The Teen Christmas Shopping Tips

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Whenever the Christmas season rolls around, I face the same problems: Who should I shop for? When should I start shopping? Where do I find the right spots to shop? How much do I spend, and how many gifts should I buy? This year, I came up with a couple of rules and ideas to save some money and make my gifts memorable when I shop for my friends and family. 

Hand-Craft Something for Friends and Family

As a teen, it’s hard for me to buy what my friends or family want with the limited amount of money that I have, so crafting or making something always comes to my mind when Christmas time rolls around. As a birthday gift from earlier this year, my friends made a video showing all of their favorite moments of us caught on camera and a compilation of many of my close friends wishing me a happy birthday. That gift was by far the best birthday gift that I have ever received, and I was touched by the amount of thought and effort that went into making that gift. The thrill that comes with unwrapping a gift on Christmas morning is irreplaceable. Still, I think that knowing that a gift, or a video, or anything of the sort that was customized or personalized for them can touch someone’s heart.

Personalize Gifts

It’s always a priority for me to find something to gift or buy that has some sort of meaning behind it, whether it’s an inside joke or just something that the person I’m giving it to likes or wants. I can’t spend that much money on gift shopping, so to make up for that, I try to put meaning behind everything I buy to give myself a valid reason to spend my money on getting it. This makes shopping a strenuous task, but as long as I have a good idea of what I want to buy for one person, I can find it on Taobao nine times out of ten.

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Buy Ahead of Time, or Plan a Time to Go to the Mall!

As a yearly tradition, my best friend and I will go to the mall before Christmas and help each other brainstorm and get gifts. We will list out all the people we plan to get gifts for and what we’re getting for them during this time, ensuring that the presents we gift don’t clash. To be realistic, we only get one or two people gifts at most at the mall. But the real value in going together is to get ideas for what to get people on our list and go home and shop online. It’s always super fun to do with her each year, and I find that it’s a tradition that gets me in the Christmas mood.

Try New Ways of Gifting During Christmas Instead of the Traditional Gift-Giving 

Because my best friend and I shop together each year, we always agree not to buy each other gifts. It’s hard to keep what we shop for from each other and because we are both people who don’t value physical gifts highly. Instead, we agree to do something that we both want to do. This year, we are going to get our ears pierced together for Christmas! This tradition gives us something to spice up the regular Christmas feeling and just gives me something to look forward to Christmastime even more.

Plan How Much I’m Going to Spend on Each Person

Quite honestly, I don’t successfully budget how much I spend on each person. But for me, I think spending anywhere between RMB 30-100 is reasonable for a friend’s gift. For close friends or family, I usually spend anywhere from RMB 30-200 on a gift. When I’m buying for my family or my group of friends, I consider buying a gift for all of us, like a set of matching socks that we can wear together, or some sort of present that we can all use while spending time together.

Gift shopping is always a challenging task. But I think the key to buying the right gift is still the thought you put into it, whether it’s purchased, hand-crafted, or just something you do together. I’m looking forward to Christmas this year, but in the meantime, I’m going to need to do some last-minute shopping. Hopefully, I’ve learned my lesson and do my shopping earlier next year!

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Photos: Pexels, Unsplash 

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