When planning to buy gifts, nothing helps more than personal relationships

By Esther Fultz

For most children, giving and receiving gifts is an integral part of Christmas celebrations.  By college, most of us, hopefully, realized Christmas isn’t just about gifts. But giving and receiving presents can still be an exciting part of the holidays to look forward to. In preparation for this article, I conducted a survey of students’ top 10 most wanted Christmas gifts, and received over 250 individual responses that I evaluated to determine students’ top 10 Christmas gift ideas.  

At the top of the list were clothing, games, and gift cards/money.  

“I’m not a huge clothes person for gifts because I have a very unique style and I like picking out my own clothes. I’ve had some people pick out clothes for me and it just stays in my closet and I feel bad,” said Avonlea Brown, sophomore student at Cedarville University. “I love gift cards for places I like to go shopping for clothes.”

The top 10 list also includes shoes, electronic devices, books, food, pens, quality time, and jewelry, respectively.  

“While I want some of these things more than others, I think in all these categories there is something I would want,” said Naomi Fultz, freshman Biblical Studies major at Cedarville University. “I might not ask for all of these things, but I would appreciate receiving them from someone.”

Some items towards the end of the top 10 list surprised the interviewees.  

“I guess we’re college students so we need pens, but I’m surprised people would consider that a Christmas gift,” said Avonlea.  “I realize we’re broke college students but if you don’t have five dollars in your bank account to buy pens you may want to reconsider some of your life choices.”

In addition to items on the list, both Avonlea and Naomi had unique gift ideas related to their personal interests and hobbies.

“I have Spotify Premium, earbuds, horseback riding lessons, the experience of going to camp, and a new backpack that will fit my computer on my Christmas list for this year,” said Naomi.  “Seeing the top 10 list also reminded me that my parents will be giving me money to go thrifting with some family friends, so I’m excited about that gift too.”

“I’m asking for some things related to travel because I really love to travel,” said Avonlea. “I don’t react well to sudden changes so I like to prepare ahead of time. I’m asking for an anti theft backpack this year because one of my biggest fears traveling is that someone will take my passport and I’ll be stuck there.”

Knowing students’ top 10 most wanted gifts and understanding commonalities in preferences that exist can be helpful in buying gifts for family and friends, but as Naomi and Avonlea’s wish lists show, it’s also important to know the people you’re buying gifts for on an individual level and think about their specific hobbies and interests.

Photo Credit: Alhill42, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en>, via Wikimedia Commons

Esther Fultz is a junior Social Work major and an Off-Campus and On-Campus writer for Cedars. She enjoys writing songs, spending time outdoors, drinking coffee, and hanging with friends.