Regional director Alice Nichols cares about people and has these great ideas for FREE ways to give a gift to a friend this holiday season.

“Gifts don’t have to cost money to be valuable. The very best things we give come from our heart.”

• A listening ear. Schedule a standing weekly phone call with a friend. Get it on your calendars! This kind gesture seems small but can mean the world to a shy friend.
• A list of things you value about someone. Make a list of things you love and value about someone, print it out and present it to them with a bow.
• Make a Tell Me Notebook: Fill a notebook with questions that invite your friend to write their thoughts and feelings. Each page can be a question/writing prompt – What things make you think about spring? Who was your favorite teacher and why? Tell me about three memorable friends.
• Share a list of lessons learned: Make a list of all the valuable and wonderful things you’ve learned from your friend.
• Car care: Go wash their car.
• Help them with a chore! Doing someone’s laundry can be a godsend!
• Offer to babysit their children: During COVID, babysitting can be as simple as scheduling a Zoom call for an hour and chatting about school or hearing how their day is going. Or, read them a story. This hour can give your friend time to focus on self-care, relax, take a nap or a bath.
• The NEW mixed tape! Spotify! Make your friend a playlist on Spotify and invite them to it. Create a playlist of their favorite songs, or a list of songs that remind you of them. Name it after them: Jem’s Top Ten
• Have a virtual movie party! Watch a Netflix movie together (a Netflix Party) from a Chrome web browser!
• Read an eBook together: So many books are free online. Choose one and invite your friend to a cozy book club just for two!

No matter what you chose to do, your friend will appreciate your thoughtful gift because it came from you!