3 Easy Christmas Gift Ideas for Seniors Who Have to Ship Presents
Finding an assisted living community you love often means choosing to downsize in a beloved town while younger members of your family move on to different cities. That can pose challenges throughout the year — though technology such as FaceTime and Skype does make it easier to keep up with grandkids and other relatives. But around the holidays, seniors at Broadmoor Court who have family outside of the area may find themselves wanting to ship gifts. To help you save money or avoid shipping issues this holiday season, we've provided three tips to keep in mind.
1. Make Use of Online Shipping Offers
Many retailers offer free shipping on orders over a certain amount, and you can score free shipping on any order on certain sales days — such as the weekend after Thanksgiving. You can complete holiday shopping online, enter the address where the gifts should go and send items directly to recipients to make long-distance gifting as easy as possible. Make sure you select the gift option at check out to ensure the retailer doesn't include pricing information; you may also be able to pay for gift wrapping if you prefer.
2. Send Perfectly Timed Gifts Via Email
If you're not tied to a pretty package in the mail or under the tree, you can send a variety of gift cards via email. Some retailers and other gift card providers let you enter a time and date for the email to be sent, so you can even ensure your gift arrives on Christmas morning.
One benefit of email gifts is that you never have to worry that holiday shipping bottlenecks will hold your gift up or that it will be lost during shipping. Some types of gifts that work with this method include gift cards to select restaurants, online retailers, specialty stores and movie theaters. Email gift cards are also a great idea if you're sending someone credit for an eBook, game download or streaming content.
3. Choose Gifts That Are Easy and Inexpensive to Ship
If part of the gift-giving process you enjoy is wrapping items in beautiful paper and ribbon and personalizing the tags, try to choose presents that are easy to ship yourself. You may want to avoid very heavy items, which could result in higher-than-planned shipping costs, and fragile gifts that take special packaging to protect.
Clothing and accessories, such as scarves, hats and even jewelry, are often easy to ship. Books and other media are typically easy to package and ship, as are puzzles and board games. Consider wrapping items in boxes rather than bags or uniquely shaped containers to make it as easy as possible to find a shipping box. The USPS has a number of common-size boxes, and if your items fit in those boxes, they ship for a flat rate.
