Though it seems to last forever these days, the holiday season will come to a close in just a couple of weeks. If you have not yet begun your shopping, this is definitely the time to get on it. But if braving the malls isn’t your thing (and who can blame you?) then I put together a list of last-minute gift suggestions that you can purchase from home and send directly to the recipient with no gift wrapping required.
Magazine Subscriptions
A magazine subscription is a gift that will last the recipient an entire year and thanks to sites like DiscountMags.com and BestDealMagazines.com, you can purchase subscriptions for a fraction of the original retail price. Both of these sites offer a deal of the day, too, which means that you can get magazines for even less, but usually for one day only.
Gift Cards
Who doesn’t love receiving a gift card to their favorite store or restaurant? These days, companies are all about the e-gift cards, which means you can purchase any denomination of card that you want and then send the card out via email. While you can send gift cards for virtually any store, website, or restaurant, this is a particularly good time of year to purchase restaurant gift cards because they often come with promotions like an extra $5 or $10 when you spend $50.
If you are purchasing a gift card for someone that you may end up purchasing another one for in the future (I’m thinking college kids here), check out the Gyft app, which lets you send and reload digital gift cards directly from your smartphone, and even rewards you for making gift card purchases.
Entertainment Subscriptions
Whether it’s Netflix, Hulu Plus or something else altogether, your recipient is sure to love a subscription to his or her favorite entertainment subscription site. What’s great about subscriptions to sites like these is that the shows or movies can be watched on computers, smart phones, tablets and many TVs.
E-Books
If you know that your recipient has a Kindle, Nook or other reading device, sending an e-book directly to them would make a wonderful gift idea. You get bonus points for sending a book that you have already read and loved so that you can discuss it together later!
Meals
Last year I surprised my sister by sending her dinner and she talked about it for weeks. She was so relieved to come home from work that day and have dinner waiting on her doorstep! Food delivery is easy thanks to websites like GrubHub.com or Delivery.com, which let you order delivery from many local food establishments.
If you are looking for more gourmet food options that may not have to be eaten immediately, check out Goldbely.com, where you can order regional gourmet food specialties from around the country. There are hundreds of options available, including corned beef from Katz’s Delicatessen in New York City, crabs from Maryland, King Cake from New Orleans or red velvet cake from South Carolina.
Amazon Prime Subscription
While it is the priciest gift idea on this list at $99, there is no denying that an Amazon Prime subscription would be very welcome by most recipients. With a Prime subscription, the recipient can receive free two-day shipping on all Amazon orders for a year, have access to Amazon Instant Video where they can watch thousands of movies and TV shows for free and have access to the Kindle Lending Library where they would be able to borrow free Kindle books, among many other perks.
Charity Donation
There are so many different charities in need of donations, and you cannot go wrong by donating to any of them. One of my personal favorites for gifting, however, is Kiva, which is a micro-lending site. Through Kiva you can choose a specific individual to whom you would like to loan money (they are usually citizens trying to start up businesses to support their families in impoverished areas of the world), and then watch as the loan gets repaid over time. Once the loan has been returned, the recipient of your gift can start over again by investing in another individual’s business. Kiva offers the option of purchasing a gift certificate, which would allow your recipients to choose their own loan recipient as soon as they activated the gift card.
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Last Minute Holiday Gifts You Don’t Need to Wrap originally appeared on usnews.com
