We always want to tell our best friends how much we love and appreciate them.
The holidays provide the perfect opportunity to show the people you love, that you love them. And our best friends, especially, deserve to know how grateful we are for them. Where would we be without their love and support?
Somehow, though, that makes it harder to choose a gift for them. How is a gift possibly supposed to convey how grateful you are? We've been there and stressed about that. So we took it upon ourselves to compile this gift guide for your best friend—a guide full of thoughtful gifts that your gal pal will just love.
Before you dive in, make sure to check out all of our gift guides:
- The Ultimate Gift Guide to Shop Women-Owned Businesses
- The Ultimate Gift Guide for Your Mom, Mentor, or Role Model
- The Ultimate Gift Guide for Your Favorite Coworker
- The Ultimate Gift Guide for Yourself
- The Ultimate Gift Guide for Your Eco-Conscious Friend
- The Ultimate Gift Guide for Self-Care
- The Ultimate Gift Guide to Shop Black Women-Owned Businesses
*If you buy something through our links, Career Contessa may earn an affiliate commission.
Gifts for Your Best Friend Down the Street
If your friend is down the street, when is the last time you took the time to spend real quality yet socially-distanced time together? When was the last time you and your best friend safely spent time together just to spend time together? Not to do anything, but just to be?
The Best Gifts are Free (Seriously)
Our first (and we think, our best) gift idea, is quality time—even if it's socially-distanced for now. Especially in the holiday hustle and stress, forcing yourself to stop for a second (and belly laughing a lot) might be just what you need. If your BFF demands a physical gift, we have some ideas.
Gifts to Get You Laugh-Crying
Don't worry, we have a few more ideas for your BFF. One of the best gifts a CC team member ever gave her best friend was a surprise order of mozzarella sticks—delivered to her door. We still laugh about it. Speaking of laugh-crying, consider book-clubbing Big Friendship by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman for a dose of both.
Here are more ideas:
- A cute enamel pin—like this avocado or this "I dissent" RBG pin (RIP)
- Poor Tom's Strawberry Gin—because maybe your BFF will end up sharing it with you
- A custom sweater from Lingua Franca with your favorite friendship catchphrase.
- This semi-NSFW but very 2020-appropriate adult coloring book.
- Pictionary Air, which is guaranteed to give a pee-your-pants good time.
Gifts for Your Long-Distance Best Friend
It's been a tough year for our long-distance best friends. We miss them so much. This year, we can lean on the super-sentimental by sending memory-driven gifts—like a sweatshirt from your favorite beach town or a photo calendar documenting the entirety of your friendship.
Gifts to Last "Until Next Time"
Here are some small gift ideas for your best friends in a different zip code. These gifts serve as a stand-in for time spent together laughing, crying, pep-talking, or just being in each other's presence. We hope to safely see you soon!
- Friendship rings (don't act like you haven't always wanted to honor your friend-love with jewelry.)
- A Homesick candle, to remember where you met.
- A set of self-care pencils to give the pep talk you might not be around to give.
- A new Manduka yoga mat, because—after this year—we all need one.
- A customized calendar complete with all of your favorite memories and most important dates.
Subscription to a Magazine, Newsletter and/or a New Stack of Career-Focused Books
There's nothing better than a New Yorker subscription, especially for those of us who love a little social commentary. Then there are all the other favorites that might be related to news, career, or even a hobby. Our CEO, Lauren McGoodwin, loves her subscription to Domino. And this year, our team broke through the paywall to purchase a Harvard Business Review digital subscription.
Increasingly, writers are also creating newsletters for a small monthly fee. Some of our favorites include:
- Samantha Irby's books/snacks/softcore
- Rachel Cargle's The Great Unlearn
- Jami Attenberg's CRAFT TALK
- Jane Marie's See Jane Marie
- Nicole Cardoza's Anti-Racism Daily
- Or browse Substack for other newsletters.
- A Book of the Month Club membership so you can read together, all year.
Gifts for Your Work BFF
Some of us have worked side-by-side with our work BFFs for all of 2020—and some of us haven't seen our work BFFs—except for on Zoom—since mid-March.
Some Before, During, and After Work Gifts
Now is the perfect time to let your closest confidant and biggest career cheerleader know how much you care for them.
- Smartwool socks, so you can remember the winter thermostat wars you had in the office.
- A podcasting starter kit, so you both can co-host the marketing podcast you always talked about.
- Philz Coffee, to take you as far away as possible from your memories of the office coffee. Philz is so delicious.
- Fancy AF Cocktails Book so you can practice your bartending skills while discussing the latest episode of Southern Charm or Real Housewives of Atlanta.
- A set of their favorite pens. If you don't know what pens to get, just get every color pen.
- A Pinch Provisions cocktail kit, if you need to make a cocktail—in a rush.
- The Five-Minute Journal so they can get all their feelings out—in five minutes or less.
Happy gifting!
*We want to let you know that some of these links are affiliate links. That means when you purchase some of the items we listed, Career Contessa could earn a small commission at no cost to you. We only recommend items we know and love. Thank you for supporting the brands that help support Career Contessa.
