Category: Gifting Guides Page 7 of 12

Moms can be some of the most difficult people to buy gifts for. Why? Because for whatever reason, lots of moms just won’t come out and say what it is they want for a gift.

Maybe they’ll say “I’m sure I’ll love whatever you get me.”

Or “Just get something you think I’ll like.”

Or even “I don’t need anything – I have you.”

And as nice as all that is, here’s a newsflash, mamas – your children want to give you something! Moms are some of the most important people in our lives. We want to honor your love, sacrifice, and commitment to giving your children the very best life possible.

Mom may keep quiet about what she wants with her children, but there are ways to figure it out if you’re just a bit sneaky (hint: ask her best girlfriend). Here are a few ideas for things that your mom really wants this year.

Having someone else cook dinner – a nice, big, family-style one. 

If your mom is the one who usually cooks, then there’s no way she should be the one making dinner on Mother’s Day. Rather than going out, which can be fun but also stressful with kids, make a big family meal at home while Mom relaxes with a glass of wine and her feet up.

An uninterrupted nap.

Moms can never get enough sleep, and even if she manages to squeeze in a nap, it’s usually interrupted by cries of “Mommy! Mommy!” within a few minutes.

This Mother’s Day, give Mom some time to nap without the distraction of children running around. Take the kids out for ice cream or on a fun outing, and give Mom an empty – and silent – house for a few hours. She’ll thank you for it.

A professional house cleaning.

Even in the most equal of partnerships, moms tend to do the bulk of the housecleaning. With kids, the tidying up is neverending, so splurge on a professional housecleaning and give Mom the day – or a few – off.

Even if it just lasts half an hour, having all the grit and grime removed by the pros will at least give Mom a head start on next week’s cleaning.

A day to be the fun, no-rules parent. 

Whether they’re single or partnered, most moms find themselves having to fill the role of structure-creator and rule-enforcer with their kids. Do your homework. Clear your dishes. Make your bed. Don’t touch your brother. Stop pushing your sister.

Who knew, but moms just want to have fun, too! Have Dad or another family member take on the role of rule-enforcer for the day, and allow mom the freedom to let her hair down with the kids. Go swimming, to a theme park, or somewhere else fun and have someone else decide when sunscreen needs to be applied or when it’s time for lunch.

Some chocolate or dessert that no one else eats. 

Kids have a way of getting into your chocolate stash – unless you have a really good hiding place. Get mom some gourmet chocolate or other decadent treats, and let her in on your secret spot. That way, they won’t have disappeared the next time she needs a chocolate fix. 

A heartfelt, homemade gift from her kids.

Kids, even if you’re too old for the homemade cards, bookmarks, and potholders that you used to make your mom when you were little, know that your mom still loves getting homemade gifts from you.

That can mean a special dessert you whip up from scratch. It could mean a thoughtful photo collage of pictures from throughout your childhood. Or if you’re artistic, create a painting, drawing, or other piece of artwork for her.

Having someone else organize the photos.

As much fun as it is to look through old photos, actually taking the time to organize them is…not so much fun.

This is doubly true for digital photos, as clicking through an endless string of images and sorting them into folders can take its toll with eyestrain and headaches. If mom is the one who primarily handles your family photo-sorting, give her a break and take it on yourself.

Divide your photos up by year, event, or however else she sorts them, and store them neatly. One great way to make sure those beautifully sorted photos get seen is to send them to a Nixplay Cloud WiFi Digital Frame. You can create specific playlists – even one just for Mom.

Beatrice Bisais

Bea is Nixplay’s Social Media Manager. She enjoys drinking coffee, reading about wars, and writing stories. Send her a message at beatrice.bisais@nixplay.com.

Graduation season is a time that many high school and college seniors look forward to, and not just because they won’t have to attend a single class again. They look forward to the multitude of congratulatory presents and praise that awaits them. Whether you’re a family member or friend, it won’t be hard to find a great gift that will let the graduate in your life know how happy and proud you are of this accomplishment.

Since graduation marks a new chapter in a graduate’s life, it is best to think of potential gifts that will help them in their journey towards a higher education or employment. We have come up with a short list of useful gifts that any graduate would love.

A sturdy leather messenger bag

Your graduate will find this very useful when he or she is going off to college or job interviews. Leather not only looks great, but it’s also durable enough to hold school essentials, like a laptop or heavy books. For college grads, a leather bag goes well with any office wear, and can also keep their work computer and documents neat and tidy when they’re out and about.

A digital photo frame

For high school grads who are going to attend an out-of-state university, living away from home can be an exciting, but also nerve-racking prospect. No matter how much they crave this “moment of freedom,” homesickness can strike at any time. During these homesick moments, looking at photos of loved ones can help get them out of their lonely funk. A digital photo frame like the NIX Digital Frame is the perfect gift for your photo-obsessed graduate, because he or she can use it to quickly view endless pictures of family and friends. Even better, purchase a Nixplay Wi-Fi Cloud Frame that lets them see cloud-stored photos from their nightstand.

A cookbook of simple recipes

It’s no secret that college students and young professionals usually stretch their tiny budgets at the expense of their meals. If your graduate didn’t pick up your cooking skills, it would be a good idea to give him or her an excellent cookbook with recipes that are not only delicious, but also economical and relatively easy to follow. They will love you for giving them more food options than Top Ramen, instant mac and cheese, and frozen pizza.

Gift Cards

The reality is that new graduates are short on funds more frequently than they (and their parents) wish they were. If you want to help them during these moments without having to give them cold hard cash, gift cards are another great option. For instance, an Amazon gift card can get them groceries or even new clothes for work. There are so many other types of gift cards that you can give to your graduate, depending on what he or she likes. Restaurant and spa gift cards are also excellent choices any graduate would love.

Although this is a fairly short list of valuable, memorable gift ideas for graduates, there is a wide variety of choices out there. All of the items above are readily available online or at retail stores. And if you are looking to get a digital photo frame, you can visit the Nixplay website and browse our many models today.

Beatrice Bisais

Bea is Nixplay’s Social Media Manager. She enjoys drinking coffee, reading about wars, and writing stories. Send her a message at beatrice.bisais@nixplay.com.

Not all mums want flowers and a lovely brunch out for Mother’s Day. Some would rather spend the day enjoying the latest tech gadget – with their dear son or daughter, or course.

If your mum is among those who prefer FitBits and iPads to handbags and scarves, take a look at this list of the best tech gifts for Mum this Mother’s Day.

Google Home

Busy Mums deserve all the help they can get when it comes to running the household.

The Google Home voice-activated speaker can remind family members of appointments and events, play music from a variety of web services, let you know what the weather will be like, and even work with your other smart devices like TVs, appliances, and thermostats.

Tile trackers

Maybe Mum is incredibly organized – but even the best of us lose things now and then. Tile trackers are small, sleek Bluetooth locators that can be attached to keys, wallets, backpacks, remote controls – anything that you might misplace.

When you lose an item that has a Tile attached, all you have to do is use the Tile app on your phone to get the tracker to ring, alerting you to the item’s location. It works in reverse, too: if you lose your phone, just push the button on any of your Tile trackers to get your phone to ring.

You can even put a Tile in your car or on your bike to make sure you never again have to wander a street or parking lot searching for your transportation.

Microsoft Band

Perfect for high-achieving, career-oriented moms, the Microsoft Band is more than just a fitness tracker. The Band tracks your workouts and steps, sleep, and calories burned, and comes with a continuous heart rate monitor that allows you to see how your heart rate changes over a 24-hour period.

In addition to your fitness data, however, the Band allows you to view and reply to text messages, preview your emails, and receive calendar notifications.

Drop

Mums who love to bake will love Drop, a smart scale that works with a recipe app that lets you access free recipes and precisely measure ingredients so you end up with less waste.

The app walks you through your recipes step-by-step, and you can even interact with the app by pushing a button on the scale. That way, you don’t have to worry about getting flour all over your iPad.

Nixplay Seed Cloud WiFi Digital Frame

The Nixplay Seed Cloud WiFi Digital Frame is the perfect gift for Mums everywhere – especially for those who don’t live in the same town as their children or grandchildren.

The Nixplay Seed works with the Nixplay smartphone app, which allows users to send photos to frames instantly from anywhere around the world. Mum can place her Seed frame in the family room and see images from her granddaughter’s ballet recital, or her son’s trip to India, as they’re happening.

You can even create playlists for Mum’s Seed frame before you give it to her – for ideas, check our post “A Lifetime in Pictures: Suggested Playlists for Your Gifted Nixplay Digital Photo Frame.”

Tech-savvy Mums deserve useful, fun-to-use gadgets. Whether Mum is an avid baker, a fitness enthusiast, or a devoted family woman, you can certainly find something on this list to make her happy. For more ideas on how to stay connected to Mum throughout the year, not just on Mother’s Day, read our post “How the Nixplay App Can Keep Your Family Connected.”

Beatrice Bisais

Bea is Nixplay’s Social Media Manager. She enjoys drinking coffee, reading about wars, and writing stories. Send her a message at beatrice.bisais@nixplay.com.

Mother’s Day has a long history in the UK.

Originally, the holiday was a Christian celebration that emerged in the 16th century. Called Mothering Sunday, it was celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent, and saw Christians all over Great Britain and some other parts of Europe travelling to their “mother church” to worship with family members.

Over time, the holiday became a way for fathers and children to celebrate the mums in their families by spending quality time together and giving flowers and gifts.

While Mums should be celebrated all year, not just on Mother’s Day, the official Mother’s Day can serve as good inspiration for finding a really excellent gift.

What’s one of the best gifts you can give Mum? Spending some loving, quality time together comes in first, of course, but after that, we think photographs of your special memories comes in a close second.

Make your photo gifts unique to make them special.

There’s nothing wrong with giving Mum a simply framed image as a gift, but if you really want to wow her, why not try something a little different?

Collage frames that allow you to include multiple pictures in nicely presented configurations make very thoughtful gifts. Other options are some of the more modern display ideas:

• Getting a canvas print of one of your favourite photos
• Making a hanging display of photo prints using string or wire and clothespins or metal clips
• Creating a display that incorporates decorative objects, like wooden initials, small plants, etc. along with photographs
• Making a photo calendar or book with special images of the family

Framed pictures are classic and timeless, but with all the options out there now for dressing up your photos, you may find yourself tempted to get a little more creative.

Go digital to make your photo gift more versatile.

Digital pictures offer so much potential in terms of gifts. By themselves, they’re not that exciting – no one wants to get a flash drive for a gift! – but you can create slideshows or digital albums to look through on Mother’s Day, preferably while your mum eats the breakfast you made her.

One of the best ways to get the most out of your digital photos is to put them on a digital frame, like the Nixplay Seed.

The Nixplay Seed is a WiFi Digital Frame, which means you can not only upload photos to the frame, but you can send them to the frame no matter where you are in the world.

If you’re gifting a frame, you can load it with special playlists that your mum will love. A few ideas are below.

• A playlist of photos of children or grandchildren with mum or grandmum
• A chronological playlist of mum’s life – you can include graduation photos, wedding photos, anniversary photos, and more
• Chronological playlists of photos of your children
• Soothing playlists filled with images of beautiful places or vacations (just make sure you purchase photos you pull from the web or use copyright-free ones)
• Aspirational playlists – places Mum wants to travel to one day, for example

Mums deserve nothing less than the very best on Mother’s Day. A gift of lovingly chosen photographs, whether that means framed prints, or digital playlists on a Nixplay Wifi Cloud Digital Frame, will let mum know how much she means to you.

For more on how Nixplay is helping families stay in touch, read our post “How the Nixplay App Can Keep Your Family Connected.”

Beatrice Bisais

Bea is Nixplay’s Social Media Manager. She enjoys drinking coffee, reading about wars, and writing stories. Send her a message at beatrice.bisais@nixplay.com.

Who says Valentine’s Day has to be just about couples?

Whether or not you’re part of a couple this year, chances are you have someone in your life who could use a reminder of how much they mean to you. After all, that’s what Valentine’s Day is really about: sharing love with the people closest to you.

And while boxes of chocolates and red roses are nice, they are – let’s face it – a little cliche. Here are some Valentine’s Day gift ideas that will work for anyone and everyone on your V-Day list this year.

A personalized photo book

Perfect for: Mom, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, significant other

Photo books documenting a trip you all took together, a child’s first year, or another special occasion are perfect gifts for parents and grandparents. You can create them easily either online or with a photo editing program, and the quality is exceptional.

One of the most difficult parts of creating a photo book is selecting the photos. We all have so many nowadays that it’s tempting to try and cram as many as possible into the pages. Resist the temptation! Photos will be much more striking if there’s just one or two on most of the pages.

Otherwise, you can end up with a book that looks cluttered and messy – the opposite of what you want to give someone special!

If you want to create a photo book for your significant other, a milestone or special event can make a perfect theme. Think anniversary, first apartment or house, wedding or honeymoon – you get the picture (no pun intended).

A Nixplay Iris WiFi Cloud Digital Frame

Perfect for: Grandma and Grandpa, a business-traveling spouse or partner

Nixplay’s newest frame, the Nixplay Iris, would make a great Valentine’s Day gift for special family members, especially Grandma and Grandpa. The sleek design and silk-metal finish give the Iris a traditional photo frame look, and the three available colors allow it to complement any home decor.

But the most important thing about our WiFi Cloud Digital Frames is that they allow you to share photos of your loved ones instantly, sending them from your phone right to the frame. It’s a small, but important way to help your loved ones feel connected to you – even if they’re halfway around the world on a business trip, or living across the country.

Personalized photo cards

Perfect for: Friends, faraway family members, teachers, kids’ classmates

Want to share some love with everyone you love this Valentine’s Day? Consider making personalized photo cards to stick in the mail.

You can add a photo or two of your family with a kind message and send them to friends and family. Think of them as an upgraded version of those school day Valentine’s Day cards you used to hand out. And actually, if you want to get really ambitious, have some made with a picture of your child for him or her to distribute to his or her classmates.

Photo collages

Perfect for: Children, significant others, Mom and Dad

Since making a nice photo collage takes some time, you probably want to save these for the really special people in your life: a child who’s graduating high school, or a significant other, for example.

You can make digital photo collages and have them printed and shipped without ever printing a single photo.

However, since most of us don’t have hard copy photos lying around anymore, a photo collage can be a wonderful opportunity to go through some of your digital photos and find special ones that you want to have printed. Again, the temptation will be to use lots and lots of images, but restrain yourself to a reasonable number so that each one has a chance to shine.

Valentine’s Day is a time to show love to everyone, not just the person you share your life with. For more gift ideas for the special people in your life, check out our post “7 Great Gift Ideas for Mother’s Day.”

Beatrice Bisais

Bea is Nixplay’s Social Media Manager. She enjoys drinking coffee, reading about wars, and writing stories. Send her a message at beatrice.bisais@nixplay.com.