Five Useful Moderate Price Christmas Gift Ideas for Her

The other day I started a list of useful Christmas gifts for a Minimalist Mom.  My first entry into this series was my BUDGET price list ($0-$30). It has five ideas (plus some bonus ones), which you’d be free to use as-is, or perhaps it would spark another idea in your mind (that’s my hope!).

But I want to re-emphasize that the most important part of a gift is the intentionality behind it, and with that, matching the gift to the person you’re buying for.

Whatever the gift, I like it to be personalized to me and my interests, and I like it to be something that makes my life easier or improves something in my life. And for me to really feel loved, I like it when my husband connects the dots for me: “Dani, I bought you this because … and I want it to improve (fill in the blank) in your life.”

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When my husband NOTICES little things and then takes action on them to present me with a gift, I feel very seen and respected.

So, if you’ve got a bit more than $30 to spend on a Christmas gift for a minimalist leaning Mom, here is my moderately priced Useful Christmas Gift List ($30-$100):

1 – A Nice, Nonstick Frying Pan

OK, I know, I know, household items are usually a no-no for gifts from a husband, and perhaps this is something you’d just want to steer clear of… but for Gabe and me, we are minimalist enough that improving select household items is actually one of our favorite gift options.

We lived with a very terrible nonstick frying pan for far too long. Tt wasn’t smooth on the bottom, so it didn’t cook things evenly, and I can’t even count how many times I scrubbed that darn thing out. Every time we cooked with it I dreaded the clean up.

Finally, Gabe took it upon himself to improve our life IMMENSELY and bought an expensive nonstick frying pan. He got it on sale, and I don’t actually know how much he paid for it, but whatever it was, it was worth every penny.  I love to cook. Making healthy, homemade food is important to me and it’s vital to maintaining our budget. But I like to have the proper EQUIPMENT to cook. Having a pan that will fry your eggs evenly is really, really nice!

Obviously, it’s a good idea to know your spouse on this one! If she’s trying to minimize the toxic load, perhaps consider a nice cast iron skillet. Or if she needs a BIG non-stick frying pan, perhaps an electric one. But either way, making sure there are nice things to cook with in the kitchen DOES make cooking slump days a little less tedious and a little more enjoyable! Upgrading a heavily-used cooking item might make for a very useful Christmas gift idea.

2 – A Good Kitchen Paring Knife

I am married to a blade nerd, so for me, this was pretty standard in our early years of marriage. He slowly custom built me a knife collection of knife lengths, blade shapes, and metal compositions that he thought would work best for how I utilize kitchen knives.

I love every one of my kitchen knives. I’m not going to say that I was falling all over myself when he gave them to me (it was more of a chuckle and an “of course you got me that!”), but they have been SO USEFUL! As mentioned above, I cook every day. Having sharp, quality knives to grab off the knife rack is such a blessing. It is a gift that has paid for itself time and again in convenience!

These are Gabe’s three recommendations right now:

• For a classic look, a forged Victorinox knife
• For more of a Japanese-inspired look, a Shun Cutlery Sora knife
• For more of a modern/technical look, a Yaxell Mon Utility Knife

And as a bonus, Gabe SHARPENS them for me whenever I ask. If you want to seriously increase the value of this gift, learn how to sharpen kitchen knives (Gabe’s YouTube Tutorial for doing so is here). And then give your wife the gift of not only a new knife, but also having that knife be perpetually sharp! Just don’t forget to ask her regularly – if you don’t cook much – how the knife sharpness is doing. Trust me, she’ll notice when it gets dull.

If a skillet or frying pan isn’t in need of an upgrade (or, hey, if she’s into sourdough baking, maybe a nice dutch oven would be a great gift!), perhaps a kitchen knife upgrade would be a useful Christmas gift to consider.

3 – Jewelry Staples

Nice, everyday-wear jewelry doesn’t have to break the bank. Over the years, Gabe’s gotten me several pieces, including:

• a nice watch (ceramic – it fits beautifully, and I love it! It goes with everything I ever need to wear it for, dressed up or dressed down! The link isn’t mine exactly, as he got it for me 8 years ago when we lived in Thailand, but this one is similar.)
• A pair of stud pearl earrings (so classy! Mine aren’t super big, which is fine, but they are easy to wear with everything – jeans, athleisure, dresses, etc)
• A lab-developed diamond-like necklace (very simple and elegant).

This is where you’re going to have to take notice of things, though. For example, my wedding ring set is in white gold, so Gabe is always careful to get me anything that has metal visible on it in white gold because he knows it would probably bother me to have a mix of yellow gold and silver colors.

When you’re giving gifts that suit your wife’s tastes as well as rounding out her jewelry selection, I feel like it shows that you notice her as a person, not just for the many jobs and tasks she does for the family. As a bonus, a simple piece of jewelry she can wear all the time with everything is a very useful Christmas gift as it can help her feel put together even on days that are a scramble – and that’s a nice boost to the self esteem!

4 – A folding knife for her purse

Yes, again, my husband loves knives! He got me this cute, streamlined kershaw folding knife years ago. I can’t believe how often I’ve used it – cutting tags off new clothes, opening boxes or envelopes, even trimming dangerously long carpet loops off the carpet at church so nobody trips on them… I find myself pulling it out regularly. And it is slim enough, if I wanted to, I could clip it into my waistband and wear it in my clothes.

While not particularly “romantic,” it is a very useful, functional idea for a Christmas gift. And for someone like me that enjoys being independent, I took it as a thoughtful gift in that Gabe wanted to help me be able to take care of minor cutting nuisances by myself. And, again, learning to sharpen a knife so that it always stays sharp is a very nice bonus!

5 – Quality Slippers

I got some wool lined slippers three winters ago, and they were a GAME CHANGER for the wintertime chills! Here in New Zealand, houses aren’t insulated very well, so our house is chilly in the wintertime.

In terms of the usefulness of this Christmas gift, my slippers have a hard sole, so I can wear them outside on our little covered patio to hang up laundry, I can wear them in the house, and I could even dash out to the car if it wasn’t a wet day.

I literally wear mine pretty much every minute that I’m home – they have truly been one of my favorite purchases. The wool helps them not stink, it helps keep my feet dry AND warm, and mine are the “scuff,” slide in/slide off style, so they are so easy and efficient to get on and off.

This was a purchase that significantly improved my life during the winter time. And I always think life-improvement gifts are a win!

A couple runners-up:

• A thin down puffy vest. Gabe loves these things, and I stole his for a couple years until he got me my own. Since I breastfeed our kids, I love having the versatility of a warm layer that has easy front access! Make sure you get a color your wife would wear, and that you get it in the correct size. The thin vests are still super warm (great for layering indoors or putting under a jacket outdoors). But they also pack up quite small.
• A nice wallet. You may have to do some detective work on this one. Does she like the one she has? Built in phone case? Separate from the phone? What size fits best in her purse? Coin pocket? Etc. For years I had a cheap, men’s wallet that folded up small and velcro’d shut. I bought a sleek, leather wallet last year and I’ve loved having it. (The link isn’t exactly mine, as I bought mine from a friend whose parents make the wallets, but this linked wallet is very similar.) As a bonus, it matches my purse!
• Silk pillowcase – they say silk is supposed to be the best thing to sleep on for your complexion, reducing the appearance of fine lines, and your hair.

For wrapping tips and ideas, feel free to head on over to this quick and easy little blog post – it should give you some basics to get started.

And I’d love to know, what are some of your favourite gifts you’ve given or received in this price range? I’m sure there are some awesome ideas out there that just may be what someone stumbles across in the future in the comments and thinks, “THAT’S IT! That’s the PERFECT gift!” Let us know below 🙂