South African gifts for Christmas 2020

I was scrolling pinterest today looking for sustainable Christmas gift ideas. There’s some fantastic content out there (I’ve made a Christmas 2020 board if you want to see some of what I found. Unfortunately many of the gift ideas involved overseas brands – which kind of defeats the point – so I was inspired to try collate some local South African gift ideas for you and me to draw inspiration from.

I started out on girlseeksjoy‘s blog post on 75 zero waste ideas and looked for South African options. I’ve barely made it through half the list so maybe there’ll be a follow-up post; otherwise, give it a squiz (how do you spell skiwz?) for your own inspiration.

I’ve also made a post compiling a list of South African brands and companies to look at.

Ok. so here we go:

Some basic questions to guide you on gift giving ideas for anyone
Is it something they need? something they want? something to wear? or something to read?

1. Coffee: my family has become coffee snobs lately which means that there’s a wide variety of beans and equipment lurking in the kitchen.
Cape Coffee Beans is a great site to start your coffee addiction. They distribute many great South African roasteries including: Bean there, Rosetta Roastery, Tribe coffee, Truth coffee and others.

2. Experiences: activities with people you love are a fantastic way to create memories, make them feel special and avoid clutter in the house.

You could visit your local zoo, aquarium, national park or botanical garden.
If your person is a sucker for the bush then why not consider a wild card.

“Wild Card Membership gives you one year’s unlimited entry to 80+ National Parks, Reserves and Resorts around Southern Africa, depending on the type of cluster you choose”

For someone who loves all things nature but doesn’t always have the opportunity for multi day trips then a membership to the Botanical Society of South Africa allows access to soul refreshing gardens throughout the country (this includes Kirstenbosch).

Or if you want to see the world from the comfort of the couch then a magazine subscription to BirdlifeSA, National Geographic or National Geographic Kids are great options. I read NG Kids every month growing up and have been known to spout random animal facts I learnt from them to this day.

For all those bird lovers

3. Homemade: (And by homemade, I don’t mean that you have to be the one to make it at home, although that is always an option)
Handmade, homemade items show an extra level of thoughtfulness when buying presents. They say “you’re unique and I wanted to get you some unique, not mass produced.”

DIY spa kits, bath salts and soaps are all possibilities. Here’s some pages I found with recipes: (I haven’t tried them yet so I can’t vouch for their effectiveness, sorry)

If you know a foodie, here’s some recipes to try out and give to them. They’ll be most impressed.
Edible gift ideas

Crocheted soft toys, hats, earrings, scrunchies or keyrings would be much appreciated and loved! Check out the items in my shop or contact me for more information 😉 – had to have a little self-promo in here.

4. Services:
Busy, busy, busy, that seems to be our lives. And although there has been some slowing down this year, it feels like things have started picking up pace again. For those in your life who don’t have enough moments in the day, consider giving them a meal service, a voucher from you for a promise of a homemade meal when they want, a cleaning service, an offer of babysitting once a month or being their errand runner for a day.

This is a blog post summarising some services. Look for ones in your city.

5. Give the gift of giving
For some people, all they want is for others to be happy. Consider donating money to a organisation that they would love to support in their name. This could be something like Adopt a Cot, NSRI, Gift of the Givers, Feed SA, UNICEF, the Angel network, or a local homeless shelter.

It’s been a tough year. Why not spread the love this Christmas?

And then

6. Packaging
To take a present to the next level, there’s nothing quite so efficient as a great presentation. Reusable gift wrapping ideas include newspaper, plain brown paper, or old wrapping paper. However, there’s another way too. You could wrap their item in fabric that becomes part of the gift. Here’s a page that gives some ideas.

As for gift tags, the best option I’ve seen is from Growing Paper – these tags can be planted for another gift down the line.

Check out their shop for some great products

Phew, there’s so many more ideas but that’s enough for me today. Let me know what are your best gift giving ideas or your favourite local company to support this Christmas.

Ps. I haven’t received compensation from any of these brands (except my own, yup). I’ve recommended gifts that I think would be wonderful based on my life experience and family preferences.