Gift cards don’t have to be boring. Gifting Ideas!

As Christmas gets closer, I have found that it’s harder to find Christmas gifts for certain people. Like my sister. As much as I love her, she is the hardest person to shop for. She has everything and is just picky about certain things. I also don’t even know what to get for my brother. The best solution would be to do gift cards right? But they are boring! Seriously, it’s no fun to just give someone a gift card. No thought put into it whatsoever! Don’t worry though! I am here to help give you some ideas on gifting with gift cards this year!

MOVIE NIGHT

See Jacob Black (YUM), Edward Cullen (DOUBLE YUM) and Bella Swan (I wish I was her) on the BIG screen. Give a movie gift card for the option to see Twilight, New Moon or Eclipse coming soon June 20, 2010!  Many places offer customizable gift cards and you can include extra for concessions! Wrap it with the Twilight books or DVD or how about a shirt!

GET CRAFTY

Hand decorate cards with ribbon, colored paper and candy canes! Add a personal touch by creating your own jingle, inserting a photo or slipping in a McDonald’s gift card just say your thinking about that special someone.

DECK THE HALLS

Embellish your tree from inside out with the twinkle lights, garland and ornaments. Try taking a different angle by making your own garland from popcorn or berries. You can even switch out a few ornaments and hang holiday gift cards from Lettuce Entertain Restaurants or The Cheesecake Factory as a surprise gift for the whole family!

For the Girl on the Go

For girls with many early mornings, long days and packed schedules, where do they find the time to brush their hair, so this year,  don’t let her run on empty… get her a bundle of $5 gift cards to McDonald’s, Dunkin Donuts, Chipotle or Starbucks and pair it with a Starbuck’s to-go travel mug.  This can be packaged by taping the gift cards to the front of the mug with a large bow or hole punching the gift cards and sliding them onto ribbon to be tied around the mug.

For the Holiday Baking Hostess: Get your hostess a $15-$25 gift card to Williams & Sonoma and pair it with holiday cookie cutters (they have ones where you can make your own holiday messages!) or a monogrammed kid’s apron (depending on the hostess) and attach a nicely decorated recipe for your famous sugar cookies.

Interesting statistics about gift cards courtesy of a survey compiled by First Data:

Black Friday

Black Friday showed a strong start to the holiday shopping season, and First Data predicts that gift card performance will remain flat or increase slightly this holiday season compared to last year. Approximately three-quarters of gift card purchasers indicate that they buy their gift cards within two weeks of the holidays, so the vast majority of gift card sales are expected to occur in the weeks ahead.

The dollar value of specialty retail gift cards activated Friday soared 46.9 percent and the number of specialty retail cards activated grew 39.7 percent. The growth appears to have been driven primarily by the use of gift cards as incentives by specialty retailers. Many merchants are including a free gift card with the purchase of merchandise or a gift card in order to drive store traffic and sales.

The specialty retail category includes merchants that sell clothing, electronics, books, sporting goods, hardware, music, video, beauty supplies, home goods and other items.

Full Week Gift Card Performance

Overall, the number of gift cards activated for the week was comparable to last year; however, the dollar value loaded onto cards grew 5.7 percent, consistent with growth in the average card denomination.

For specialty retailers, Black Friday saw the greatest increase in gift card performance, but activity was strong throughout the week, with a 13.4 percent increase in the number of cards activated and a 22.2 percent increase in the dollar value of specialty retail gift cards.

Dollars loaded on restaurant gift cards grew 3.4 percent for the week, while the number of cards activated decreased 2.9 percent.

About the First Data Holiday Gift Card Performance Report

This report compares the number of gift cards sold between Monday, Nov. 23, 2009 and Sunday, Nov. 29, 2009 to those sold during the same period last year, Monday, Nov. 24, 2008 through Sunday Nov. 30, 2008.

The numbers in the First Data Holiday Gift Card Performance Report are based on aggregate transaction data across First Data’s gift card processing business. Prior year transaction data represents comparable closed loop transactions processed by First Data for the retailers included in the summary.

About First Data

First Data powers the global economy by making it easy, fast and secure for people and businesses to buy goods and services using virtually any form of electronic payment. Whether the choice of payment is a gift card, a credit or debit card or a check, First Data securely processes the transaction and harnesses the power of the data to deliver intelligence and insight for millions of merchant locations and thousands of card issuers in 36 countries. For more information, visit www.firstdata.com.

This post was inspired by First Data on helping others give gift cards in fun ways. I was not compensated for this post in any way.