Gifting Groupons

With the holiday season approaching, Groupons and LivingSocial deals are being gobbled up for presents. They're not the impersonal, generic gift cards we're used to. Since these deals are for specific items or outings, they're just as personal, sometimes more so, as a physical gift, and kudos to you for being savvy enough to buy more for less.

 

The hard part of giving something like that is actually how to give it, how to wrap it. If it's an item that you could redeem to get your hands on and wrap, problem solved. But if it's a outing or an item that you can't redeem or something the recipient needs to redeem, that's where the problem arises.

 

I've purchased a LivingSocial deal as a present this year and it's an activity for the recipient. I can't do anything except print out the voucher as the present. But I don't want to just fold it up and put it in an envelope. That's not the least bit fun to unwrap. So I've done a little researching to find creative ways to give what is essentially a piece of paper as a present.

 

One of the online deals I see fairly often is a subscription to a magazine. It's a great gift. The Boyfriend got me a subscription to Southern Living for my birthday, which I LOVE. Instead of just telling me that he got me the subscription, he gave me the current issue with a note tucked inside.  Instant gratification. This works great for magazine, but what about other subscriptions? Maybe you got someone a year of Xbox Live. (Hey, I've seen a deal for it..) You can't really tuck it into an Xbox, but you could tuck it into a DVD case or CD jewel case.

 

Another deal I see pretty often here in Atlanta is for wine tours or bottles of wine from local wineries.

This image is an advertisement for a Vineyard Estate Wines gift card, but it's a great idea. You could slip the gift card or deal voucher into a wine glass, or empty wine bottle. If it's for a brewery tour or brewery class, slip it into a beer glass or empty beer bottle. Glasses can be a cheap but reusable addition to your gift.

 

Yet another category of deals I've seen plenty of times is photography. Sometimes it's a photo shoot, sometimes it's turning your photos into artwork. One easy way to wrap it is to frame the voucher in a frame, like Holton Studio did here.

Extra points if it matches the current decor of the recipient!

 

The last category that jumped out to me as gift-worthy is vacations. There are certainly plenty of them available on Groupon or LivingSocial. While you could find something that related to the destination, the simpliest idea I found was to request a brochure or packet from the location. Unless you're going to Disney World, having a little more information about the destination would probably be beneficial.

 

However you wrap your gift certificiates or deal vouchers, put a little extra thought into it and multiply the joy of present giving and receiving.

 

P.S. Happy 2nd birthday to my little blog.. and thanks to all the readers who have stuck with me. :)