Top 5 tips for choosing the best gifts this season

You’re invited to a wedding, a birthday party or a housewarming. Who doesn’t like celebrations? Family and friends get together. Lots of friendly conversations, catch-ups, great food, drinks, and desserts. But first. Before you get to enjoy any of these, you have one important job to do.

Pick a gift.

This little task seems to be getting increasingly complicated. Picking a gift that will be loved and enjoyed by the receiver is not always an easy task. However, it is possible for this to be one of the most enjoyable things you can do.

Let’s see if we can help by breaking this down into a few tips for choosing the best gifts this season and what to keep in mind while choosing them.

1. Personally curate your gift
Think about the home of the person you are choosing a gift for. Whether they have a well-set-up home or their interior work is still a work in progress, they’ll truly appreciate some vibrant accessories. These usually go well with solid colours and lighten the look of a room. Additions like eye-catching cushion covers or rugs with bold floral motifs in assorted colours make any living space elegant and pleasing.

This is where vibrant Kashmiri hand embroidered chain stitch cushion covers and rugs from www.zainabyctok.com enter the spectrum of choice. Pick one so that at least one colour in your accessories matches the colour of any one of the elements in their room.

This could be a painting, a lampshade, the colour of a couch or even the colour of the leaves of a plant they have in their space. The fact that they are hand-embroidered adds a layer of personalization to your gift of love which will be surely admired.

2. Choose mindfully created gifts

You often hear that the best gift is one that you make yourself. This gift must at the same time also be perfect for special occasions like a wedding, anniversary or as a birthday gift. The next best thing to do in this case is to go with handcrafted gifts. 

By not choosing something mass-manufactured, you are giving the message to your loved one that they are one of a kind and so deserve something that is not easy to produce and is not commonplace.

How about the rare and exclusive, gorgeous Pashmina garments from www.zainabyctok.com? The fine hair of a specific mountain goat in Ladakh is gently combed out, cleaned, segregated by hard-working shepherds and then hand-spun into the precious Pashmina yarn by skilled artisans. This is then gently and skillfully handwoven on traditional wooden looms to make the exquisite Pashmina garments like shawls, stoles, and scarves that Kashmir is well known for, throughout the world. These are indeed perfect souvenirs from Kashmir. Each piece is one of a kind.

You can be sure that this precious gift will be treasured and loved by anyone who receives it for a long time to come.

3. Pick gifts made with sustainable materials
In these times of a heightened sense of responsibility towards the environment and an increased awareness of how each of our decisions impacts the earth and its climate, wouldn’t it be marvellous if we could choose a gift that has a minimum footprint on our planet?

It's not for nothing that papier-mache is being seen as a new sustainable material for homeware and home décor accessories. Not only is it sturdy and long-lasting, but it’s also amazing to see the creative shapes it can be moulded into and the vibrant designs that can be painted on it.

www.zainabyctok.com offers a wide range of accessories in papier-mache. Like the exquisite hand-painted fun game, Charbagh Ludo or the classy keepsake boxes which could be gift boxes or gifts themselves, they’re so stunning. There’s something that everyone will like. A gorgeous souvenir from Kashmir.

Papier-mache has revolutionized serveware as well with Kashmir-themed coaster sets that come in their own box, serving trays and box set trays that become instant conversation starters for their astounding motifs, remarkable design, and superb finish.

There are even striking photo frames – the repository of our joyous memories. One can’t imagine how much a gift of these beauties will be cherished.

4. Look for beauty in utility
An age-old choice of gift has been art – a sculpture, a painting, or a vase. But great art does not always need to be just admired from a distance. There are a few delightful objects where the artistic meets the utilitarian and lives happily ever after – while always looking spectacular.

Have you considered walnut wood serveware as your next gift for your loved one for their housewarming party, anniversary or Diwali party? These majestic trees grow especially in Kashmir and walnut wood carving is one of its famed artistic talents.

At www.zainabyctok.com we have an entire range of walnut wood serveware – like the cheese platter collection with exquisite hand carving on them. Classy yet convenient, serving little snacks on these cheese platters easily takes up your hospitality quotient several notches.

The walnut wood cake stand is another masterpiece in this range of serveware. With detailed and delightful hand carving this cake stand is perfect for an occasion cake or even little muffins for your tea party or layering and creating interesting table settings.

Then there are walnut wood and copper boxes – you can serve nuts or mini-snacks, keep your knick-knacks, and store your jewellery, these boxes are multi-functional and so elegant to look at that your loved ones will not be able to take their eyes off them when you give them this gift of love.

5. Device accessories can be pretty too
All of us now have multiple electronic devices like laptops, tablets, phones, portable speakers etc. While they are very personal to an individual and it would be their own decision when they buy one, where we see a gifting opportunity is on the accessories protection side.

Can you imagine a case for a laptop made of durable and hardy canvas with a synthetic suede lining on the inside and padded with foam cushioning that offers complete protection for the device? What is more, it’s created in some brilliant colours with multi-hued hand embroidered motifs on the outside.

We mean the exclusive range of laptop and tablet sleeves at www.zainabyctok.com. Talk about a chic way to carry your electronics! It’s as eye-catching as it’s surprising. Devices need not be dry and emotionless objects anymore. This is one gift that is sure to stun your sister on rakhi, or your brother on bhai dhooj or a friend on her birthday in a most pleasant way.

With these five tips in mind when you are choosing gifts for your dear ones, you are sure to hit their sweet spot. It was never so easy to show your love!

 

Written for Zaina by Supriya Subramanian