our brother’s passing, and our focus is on spending time with loved ones. Of course we still give gifts, but we put deep thought into each. Rather than focus on things we focused on giving experiences. My sisters and I text up a storm ideas on how to gift “time” and events. Memories will last longer than a toy thrown in a closet and forgotten after a week of use.
We’ve done this before, previously giving donations or only handmade gifts. This year, if it’s an object or thing we’re giving, we’re doing so by supporting small businesses as much as possible. When you make a decision to shop with someone, a person whose face you see or know, it makes a difference in their lives. If you use the links on our blog, a small portion of your purchase helps our family. For that, we are so very, very grateful – and is the reason we are thanking you for being here with a GIVEAWAY at the end!
In the spirit of Small Business Saturday, we encourage you to shop small. Buy from independent shops, independent consultants, and fair trade businesses. And, failing that, we appreciate you using ours or another blogger’s links to support OUR small businesses ♥
For the Cook
1. Magic Mill Sous Vide Machine: Perfect for lots of precise cooking, but specifically we’ve been buying a lot of those Starbuck’s egg bites lately and this would be a great way to re-create them in your own home (you know, with loved ones around).
2. Aozita Stackable Steamer Insert Pans for Instant Pot: So our Instant Pot is great for a lot of things, but steaming could definitely be improved. There’s no great way to keep your food out of the water! Luckily, these insert-able baskets do just that – so you can nourish your family and friends with healthy food without spending all day in the kitchen!
For the Gamer
3. What Do You Meme: A hilarious (and inappropriate) game that Stacy demoed one day at a game store and immediately had to have. If you love Cards Against Humanity you’ll love playing this at age-appropriate parties!
4. Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle: A cooperative deck building game (our favorite! Like Legendary!) for the Harry Potter fan in your life. Simple enough for preteens, but interesting enough for adults.
5. 
For the Tech Head
6. Amazon Echo: This gift seems the opposite of our “theme” this year – but honestly, our family has a ton of fun taking turns shouting, “Alexa!..” It’s not often you can find something to entertain your middle schooler boy, but he’s become the master of “ALEXA! Play [a really annoying song] from YouTube!” and getting us all giggling. Alexa is also awesome for turning on and off all the lights, setting timers, and playing our music. I’m sure there will be a crazy good Black Friday & Cyber Monday deal on it, too!
For your Little Geeks
7. Loot Crates: So you’ve probably heard of Lootcrate before, but we all have one and love it! Each of us has a focus (Stacy has a Harry Potter one and Matt has a Marvel one, for example) and it’s so exciting to get stuff you love in the mail! You can also find “crates” for lots of different things, Stacy recently found a “Rock Box” for our nephew who loves science. The awesome part of this gift is that kids get something that that keeps coming all year. This year we renewed Cole’s, so to give it as a gift we saved the most recent crate to wrap and put under the tree with a note that it was renewed. They’re not cheap, but our boys look forward to them every month and was the one thing Cole said he wanted this year!
Books We Love!
9. The Vision Volume 1: Little Worse than a Man by Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta: Matt says this is the best comic series he’s read this year. It’s a thrilling, philosophic story told in two volumes about everyone’s favorite synthetic man, The Vision.
10. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Getaway by Jeff Kinne: Cole and Finn LOVE this series and the newest one just came out!
11. Dog Man by Dav Pilkey: Wesley first chapter book series – he read this book (by himself!) and became OBSESSED with them. Little kid silliness about a dog policeman in comic book format, but challenging enough for your 7 year old.
For those that want to do good
12. Cuddle and Kind: Stacy was first introduced to these cute, snuggly, knit dolls, perfect for babies and little kids, when Primal Palate gifted them to A Tribe Beyond Blessed‘s baby shower. They were the perfect gift for the older sister and when we learned of the mission we fell in love! Every doll is handmade by fairly paid women in Peru, and then for every doll sold, ten meals are donated to hungry children! So you’ll give a present to the baby in your life, make sure women in Peru can provide for their babies, AND help feel ten babies with your purchase! What an amazing company!
13. Sseko Designs: Sseko is another company doing good on multiple levels! First of all, it is sold by independent consultants, so every purchase is going to supports someone’s small business. But the more impressive concept is that everything is fair trade goods handmade by women in East Africa and the company employs women in Uganda to help fund their college education. Plus the designs are really cool and fashionable!
14. NoonDay Collection: NoonDay Collection is a company that supports fair trade artisans all over the world. Not only is it supporting small worldwide businesses, but 10% of their sales also go to facilitate adoptions from impoverished countries and you’re supporting a small woman-owned business through their independent consultants.
15. Heifer International: Heifer has long been our favorite charity. We’ve donate several times over the years thanks to your support! They’re dedicated to donating animals to families so that they can turn that donation into sustainable farms in impoverished countries. And we’re all about small farms!
16. For those that want to gift healthy personal care items
As you know, we’re on a mission to help people take the toxic chemicals out of their skin and personal care products. We work with Beautycounter because their testing standards (for hormone disrputing chemicals and heavy metals) is unlike any other in the industry. Plus, the products are high-performance – so they feel like things you’d find at Sephora or department stores. Their mission for advocacy and education is something that has become very important to us as we learn more about how very harmful and directly linked to cancer and illness standard personal care products are.
Gifts with Purchase from Beautycounter
That said, in both October and earlier this month I already ran two big specials. So this weekend for the HUGE Black Friday and Cyber Monday specials, I recommend you purchase through one of my team members.
Noelle from Coconuts and Kettlebells – spend $135 and get a free Charcoal Cleansing Bar ($24 value) or for orders over $250 get the Smokey Eye Trio with mascara, liquid eyeliner, and smokey shadow ($38 value). You must use THIS LINK and then fill out THIS FORM.
Vee from Authentically Nourished Vee – spend $75 and get a free lip gloss from the trios (you choose pinks or nudes) ($29 value) AND 10% off future purchase of $75+ OR for orders of $175 or more get 20% off a future purchase of $175+ AND the Highlighting Trio ($55 value). You must use THIS LINK.
In both cases, you can also sign up for Band of Beauty and get the Nourishing Cream Cleanser, too! It’s like Beautycounter’s version of Prime. Of course, these holidays deals are while supplies last; and all amounts are before you use Band of Beauty credit. If you’d like to use a Gift Certificate I gave you in October your purchase must be with me, and therefore will not qualify for Noelle or Vee’s additional offers.
If you want to get on board, the holiday season is a perfect time to do so because the holiday gifts are tremendous deals! Then you combine those sets with the great deals this weekend PLUS with the teams’ freebies and you’re getting HUGE values.
Wanna know more about the holiday gift sets? We recently did a video on our 7 favorite holiday items which you can view below.
Check it out. Plus, see all of the holiday items HERE.
THE PROMISED GIVEAWAY!
The deal is simple: leave a comment on which of these items you would most like to give or receive this holiday season. We’ll pick a winner who will receive their item! Yup, THAT’S IT!
