There’s always one person on your holiday shopping list, one absolutely impossible person, the one who has everything, and who wants nothing. While it might be tempting to skip giving a gift to that impossible person, that usually isn’t an option — or if it is an option, it’s not a great one.
To help you find a great gift for the most difficult people on your holiday giving list, we scoured the internet, and asked a few difficult-to-shop-for people in our own lives for insight, to create this list of perfect holiday gifts for the person who has everything. Need more ideas? Check out our favorite gift ideas for men, gift ideas for women, Amazon gifts, Nordstrom gifts, ultra-practical gifts and gifts under $25.
Space enthusiasts and astrology lovers alike will love this very cool planetarium projector, which beams accurate star patterns on a ceiling or wall for any date and time you specify. The projector can replicate more than 8000 stars and 60 constellations, with adjustable speeds to simulate the Earth’s rotation.
Tempting though it may be to tell the difficult-to-shop-for-person on your holiday gift list to take a hike, we’d suggest delivering the message in a more subtle way, like with Homesick’s “Gone Hiking” scented candle.
This is a super fun gift to give to someone who has a wood burning fireplace or fire pit in their home, or who is a frequent camper. Toss these packets into the fire and watch as the flames turn into a colorful display. Each pouch is filled with crystals that create a rainbow of colored flames, including dark and light blue, purple, red, green and yellow.
I was sent a Pura smart diffuser a few months ago but I set it aside because I already had a traditional plug-in diffuser and I figured there wasn’t much difference. How wrong I was! When I finally set up the Pura I was absolutely WOWED by it. I love the scents, I love that you can program it to go on at certain times, I love that it allows you to adjust the scent’s potency, and I especially love the customizable night light feature. This thing is so cool, I’m giving one to everyone I know this year.
No one needs a $50 nail varnish, but gosh is this dramatic bottle of red polish in Christian Louboutin’s signature shade ever an enviable gift!
Big blankets have become big business, and those super plush-feeling oversized synthetic blankets are everywhere this year. However, for something truly luxurious, skip the sherpa and opt for a 100% cotton knit blanket, like this one from Saatva.
At some point, we will address the fact that no one — not a single one of you — is washing their reusable water bottles, travel mugs and hydration packs often enough. For now, because it is the holiday season and we are feeling generous, we will leave it at the fact that no one is washing their reusable drinking vessels enough and suggest that these bottle cleaning tablets make a great gift for the person in your life who you know is not washing their reusable drinking vessels often enough. (That’s all of you.)
For a cat parent, this bed that adheres to any window to provide a hammock-like space for Kitty to survey the neighborhood makes a great gift.
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This little guy is such a handy tool, anyone will thank you for it! It has a tiny ceramic blade that precisely and easily cuts through boxes and packaging tape but is safe to the touch, and a built-in magnet so you can stick it on the fridge for easy access.
It may not look like much, but our associate manager of business development, Hayley Kinne, says of this back and neck massage tool, “I truly don’t know how I endured my regular shoulder stress spasms before this magical, massaging miracle device entered my life.”
It can be tempting to give the cheese lover in your life one of those “Cheese of the Month Club”-type things. As a great lover of cheese myself, I want to insist that you not do that! It’s just too much cheese, you guys. (I know, I know, “there’s no such thing!” Except…there is.) Instead, gift this one-off cheese gift box, which features a 6-ounce Point Reyes farmstead toma cheese, a Beehive Cheese Co. promontory cheese, a Caves of Faribault St. Pete’s blue cheese and a Sartori Bellavitano gold cheese.
The meat (or Keto!) enthusiast on your list who maybe isn’t so handy in the kitchen will love this jerky gift set. The jerky variety set includes jerky sticks, bagged jerky and beef jerky bits in three flavors, root beer habanero, whiskey maple and honey bourbon.
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Chocolates are a staple of holiday gift giving, and for good reason: Almost everyone loves chocolate! The gold Godiva gift box is such a classic; we love the small 8-piece box for its $20 price point, making it the perfect gift to buy in multiples for everyone on your list, including a few extras to keep on hand for those who you might have forgotten!
Nuts are another big holiday staple — heck, there’s a whole ballet centered around the importance of nuts to the Yuletide experience! We love this sampler for people who like it hot; it includes barbecue peanuts, buffalo hot peanuts, everything-seasoned mixed nuts, honey sriracha almonds, sweet ‘n spicy snack mix and traditional mixed nuts.
Kick things up a notch by gifting someone special the Fly By Jing Tis The Seaon(ing) Box. Your recipient will get some of the best Sichuan flavors to experiment with in the kitchen — from chili crisp oil to black vinegar.
Scented candles are a great and tricky gift to give, because scents are such a personal thing. During the holiday season, however, a fairly safe bet is to go with a balsam fir-scented candle. This seasonal candle made of natural wax that is vegan, cruelty and paraben-free and biodegradable has a 75-hour burn time.
Another way to get around the trickiness of scented candle-giving is to give a super personalized candle. If you know your gift recipient’s birthday, this pillar candle — which combines elements of astrology, numerology and tarot to create a unique scent and messaging for every birthdate — makes a great gift.
If you have ever, even once, owned a pillar candle, you know that there is a very specific problem with pillar candles: Once they burn down to a certain point, it’s impossible to light them with standard-size matches or lighters. It is very frustrating! These extra-long candle matches solve that problem and, because they can be personalized, feel extra gift-y to boot.
Bath products are a popular gift, especially for people who are really hard to shop for, but they come with a pitfall: While it may be tempting to buy a gift set of bath salts or bath bombs, the reality is that one-time-use bath products tend to get shoved into a drawer and forgotten about. Instead, opt for a single bottle of a higher-end bubble bath, like this beautiful one from Library of Flowers.
Everyone needs to wash their hands, and while we know everyone is tired of hearing it, we can’t think of many people who would object to being given a bottle of Jo Malone’s gorgeously scented hand soap.
As one hard-to-please friend who’s been working from home put it, “No one is ergonomic right now, and they’ll be feeling the pain soon.” Home office accessories are an excellent category of products to consider when it comes to giving an upgraded gift; other items to consider in addition to a wireless keyboard and mouse are a curved monitor, a small desktop scanner or a touchscreen monitor to make signing and annotating digital documents a breeze.
Even the person who has everything could probably use some new underwear, but giving someone unders is tricky. That’s why we love this gift subscription from Underclub that allows the recipient to pick out the styles and colors they like. We also love the fact that the gift subscription offers the option to share the gift via email or to print and customize a gift card for those who prefer giving a physical gift.
Gift cards or cash can be great gifts, but they can feel a little impersonal, which is why we love this inexpensive personalized card holder as an add-on to cash gifts or gift cards. Tuck the money or plastic into one of the slots or in the zippered section and you’re good to go — no gift wrap required!
