20 Minimalist Christmas Gift Ideas | Messy Minimalist

My daughter is a fan of action gifts. Going to a community church play, singing, lights display, or after Christmas - museum or amusement park, etc.... all great

We use to have a lovely little zoo in Traverse City; all Michigan native animals, rescued from some bad situation. It was in the area where the Bijou Theater is now so you can see why the traffic was problematic for the animals. There was even a small steam engine train that went around the perimeter. There was a group trying to save the zoo and have it moved. One option was near the Oleson Buffalo farm but nothing panned out and it closed. Sad times for our region. :-(
I absolutely love the massage gift idea!
My sister and I have both donated through Heifer International in family members' names. Of course, there will always be one or two who roll their eyes and don't "get it".
If you're giving kiddos lottery scratch offs, make sure they know an adult will have to turn in any winning tickets. lol

Thank you! there were definetely some ideas I picked up for my list. I personally prefer consumably stuff like a fancy tea or chocolate or a spice mixture or even a nice candle... A friend of mine always makes her own liqueurs (I think by using vodka or rum as base and mixing it with herbs/spices/juices that need to be in the alcohol for a few weeks), alternatively you could make your own preserved goods (e.g. marrocan salt lemons) or a nice (small) bottle of olive oil with garlic and herbs

YOUR HOUSE LOOKS AWESOME!!!

Great ideas! However, I have a lot of family, and I have about 10 people to get gifts for, and can really only spend $5-10 per gift. It would be great if you could make a video about budget minimal gifts!

I love your picture gallery wall!

All I want for Christmas is for people to treat me better, and be more understanding.

What a great list, thanks for the ideas!!

I never would have thought about giving museum/aquarium/etc. passes or memberships as a gift! That's brilliant!

People can get quite offended receiving an unrequested gym membership. They think you're calling them fat.

That was great! Feel like I need to write these down! Thanks for another great video x

Rachel thank you ! You save my christmas ! We are just thinking about physical present but a "minimalist" present is better especially with people who had everything ! Thanks

Thanks for this video. So many minimalist videos are white walls, white furniture and stark barrenness. I am continually de-cluttering but I have five kids(white furniture would be a nightmare) and when I had stark white walls, I had to turn my heating up all the time. I painted the walls and it's warmer. Your house seems warm and inviting.

Food subscriptions like Blue Apron are also nice and useful, the containers for most of the stuff is recyclable so you wouldn't be adding trash.

You are NOT into animals if you give your money to zoos or aquariums! The disconnect is real common tho and real sad for those earthlings. Your enjoyment at their imprisonment is not a fair trade off. Best wishes to you.

Thank you for these great ideas. Offering a moment is always a good option. And chosing it wisely is better, i do not like the "smartbox" where you are offering 200 choices. In my opinion, Amazon is such the evil company we all have to fight that your last advice surprised me! I do my very best to avoid buying from them, I would prefer supporting local stores :) Well, I live in France so we do not have the same way of living. About restaurant we have so few chaines, I never go to them, the majority of our restaurants are local ones :)

Great suggestions! I would LOVE a netflix subscription. I never even thought to put it on my list.

I was expecting you to have listed naming a star as one of the gifts.

One of our friends just moved into our town and we have a local town card (all it requires is your name and address, so it's actually free to do, but it's not advertised from the roof tops so not everyone knows about it), so whenever you buy from a local shop or even a chain shop in our town you get something off, e.g if you go to Costa you can get a large drink for the price of a medium, if you go to the local fruit and veg shop you get 10% off. That gift takes up a slot in your wallet/purse.

I love taking advantage of the gift card promos this time of year that are offered at my favorite independently owned farmer's market store, local coffee shop, or sandwich shop. Last year I gave my significant other a recyclable lunch bag & included a gift card, that I bought at discount, for one of his favorite sandwich shops that would last him for about 6 mos of lunches once or twice per month. I also like the idea of buying a coffee cup from a local potter and including a gift card for a local independently owned coffee shop. We have a coffee shop in town, whose profits go back to the town. I try to take advantage of the gift card promos for things we already do or buy (i.e. groceries from our favorite market or occasional trips to our local coffee shop), that will give us the gift of money savings throughout the year. Usually, the gift cards are at 25% discount.

I love the silly doggos at the beginning. I love the Audible idea! I've never been big on audiobooks but there are some I'd love to try. I LOVE zoos and aquariums. For their flaws, they play a critical role in spreading knowledge and conservation efforts.

My MIL gifted me People magazine because I was always reading hers when I was over. I'd never buy it for myself so it was fun. I recommend Mental Floss as a gift for older kids (starting at 10 or 12). My MIL does scratch offs every year. I won last year with $17 total.

Have you thought of trying a zero waste lifestyle, or some aspects of it?

I have a few of these gifts on my list for my family.

My favorite minimalist gift is a maid-for-a-day. My parents know, with 4 kids and a busy schedule, how hard it is to get to all “other” things in my house that need to be cleaned (baseboards, cabinets, cobwebs etc). When they pay for a cleaning lady to come and tidy, it’s a huge help!

Christmas can be a stressful time to be a minimalist. Great list!

i did not expect this to be as helpful as it was. thank you :).

They are quite expencive, but I love your ideas and äI will try to remember them for the future

I got AAA for Christmas this year and probably going to ask for it every year, it gives me peace of mind, I don't have to worry about getting stranded, AND you get discounts on things like glasses, which I obviously need

The dog doing yoga in the background! 😂😂

Every year for Christmas we give my husband's aunt and grandparents a basket of home made cookies and chocolates. I always include things like hand soap and wax melts for their wax warmers. A few times I've done ornaments or Christmas dish towels but I don't want to do that every year because then it's just more "stuff". It always goes over well and I think at this point they would be very upset to receive something else 😅

Another one I recommend is a flower/bouquet subscription.

AWFUL IDEAS

I wish I watched this video before Christmas! These are great ideas. I'll have to refer to these ideas next year.

Hi! I loved ALL your suggestions. I even saved a bunch of them for gift ideas in the future. So many in circle of family and friends already have a ton of "stuff" and the holidays (birthdays, too) are always so difficult to shop for because no one needs anything. These ideas were really helpful. I really like the "experience" ideas, like a a cooking class or concert tickets. You also inspired me to for a gift idea for me! I added a subscription to my favorite cooking website, America's Test Kitchen, to my wishlist.

okay, there are museum people and not-museum people. Obviously you are one of the former; for those of us in the latter, about half your suggestions were...ugh. I would be SO disappointed if i got that for a gift, and thus I would never give it either. The only things along that line I would ever give as gifts would be tickets to something I KNOW the recipient would enjoy, a concert or a sporting event. Museums, gym memberships, et al...uh-uh. And magazine subscriptions? MORE STUFF coming into their house!!!???!!! For kids, yes, it's a good gift, they love getting the mail.

A Live Podcast?!? Wow, you are a really cool person, but worst gift-giver ever!!!

I love my kindle. I have the keyboard version with the built in buttons. It died once and I specifically bought the kindle keyboard again from amazon to replace it. The battery life is amazing and without "all the bells and whistles," it isn't distracting like reading on the ipad or phone where you may be tempted to look at other things, and I started falling asleep faster than when I read regular books (or from a backlit screen) <3

Also should say my first one was a gift! It was for college graduation, not christmas, but still one of the greatest gifts I have ever received.

I got my husband a language course this year. We're going to France in September and I knew he really wanted it. :)

Love these ideas. My suggestions would be plants, candles, lotion, anything that you use and then they're gone. I also love getting socks and pjs for Christmas! For my family I try to make creative art they might enjoy. I might be an adult, but I think my parents still like my artwork. One thing my Mom does is develop recent photos and give those. For me I appreciate a physical copy of a photo and it's fun to look back.

Great video. Can I also suggest something practical for adult parents: new lunch boxes, especially if they still work?

What about one of those cooking subscriptions? It comes with the info card and the items and then you can cook with them.

ABC Mouse for kids!

What great ideas! Were definitely on a budget so thanks for all your great ideas! Love your channel!

One thing I’m trying this year is asking the people I’m buying for if they have something they’ve broken or worn out this year that needs replacing. This works great for people who won’t be so into “experiences”, but who you don’t want to end up buying junk for. For example when I asked my parents that question, my mom mentioned that she had recently spilled coffee on her mousepad and needed a new one, and my dad had almost worn a hole through his old ski gloves. By replacing those items I know that I’m giving gifts that are wanted, needed, will be used, and won’t be clutter in their lives :) I do give experiences to other people in my life, but my parents don’t have any interests that I can afford ha!

We gave our Dad the gift of having a star named after him. He loved it and now that he is no longer with us I look up at the sky at night and think of him.

awesome ideas, thank you so much ❤

Things free with prime! There is not such a thing you are paying for it.

Our son asks for a zoo subscription for his family of seven. The grandchildren love the zoo!

I shared this on Facebook. Hoping it goes viral 😄

My bf is a sex positive feminist, so I made a donation so a woman could get their preferred choice of birth control in an underprivileged country. He LOVED it.