By Shellie Cohen
If you’re anything like me, you are terrible at giving gifts. I’m always trying to improve, but somehow, every year, I just continue to fall short. This year, I’m going to put forth a concerted effort to think outside the box and give some cool gifts to those around me! Here are some Boston based thoughts for the people in your life, broken down by price range:
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1. Treat someone to an all-expenses-paid vacation, or just subsidize a friend’s flight out to come visit you! Right now JetBlue is having a crazy sale and flights are as low as $20 one way, so you may have to splurge for the flight on the way back, but is pretty cool if you can afford some time off from work!
2. Book an entire island for a vacation for you and some close friends/family! Yes. An entire island. Some start as low as $500 a night!
3. Or you could always fall back on a classic gift.
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1. Make a cool end table. Bottle cap table top, for that beer loving friend. Here is a wikihow link and three examples (example 1, example 2, example 3) from reddit DIY. The expenses come from buying beer bottles with cool tops for a while, the resin and epoxy (which will probably run you about $80), and, of course, getting a table. Although you could probably find a cheap one on craigslist!
2. Take someone to a show! There are a lot of cool shows that come through Boston, check out House of Blues for good music shows, and Ticketmaster Boston for all genres of shows!
3. Another classic: take someone out to a nice dinner! There are so, so many delicious restaurants of every type in this city. Don’t forget to keep Chinatown for some dim sum and the North End for some delicious pasta on your list of options.
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1.Get old school and make a mix CD/playlist with a heartfelt note! There is so much new music out in the interwebs; capture some of that and send it along with some love.
2. Go on a brewery tour! There are an excessive amount of breweries in the area. Trillium. Sam Adams. Harpoon. NightShift. Aeronaut. Slumbrew. The list goes on. Gluten free? Not a problem. Take your friend/family member on the Downeast Brewery Tour or stop by Bantam Cider House in Somerville. A lot of these are free to go into and drink in a taproom, and the tours aren’t wildly expensive, so that’s good.
3. Set out to learn how to make a new dish! Invite the giftee over and go grocery shopping together. You can finally figure out what goes in your favorite sushi roll or how to make the perfect macaroon.
Go forth, and give some good gifts!
