🎁 Projectors Invited Gift Guide – Presents for the Projectors in Your Life (or Yourself!)

Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel (1973)

Tis, again, the season. As someone who doesn’t particularly like “stuff”, I’m always interested in finding interesting and fun gifts that don’t just land in a re-gifting pile (though, frankly, I also don’t have a problem with that, as long as it’s helpful to the original giftee :)), or, worse, in a landfill.

Here are some tried-and-tested ideas of gifts for the Projectors you love, and those who love us. A note: Most gifts in this list aren’t actual “things”, the two items that are, are affiliate-linked, so full disclosure that Projectors Invited may receive a small commission should you choose to purchase any of those. As always, you can trust me to only recommend what I have loved to gift and/or receive, and what I use (and have paid for) myself. 

Most of the presents, however, are $0 or very affordable and just require a little time and love ❤️

The gift of rest & relaxation

Not specifically for or about Projectors, however, The Relaxed Woman by Nicola Jane Hobbs centers around a topic that afflicts many a Projector in their experiment: How does one unlearn decades of conditioning around rest? And how does one, bit by bit, allow oneself to actually, logistically, truly rest?

The most luxurious gift to give alongside the book, or on its own: Time!

Projectors love to just have time to follow their whims, dive deep into their current rabbit hole of choice, and gather information that propels us towards mastery in our chosen field. Consider freeing up your favourite Projector’s time (or asking someone to do the same for you!) by relieving them of a chore like returning something to the post office for them or pretending to be their assistant (after checking with them, of course) and making a few calls they’ve been procrastinating getting on top of. Voilà, a present they won’t forget anytime soon!

The joy of something you need

I’ll just go ahead and assume we have all watched Love Actually and remember that scene where Mia (played by Heike Makatsch) asks her boss, the formidable late Alan Rickman, to get her a present. When he asks her what she needs, she famously replies: «I don’t want something I need. I want something I want.»

Love Actually (2003)

Ever since watching that movie when I played hooky one winter afternoon in high school and instead went to the cinema all by myself – the epitome of a chic & adult thing to do, to my then-teenage self – this line has been playing in my head whenever I think of giving a gift.

It shan’t be something they need!

However, a few years ago I was prompted to rethink:

A good friend (from that same high school!) and I still exchange gifts via mail all these years later. We live far apart and never see each other, but each year, we send each other a heartfelt card and a present. It’s so lovely! Two or three years ago, she put together a little gift basket for me, and one item was a fancy turmeric-scented dish soap.

This may be a 30ies thing, but I thought it was so novel and cool, yet useful, and one less thing I had to worry about stocking up on at the grocery store, and I just loved that sentiment. Yes, it’s fun to give (and receive) fun, frivolous things we might not get for ourselves, but something useful with a fun twist? So good. And even better, I thought of her each time I used it (daily) :)

Here are a few novel dish soaps, if you’d like to try: From very affordable to Christmas-y, to quite fancy.

A present that invites presence

If your Projector pal has had a tumultuous year (the Human Design experiment do be like that 🥴🥴), why not gift them a small (or gigantic!) house plant to care for? They will be reminded that with a little bit of love and adequate amounts of water and light, growth is and always will be, inevitable.

«Knock their socks off» treats

A homemade batch of fleur de sel caramels is always a crowd-pleaser and a delicious reminder, in our overly convenient, overly artificial world, of what proper caramel is supposed to taste like! Just butter, sugar, vanilla and cream. None of that glucose syrup stuff.

I have seen grown men fight over these when I brought a batch to my local recycling station one Christmas past to thank the workers there for being so kind and helpful during my move. Here is the (German) recipe I use, which is super worth google-translating. Just top them with flaky sea salt before they dry, and bon appétit. Oh, right, we were supposed to give these away 🙃

Another fun food gift would be something holiday-themed from your country or culture that they likely haven’t tried (such as this, for example).

And with that, I wish you happy holidays, my darlings. And for my Euro Projectors… ‘tis the season! Unser Aschenbrödel!

Love us! xo Nadia

For more

• Fore more holiday magic (and NG kitchen witchery!), consider joining us for the upcoming 🕯️ 12 Nights of Magic portal for it sixth and best (so far!) round

• Have a look at the 🎁 2023 Projector Gift Guide for more timeless ways of saying I see/love/cherish you