Under $20 Holiday Gift Guide
Hey, I know this year has not been an easy one for a lot of us.
You’re probably hearing a lot of stories about all of the small, local businesses that are either closing up shop, or asking for support so that they don’t have to. I know I am, and it’s a tough spot to be in when, as a small business owner myself, I do not have the means to be as supportive as I would like, because I too, am feeling all the same squeezes.
However, this year, I am not dangerously close to needing to shut everything down. That’s where I was last year if we’re being completely honest.
This year has been a big year for scaling back in my business so that I can keep it going forward into the future. Part of that has been moving out of all of my retail locations, halting all in-person craft markets, and focusing on my online sales platforms. It has not been my easiest or most lucrative year in business, but I am still here.
Last year, I wrote a gift guide highlighting my best products for gifting to various people you might need to get gifts for. I’m really proud of it, but I don’t think that’s the kind of gift guide that’s needed for this year.
This year’s gift guide is strictly gifts under $20. Some of these gifts are even under $10.
Look, we’re all watching our budgets more carefully, I get it. But that doesn’t mean we can’t still shop small and get unique, thoughtful gifts where we can.
So are you ready to get started?
Who doesn’t love stickers? I have two main sticker collections: One of monochrome designs I made in the early days of my brand, and the other is a bit more artsy and combines affirmations with the 35mm photography I shot in Paris. You can shop the full collection here, but for this gift guide, I chose to highlight the CHOOSE GRATITUDE design. Because while gratitude DOES change everything, sometimes it’s not an easy or natural state for us. Sometimes it’s a choice. And it helps to be reminded that we DO have that choice.
I LOVE these hoops. Very coquette, very demure. But unfortunately, very made out of supplies from the very worst most inconsistent supplier that I had to break up with last year. I haven’t really promoted them in a long time because I only have a small smattering of inventory. But I’m tired of them not getting any attention. So I’ve reduced the price for the holidays (but when they’re gone, they’re GONE).
No. There is no such thing as too many notebooks. These tiny, pocket sized journals are hand-stamped with my original designs that I had made into hand-carved stamps by another local artist, and one of the VERY FEW new products that I launched in 2024. They’re pretty popular on Faire, but I wanted to highlight them here because they come in a THREE PACK that is the PERFECT STOCKING STUFFER for LITERALLY EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST.
Back in 2022 I made the very on-brand decision to carry my 1970’s Cannon AE-1 that I hadn’t used since college through Paris for an entire week with my two small, feral children who have never travelled internationally, while I, myself, had never travelled internationally. It was… an experience both magical and mildly traumatic, and it resulted in (among other products) these one-inch finback buttons emblazoned with both affirmations and photography. I’m really proud of this collection, and hope to develop it further on future travels. But for now, we’ll always have Paris.
I’m going to be completely honest here: I do not remember when or why I set the price for these tiny 15mm crystal hoops at $13 because they are definitely NOT supposed to be $13. But you know what? As a holiday gift for all of you, I’m just going to… keep letting them be $13. I personally own several pairs of these tiny, tiny hoops, which I love because you can totally keep them on when you sleep/shower/swim/exercise/whatever it is you need to do. And also, I think it’s pretty cool that there are FORTY TWO different stone options.
My crystal hair pins have got to be the product that I developed/launched at the WORST POSSIBLE TIME. RIGHT when I got these all made and ready to list/add to my market setup, the barrage of horrible things that happened in the second half of 2023 started and I not only dealt with many, many months of severe burnout that stopped me from being able to market my business in an effective way, but I also completely STOPPED all in-person markets and retail partnerships. I drastically slashed the price on these because THEY ARE FAR TOO PRETTY TO KEEP SITTING IN MY INVENTORY (also, there are several more sets on the “ready to ship” page of my shop if you want to see the other choices)
Yet another thing I did this year that I’m proud of but didn’t give nearly enough attention is trying out some print-on-demand products. Remember that Affirmation Card Deck I designed at the beginning of the year? I started (and need to get back to) turning those designs into notebooks. Which are a little outside of my normal offerings, but, they are very high quality notebooks AND still under $20.
Now I have not offered these pencils for sale in a LONG time because I thought I had completely run out of them. BUT I FOUND TWELVE SETS IN MY BACK STOCK. These pencils are WONDERFUL because they don’t just bear positive messages, they’re ALSO made of FSC-certified cedar and smell DELIGHTFUL when you sharpen them.
Over the course of my business, I have gone back and forth over whether or not I should sell pocket stones a thousand times. If I don’t have them, people ask if I have them. If I have too many, they take up a ton of my display space and nobody buys any. For a while I had compromised by having a little mini-crystal shop in a local business, but when they closed, all of the crystals came back to live with me. Which, ended up being ok because these Intuitively Chosen Crystal Collections are really fun and special to make. And the small size (three stones), is under $20.
And finally, REALLY burying the lede here, I did make a (smaller than last year but still better than nothing) collection of curated holiday gift bundles. Only one of them is under $20, but they’re all INCREDIBLE deals and were a lot of fun to put together. Quantities are VERY limited (a few of them are one-of-a-kind), so definitely hurry over to the “ready to ship” page of my shop to get yours before they’re gone.
Honestly, after five years of my business being anchored around $30+ crystal necklaces (that have always been my best selling products both in-person and online), I was truly surprised to see how many options I had at this lower price point.
But I’m glad I took the time to explore my offerings from a different perspective.
I hope that this list is helpful for your holiday shopping this year, and inspires you to seek out ways to support your small business friends through this tough season, even if you’re on a budget.
