Top Ten Gifts for Personalized Gift-Giving for Family and Friends

Around this time of year, I face the daunting task of buying presents for each of my mothers and fathers 11 brothers and sisters, their spouses, and their kids. As a student, I do not have a ton of money to spend, however I do want to do something special for all these important people in my life. Instead of trying to buy something individually for each of them, and only being able to spend $5-$10 on each gift, I buy personalized gifts in larger quantities that would be a great gift for all. I have listed some of my favorites below. Some might think that to buy a personalized gift, it is very expensive or, to get a good price, you need to buy hundreds of them. But that is not the case! You can buy personalized gifts, with sayings such as "Merry Christmas! December, 2006, Love Beth & Mike" for under $5 each in low quantities. This shows you took the time and effort to create something special for your friends & family, and I have gotten rave reviews from these gifts! I have listed the top ten personalized gifts below, but if you do not see something you like, my suggestion is to search online for personalized wedding favors. Generally, you can find something inexpensive and can buy in low quantities depending on the website.

1.Personalized Candles: there is a company that usually makes these candles as wedding favors, but the have captured the holiday market by offering candles that have Christmas decorations on them. You choose the graphic (such as Christmas Hollyberry) and then have the choice of three lines of text you specify. You can say something such as:
Merry Christmas
2006
Love, Beth
This text above fits, as I've done it before. You do have constraints on the number of characters per line. You can buy as few as one of these! Shipping is only $6.95 for anything under $30, and if you purchase of $150 shipping is free.

2.Personalized Chocolates: There are many websites you can do this on. Your first option is to personalize the actual chocolate pieces. Or, you can buy a regular candy bar, and personalize labels which you wrap around the chocolate yourself. For example, Munson's lets you create a personalized chocolate 3oz plaque which you can even put a picture on, for only 8.50 each with a minimum quantity of 24! Hershey's chocolate makes a personalized 2lbs holiday card you can personalize for $20, and can buy it individually! Or, buy little packs of Godiva chocolate and buy personalized ribbon (found on many wedding favor sites). My absolute favorite option in this category is a company called Edible Imprints. You can make a custom, edible chocolate with your picture for $3.99, with no minimums! You can even purchase just one. They also have personalized chocolate lollipops and CD's.

3.Personalized golf balls: You can buy personalized golf balls, including titlist or Callaway balls, for less than $3 each. One company online you can buy a dozen personalized Callaway Warbird balls for $26.95, which breaks down to $2.24 per ball. Shipping is free! These take 10-14 days to produce, so order early. You can have up to three lines of text with 18 characters on each line. You can also choose the text color. The golf balls come out nice and make great gifts for men!

4.Personalized mini-wine bottles (or cider). The Wine Source has personalized mini-wine bottles for as low as $3.25 each (no minimums) for 187 mls and higher quality wines for $7 and up. There is a $2 personalization fee so your total cost would be $5.25. You can even add an image! You can build the label online and preview how it looks.

5.Personalized M&Ms! You can personalize the actual M&M's! The only downside is that you can only fit a small amount of text on each side of the M&M. My suggestion is to buy a few large bags of the personalized M&M's and package them in cute holiday cellophane bags with a ribbon, because using their pre-packaged ones are much more expensive. You can create them in 21 different colors. The larger bags are 7oz and you must buy at least four of them for a total of $46.

6.Personalized Picture frames: At the personalization mall, you can order mini picture frames (no minimums) for $11.95, and you can change the name for each one! They also ship quickly in one to two days.

7.Personalized Jams: I've found a great small orchard called Murphy's Orchards in New York that makes jams and puts custom labels on them. 2oz jars are $1.5, 5 oz jars are $2.20, and half pint jars are $3.25- and there are no minimums! This family run orchard is in upstate New York.

8.Personalized Tea, Coffee, or hot chocolate: search the web for wedding favors, and you'll see them individual packet favors pop up everywhere. Very cheap- don't buy for more than $1.00. Higher minimums, but worth it because everyone likes tea or coffee or hot chocolate no matter the gender. Also, pair it with an inexpensive Christmas mug for an added touch!

9.Personalized Soaps: at an company called soapcards, you can put a message and a photo in a custom soap!! Order 3 of them and you'll get them for approx $8 each. They have round, star, and heart shaped soaps.

10.Personalized wine bags: At the Palm Gifts, you can get personalized wine bags, notepads, ornaments, and hand painted tiles all for $14 each. These items are of high quality and very unique! No minimums.