4 ways to get gifts to family outside your luggage
Perhaps you’ve faced this predicament before: you’re traveling to your family for the holidays, and you have more gifts than you have space for. Packing becomes a hassle, and you might not be able to bring everything on your packing list. There are ways to get around this tricky situation. Below are four ways that you can give gifts to your family without taking up major space in your luggage.
1. Ship them directly. A great deal of your holiday shopping can be done online. Most online stores provide shoppers with the option of being able to ship items as gifts (with a gift receipt and even wrapped) to anywhere they desire. If you plan on traveling this holiday season, you’ll want to make sure this is your primary way of giving — it cuts out almost all of the complicated steps in the process, and it’s the best way to ensure your gifts get to the right people on time.
2. Send them ahead of time. Of course, a situation may arise where not all of the gifts you want to give can be purchased online. In this case, you will have to ship them yourself. Shop around for the best shipping rates, as shipping companies all offer different features and guarantees for their services. Do your best to pack the gifts as carefully as possible, as you don’t want anything to arrive broken. Take a look into insuring particularly expensive items — you can be reimbursed for them in the unfortunate situation where they arrive damaged or never make it to the destination. This method of giving takes a little more time, but can certainly be worth it.
3. Give experiences. One way you can change things up this holiday season is by choosing not to give objects, but things to do. A fancy dinner, tickets to amusement parks, season tickets to their favorite theater, concerts, and other experiences are great gifts to give, and do not cost anything to ship. Choose events that the person receiving the gift is interested in; the more thought you put into this, the more the recipient will appreciate it. Keep in mind that this might not be ideal for young children, who will usually appreciate things like toys a bit more.
4. Give the gift of shopping. If you aren’t exactly up to date with what some of your family members have and don’t have, giving gift cards can be a great option. This is an especially good choice for those people who you know love to shop. While generic cards are great because they give people the freedom to shop anywhere they choose, a gift card to a specialty store you know they enjoy shopping at is an even more thoughtful choice. They’re great gifts for bringing with you while traveling because they take up almost no space, and just need a greeting card to be complete.
10 Tricks for Shipping Holiday Gifts with Ease [Today Money]
How to Travel By Air With Gifts [USA Today]