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Although Christmas is meant to be a time of joy, it seems to
be the season that generates the most anxiety for most people.
The holiday season can be extremely stressful, especially when
it comes to having to choose the right gifts not only for your
family, but also for the rest of the people in your life. Children
love to give gifts to their favorite teachers, which adds another
gift to your shopping list. Unfortunately, most gift ideas for
teachers are terrible cliché and overdone, which makes finding
the right gifts for teachers difficult to ascertain. We offer
a great teacher
membership program. Here are ten outstanding gift ideas for
teachers that will allow you to move away from the clichés and
try something new and unique.
1 - Coffee and Tea Baskets: When it comes to holiday gift
giving, food baskets may be considered cliché. However, coffee
and tea gift baskets tend to work absolute wonders. These baskets
can be purchased pre-made, or you can add a unique touch by personalizing
the basket yourself. Select some of your favorite flavors of coffee,
tea or cocoa, add a cute mug or a couple of tumblers, and throw
in some extra goodies like marshmallows, chocolates, cinnamon
sticks and other essentials for coffee, tea and cocoa drinkers.
Gourmet coffee shops also offer similar packages, but you run
the risk of falling into the cliché by buying the prepackaged
basket.
2 - Chocolate Gifts: It would be difficult to find someone
who did not enjoy a good chocolate gift for the holiday season.
Chocolate is something that practically everyone loves or can
at least get some good use out of. Sweet gift ideas always tend
to be a winner, so if you are looking for a sure fire Christmas
gift for your child's favorite teacher, check out a local chocolate
shop or a distinctive online gift store for some inspiration.
3 - Gifts for Readers: It would be fair to assume that
most if not all teachers really enjoy reading. There are a variety
of different gifts that would benefit an avid reader, so consider
gifting bestselling novels, subscriptions to educational magazines,
gift cards to well-known bookstores, and other reading accessories
as valid gifts for your favorite teacher. Reading lights, bookmarks,
journals, book covers and lap desks are all great reading accessories
worth gifting.
4 - Entertainment Gifts: Teachers are often overworked
between long classroom hours and hour upon hour of grading afterward.
Consider putting together a small entertainment package with movie
theater tickets or rental coupons, popcorn, movie guides, and
other fun entertainment gifts that will allow the teacher to spend
some much needed time enjoying himself or herself.
5 - Cause Donations: There are plenty of ways to give
gifts without buying material objects. If your teacher is into
a specific cause, like animal rights, feeding the homeless, saving
the rainforest, fighting against a disease like cancer or AIDS,
or protecting an endangered species, consider donating money in
the name of the teacher. This is an extremely thoughtful gift
idea, especially during this most generous season. There are a
variety of causes to donate to, and not only does this benefit
an earth-conscious teacher, but also the cause that you donate
to.
6 - Customized #1 Gifts: There are a myriad of different
gift ideas featuring "#1 teacher" or similar scrawled across them.
Simply because they are traditionally quite cliché in nature,
that does not mean that you cannot take the gift idea a step further
by customizing it. Fashion a gift basket full of #1 teacher merchandise,
or fill a #1 teacher mug with chocolates or favorite candies.
If you take this gift idea a step further, it will be unique and
well received by teacher.
7 - Special Project Supplies: If you know that the class
is going to be doing a special project, consider buying materials
or supplies to help the teacher out. For example, if you know
that your child's class is studying marine biology, consider purchasing
a small fish tank or frog tank for the class to enjoy. Teachers
tend to be strapped for money when it comes to buying supplies,
so consider purchasing new crayons, paint brushes, rolls of paper
or other extremely useful tools for the classroom, and you will
know that your gift will continue to give back for the entire
life of the supplies that you purchase.
8 - Homemade Goodies: There are plenty of gifts that
you can make yourself at home for your child's favorite teacher.
For example, calendars are ideal gifts for teachers because not
only do they need one for their home, but they also need one for
school. Create a calendar using pictures of the children in the
class, or pictures of the teacher's favorite things, and the calendar
will definitely be well received come Christmas-time. You may
also consider creating a photo album, or framed art with photos
and clip art incorporated in, or a myriad of other great gift
ideas that can be handcrafted by you and your child.
9 - Poster board Card: Create the most exciting Christmas
card that you can: Purchase a large piece of poster board, and
allow every student in your child's class to decorate it. They
can each choose a piece of the poster board to draw a picture
and leave their name. This will create something truly and special
for your teacher, and there is no greater gift than what comes
from the heart.
10 - Home baked Goodies: Think about this: The holidays
are one of the best times to give something delicious to someone
that you care about. Excellent choices for sweet treat gift ideas
include cookies, pies, breads and cakes. The perfect gift for
a teacher is an oversized plate of cookies, because he or she
can go on to share with other teachers in the school, or can bring
the cookies home to his or her own family. Another special treat
that is often overlooked as a viable gift idea is handmade bread,
because teacher probably does not have time to make bread between
school hours and grading papers.
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