What your 20-something really wants for Christmas

By Lyndsie Kiebert
Reader Staff

As a kid, I’d unabashedly produce a Christmas List for my mom each year, sometime in October. Although she is a year-round holiday shopper, my mom would wait for this list to decide what “big” gift to get me. I had a really fortunate childhood, and would often get a lot of what I listed, including what was (and is still) called the “Santa Gift.”

Photo courtesy of Thought Catalog.

A BB gun.

A guitar.

A snowboard.

Yes, this tomboy supreme was spoiled, and still is on Christmas, but the holiday has taken on a new meaning.

Some would say us 20-somethings are in limbo. I don’t live with my parents, but I don’t have kids to wake up with on Christmas morning yet. I’m not married, but my long-term boyfriend and I have to navigate whose parents’ house we’re going to and when on big holidays. 

Also in limbo is my Christmas List, which my mother still requests. Of course I want things, but I need things, too, and Christmas is a good time to take stock.

So what is it the 20-something in your life needs?

Stuff to make cooking easier:

Why did no one tell me that 80 percent of being an adult is deciding what and when to eat? In college I subsisted almost entirely on pizza rolls, so my cooking skills didn’t make any huge improvements until I invited a 6’3” man to live with me. Suddenly I had more than myself to think about while I browsed the grocery aisles. There’s plenty of gadgets on the market meant to make cooking more hassle free — food processors, zoodle tools, wireless smartphone-connected meat thermometers — but nothing has compared to my slow-cooker. Thanks, Mom.

Printed photos: 

I have 1,724 photos on my phone, but there might be one printed photo sitting in a frame in my living room. Blame it on tech culture, but millennials aren’t scrapbookers. Most of our memories reside within our phones, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want a nice framed photo of us with our siblings to hang on the wall — it just means the last time we walked into the Walmart photo center was circa 2005, and it was to develop our disposable camera from vacation.

Plans: 

At this phase of life, it’s easy to get caught up in working, paying the bills and maybe doing a fun thing here and there in between when it’s affordable. As a result, gifts that mean we get to go out and make memories with the people we love are great. Restaurant gift certificates, paint and sip vouchers, or tickets to a show or sporting event are just a few ideas.

That thing I should have bought last week but didn’t: 

I’ve needed new sheets for months now. I don’t know where all my favorite pens have gone. None of my pots or frying pans have lids anymore. My dog could certainly use a good grooming. These are all things I’m bound to spend money on — once I finally remember to write them down — but just haven’t yet. So to all the adults trying to shop for a 20-something this season, just know a surefire way to make their holiday is to simply ask them what they need. I promise the list isn’t short.