{"id":655,"date":"2019-12-18T12:00:41","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T18:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/?p=655"},"modified":"2019-08-13T11:44:06","modified_gmt":"2019-08-13T16:44:06","slug":"the-broke-college-students-guide-to-giving-holiday-gifts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/2019\/12\/18\/the-broke-college-students-guide-to-giving-holiday-gifts\/","title":{"rendered":"The Broke College Student’s Guide to Giving Holiday Gifts"},"content":{"rendered":"

You\u2019re a college student, and you don\u2019t have a lot of money to spare. And now that it\u2019s gift-giving season, you might be feeling a bigger pinch on your wallet than usual. After all, how are you supposed to afford next semester\u2019s textbooks (hint:\u00a0like this<\/a>!)\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0nice, thoughtful presents for your five best friends, four younger siblings, three awesome roommates, two loving parents, and your Aunt Partridgina Peartree? (Sorry for the terrible \u201c12 Days of Christmas\u201d joke…)<\/p>\n

Of course, it\u2019s the thought that counts, and you don\u2019t really need to give your friends and loved ones presents. But if you’re looking for some free\/cheap gift ideas, you can show you care this holiday season with some of the items and kind gestures below!<\/p>\n

Dinner party<\/h2>\n

If you have access to a kitchen and enough space to host people, make your gift to your closest buddies a low-key dinner party. It\u2019s hard to go wrong (or expensive) with pasta for a crowd. Buzzfeed knows what\u2019s up with these\u00a0one-pan pasta dishes<\/a>. Or you can all pitch in and make it a potluck holiday party.<\/p>\n

Also popular in the food-gift category? Baked treats. Do the right thing: wrap \u2019em up pretty. Here\u2019s one of our favorite\u00a0candy cookie recipes<\/a>. And here are\u00a0dirt-cheap treat bags<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Interwebs<\/h2>\n

Put your time gallivanting around reddit, tumblr, and the like to good use by curating a collection of the funniest\/weirdest\/coolest stuff you can find. You can even publish your findings, whether it’s a collection of funny GIFs or a YouTube playlist, to a tumblr or WordPress site. Give it a holiday theme or tailor it to the person. Think about what they person really loves, from sports teams to books to\u00a0viral dance crazes<\/a>. You\u2019re sure to find enough fun stuff online to keep them smiling until New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n

Childhood memorabilia<\/h2>\n

This is a good one for Mom and Dad or anyone else with a sentimental side. See if you can dig up a hand-drawn picture or note from your kindergarten-ish days\u2014a list of \u201creasons why I love my mommy\/daddy at Christmastime\u201d would be peeeeerfect. Then find an inexpensive frame and\u00a0boom<\/em>. Adorable gift. Bonus points if you get an unfinished frame from a craft store and personalize it with your own artsy paint job. Which brings us to our next idea…<\/p>\n

Arts and crafts<\/h2>\n

Do you knit or crochet? Cketch or paint? What about just artfully writing your intended gift recipient\u2019s favorite song\/movie\/book quote\u00a0on a mug<\/a>? Whatever your abilities, you can make simple homemade gifts sure to make your friends say \u201cAww!\u201d<\/p>\n

Coupons<\/h2>\n

You saw this one coming, didn\u2019t you. We know they\u2019re corny, but they can also be the cute kind of corny\u2014as long as you don\u2019t give \u201cGood for one free hug\u201d coupons and call it a day. Instead, think about some of the more meaningful things you can offer: an afternoon spent hiking, just quality time between you and your BFF. A month of emptying the dishwasher for your roommate. Helping your little brother set up his first blog. An hour-long foot rub for…whomever you\u2019re comfortable enough with to touch their feet. And you can get all crafty with your coupons too, whether it\u2019s using your digital design or glue-and-glitter skills or both! (Or you can just use the template above, found\u00a0here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

No one expects you to give cashmere sweaters as a\u00a0poor college\u00a0student, so don\u2019t stress about holiday gifts. Instead, just enjoy the season and have fun celebrating the people in your life. Santa would be proud.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You\u2019re a college student, and you don\u2019t have a lot of money to spare. And now that it\u2019s gift-giving season, you might be feeling a bigger pinch on your wallet than usual. After all, how are you supposed to afford next semester\u2019s textbooks (hint:\u00a0like this!)\u00a0and\u00a0nice, thoughtful presents for your five best friends, four younger siblings, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-655","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-holiday","8":"category-life-of-a-grad-student"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/12\/News_PoinsettiaTABGiveaway_29NOV16_00001.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":658,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655\/revisions\/658"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}