Holiday Gift Ideas -- Holiday Preparations

Disclosure: I was sent these products to review free of charge from Uncommon Goods. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

"On the first day of November my holiday preparations caused me to shop for those hard to get holiday gifts." Do you know my secret to loving the holiday season? It is having my preparations done early, and I mean really early!! (I'm actually basically down for Christmas with shopping.) Now we all have people who are hard to buy gifts for. Who are yours? Mine are Steve, my husband, and my 14-year-old nephew. My solution is Uncommon Goods. They have some amazing ideas for everyone and they are things that you cannot find everywhere.

Now Steve does not want anything and I mean nothing. He would literally rather I give him nothing than buy something. However he LOVES maps and loves Boston, so when I saw the city map glasses in the Gifts for the Husband category I knew I found the perfect gift for him. One we always need more glasses and these are the size he likes. And they had Boston as a choice! I got him two and I know he will like them!! I should also comment that Steve is not a typical guy. He does not follow professional sports or drink so many of the unique gifts were not for him. However he does love maps and space so they had a few options for him there. 

Now for my nephew I asked my sister to look at the Gift Ideas for Teen Boys. She was amazed at how many great ideas there were that her son would love. In fact she is thinking she will shop for his gifts at Uncommon Goods from her as well. She said they really nailed this genre of gifts. Of course we decided to have my nephew look at the site and give me his top few choices. For some reason he was really into water bottles so I chose one of the water bottles he had chosen. I decided on the Collapsible Water Bottle. I know he is going to like this one!!  I'm going to include a gift certificate to his favorite movie theater and for once I have the perfect gift for him!! So excited!! (My sister also mentioned that the gift I got my nephew from Uncommon Goods a couple of years ago is still one of his favorites.)

A couple of years ago we got a Butterfly Puddler for my parents from Uncommon Goods. Hazel has wanted one for our yard as well. I got this as a gift for me or really it is a family gift. We planted our milkweed seeds awhile ago and this year I enjoyed watching a monarch lay her eggs on them. We are hoping this Butterfly Puddler will bring even more into our yard!

Now Steve does not shop for gifts for me. I usually pick something up for myself and decided to include in this review the Chai Tea Kit (since I love drinking chai tea and love trying new recipes for it) and a Math Mug to drink my tea and remember my former life as a math teacher. It will be fun to explore chai tea as part of our Tea Parties Around the World. I did consider giving the mug to Steve, but decided I would probably enjoy it more. 

I should also add they have some great ideas for children. There were loads of ideas for Hazel and they have a suggestion list for boys as well. So beat your holiday stress by shopping for those hard to buy for people on your list and those easier people as well. Take a look at Uncommon Goods. I know you will not be disappointed. I should also add that my past customer service experiences with them have been amazing!!