It is November.
Which means it is officially time for all of your overzealous holiday loving friends to entirely forget about Thanksgiving and start bumping their Christmas jams and planning their Black Friday holiday shopping routes, like turkey day ain’t even a thing.
Personally, that’s not my jam.
Yes, I heart the holidays but mostly because it means I get to strategically gain weight so that when the new year rolls around I can lose it and look and feel successful among my friends.
Everyone has their things, that’s one of mine. Judge if you must.
But, if it helps, I love more than just that.
I also enjoy the days off, cozy fires, cozy clothing, cozy food (all of the cozy food!), and gifting people I love with special things that make them happy.
And, I’m not talking about easy, generic stuff like gift cards (although real talk, some of you have-it-all people on my list will wind up with one of those too, I’m not made of money and the Lambo you asked for is literally never happening) –I’m talking about heartfelt, personalized gift ideas of the not corny nature.
So, no tie for Grandpa with my kids’ faces on it. And no sweatshirt for Mimi that says, “World’s Best Mimi.”
And, since not a hand in this household excels at things of the DIY nature, we can’t realistically create anything of that nature.
So instead, they will be getting a wall calendar.
It sounds underwhelming, and perhaps even unnecessary (I know, you’re probably all, wait, do people still use those?! Everyone has a phone. Wall calendars are for old people.), but you=incorrect.
Well sort of incorrect.
This is what I know about grandparents, even the largely tech savvy ones like my mother (guys, she made me stop while we were in Turks so she could “update her feed”): they like things that are old school just to prove they still work, they enjoy gifts that are made special for them, and they love their grandbabies faces.
Which means, calendars are the perfect gift!
If I’m honest, I like them too.
I enjoy looking at gorgeous photos of my children without exhausting my budget on frames and wasting my time trying to hang them correctly in a room. I hate the idea of being stuck to that one photo from the first day of preschool three years ago because I am too lazy and too broke to ever have another one made.
Calendars are a joyful solution. They’re inexpensive. They’re functional. And, they’re a wonderful way for itty bitty moments of time to be captured and displayed in a size and space that doesn’t make your house look creepy and your visitors feel awkward (yes, I am talking about those bigger-than-life-size senior portraits your parents still have alongside the fireplace).
Every year I have three of them made by Snapfish –one for my parents, one for DudeDad’s parents, and one for my very own kitchen.
Everyone has a reason to smile every month and no one harasses me about never printing or sending photos.
Snapfish makes calendar making super easy. Their system is fast, they have a ton of templates and layouts to choose from, and you can even import photos from your social channels. The product and its shipping are affordable so making three as last minute-ish holiday gifts is always a win. Although, this year, I am on my game so there will be no last minute rush for me. See, I already have it…
I’d love to make your holiday gifting easier as well courtesy of the homies at Snapfish. I’m giving away a $50 gift code to one lucky DudeMom reader. But, to be elgible to win you have to really be a part of the fam by signing up for my newsletter. You can do that here: make it official & sign up now!
Once you’re signed up, take a moment to check out and join Snapfish Superfans! (if you’re interested), and then enter below to win some stylish free memories to share with your friends and family!
Disclosure: This post was created in partnership with Snapfish. All opinions, cute kids, and great photos are my own.
I think of doing this every year, I do. And then I never do because lazy. And then I wind up not giving gifts at all because I don’t want to give anything sucky and trite.