5 Virtual Gifts for the Holidays

It’s time for a new year, and with a new year comes plenty of new opportunities. Whether it be a late Christmas gift, a feel good present to welcome 2021, or even just because, everyone deserves a nice little gift this holiday season. With COVID-19 throwing a wrench in a lot of get togethers and gatherings, gift giving can be that much more difficult. There’s the craziness that is holiday shipping, discreetly trying to find an address without making it obvious to your receiver what you’re doing, and of course, actually picking a gift can be a pain as well.

Fear not. If you’re in a bind, here are five gifts that don’t involve the usual hustle of shipping, and can be done online in the span of a few minutes. I've linked each gift in the titles, so you can simply click and head over to where you need to go. Happy gifting!

1. WWF Endangered Species Adoption

We all love animals, and there’s a ton of them out there that need our help. Luckily, the WWF is here to make giving to animals a gift for a friend or loved one as well. WWF offers a huge list of endangered animals for you to symbolically adopt in someone’s name. You also have the option of a completely virtual adoption, or if you really wanted to have a physical gift, donations can also include a plush of the animal with photo cards and a certificate to send to your recipient. Or of course, you can do it all virtually and have a certificate emailed to your pal also.

It’s a nice gift for the animal lover in your life, especially if there’s an animal that you know your friend loves. For example, anyone who knows me would know that the Sea Otter is totally the way to go. What’s more, it donates to a great cause that will leave you and your recipient feeling wonderful.

2. Group Greeting Card

This is a low key, free option if you just wanted to send a nice card from a group of people. It could work for a teacher or professor, a loved one or friend going through a rough time, or really any large group of people looking to appreciate someone else. It only costs five dollars, and sets up a link for you to share with anyone you want to sign the card. Once the deadline for signing the card hits, it gets automatically emailed to the recipient with the option to download it as a PDF. You can even have little bits of confetti pop out as the card opens. There are many different card covers and occasions to choose from as well, and the option to add images and use different fonts and colors for your messages.

Overall, it’s an easy to use and thoughtful gift for someone if you can’t be there physically. With a group effort like that, they’ll appreciate it immensely.

3. Etsy Gift Card

You knew this was coming, but how can I resist? Etsy is the most popular place to get handmade and custom items from small sellers all over the world. A virtual gift card is the perfect gift to let someone pick out whatever their heart desires. There really is something for everyone on this site. All of my gifts for Christmas this year came from Etsy. Whether it was some beautifully embroidered towels from DinoSewSuite, adorable charms and stickers of various creatures from MelonsquareStudios, or a cozy blind date with a book package from TheHiddenLibraryCo, they’ll be using that gift card in no time.

4. Headspace Subscription

What a great way to start a new year. Headspace is a meditation app for the ages. It has multiple mediation series for all sorts of anxieties and stressors, from self-esteem to depression. They have SOS sessions for when you’re having a panic attack. They have long sound sessions of thunderstorms, waves, laundromats, and a host of other sounds to help you sleep at night. I can go on listing every single session offered by Headspace that can help you mentally live a better life, but we’d be here all night. What’s important is that you can gift Headspace to anyone of your choosing.

When gifting Headspace, you have an option of a month or a year, and either would be fantastic choices. Meditation is so helpful to creating a peaceful, fulfilling life, and it can help you manage anxieties incredibly well. Just a personal endorsement from me: Headspace completely changed my life and is a huge part of why I feel so at peace with myself nowadays. It’s a wonderful gift for a loved one, and something that can totally change a life for the better.

5. Yoga with Adriene – 30 Day Yoga Journey

And finally, we have another gift for mental wellness, and this one also helps with physical wellness too. Yoga with Adriene is a YouTube sensation. She has yoga programs for beginners and experts, and always has an inclusive and welcoming practice that will make anyone feel comfortable with trying her stuff out.

With the new year, Adriene is starting a new 30 day yoga practice called Breath. All you need is your email to sign up. Your loved ones will get the chance to do wholesome yoga moves for 30 days with Adriene. It will send them on this journey with plenty of others around the world (me included!) and they’ll get the amazing gift of a loving physical workout to kick off 2021.

It’s no secret that things have been rough lately, but considerate virtual gifts may be more impactful on your loved ones than you think. I’ve used all of the above on special people in my life, and their reactions honestly felt like gifts to me as well. Hopefully the new year finds everyone well, and some of the above gifts can bring more than a few smiles to you and your loved ones.