When you go home for Christmas, you run into the risk of coming back with an overweight luggage full of shower gels, notebooks, bulky books, socks, and many more gifts. Made (or bought) with love, of course. But not really essential (or convenient) for your nomadic and minimalist lifestyle.
That’s why we created a handy list of ten virtual, useful, and unique gift ideas for Digital Nomads (or location independent people): share it with your friends and relatives to give them great gift ideas, and avoid those annoying luggage fees when you go back from your Holiday trip.
- For the movie-addicts
I only need one word: Netflix. Make someone happy by gifting them a one-year Netflix subscription. Unlimited binge-watching. Unlimited high-quality streaming of the latest tv-shows and movies. I guarantee you you’ll get the gratitude vibes from the other side of the world every time your nomadic friend winds down from their hard days’ work and relaxes on a couch somewhere to watch the latest episode of Game of Thrones while sipping a glass of wine. Try it.
- For the music lovers
Or, yeah, for pretty much everyone. Who doesn’t use Spotify these days, right? And who doesn’t hate those annoying ads and the shuffle mode on mobile that come with the free version: somehow the song you really want to listen to, never comes up when you turn on that app. Give the gift of ads-free choice for your friends: buy them a Spotify gift card. Light, easy, useful. Just the present we love!
- For the bookworms
People who travel a lot hate books. Yes, sorry, we do. Even if we might like the nostalgic smell of paper pages, or the romantic feeling of holding an actual book, we still hate them. They take up way too much space, are heavy and hard to fit into our backpacks already full of electronic gadgets. But some of us are still bookworms. Or, better said e-book worms. What else would we do in all those hours we spend on planes without our beloved wi-fi? Here you have the perfect gift: Kindle Unlimited. Free unlimited ebooks and audiobooks with great Amazon quality. Give the gift of reading, without the hassle of carrying around books.
- For the do-gooders
In Italy, we have a saying that goes “A Natale siamo tutti più buoni” which literally translates as “During Christmas time, we are all nicer”. This time of the year makes us often think about the people who are less fortunate than us, it makes us more inclined to give to charity in order to fight against the consumerism that surrounds the Holidays. Nevertheless, the choice of giving to charity is a very personal one, so it’s hard to decide for someone else.
One great and original gift idea could be a Kiva’s gift card. You give a certain amount, and the person lends it to the entrepreneur or organization (s)he wants to support. There are tons of possibilities and the best part about this is that, when the entrepreneur pays back the loan, they can decide to lend it to someone else, making the gift last for a very long time and make many people happy across borders and continents.
- For the travelers
If someone is location independent, it’s very likely that they love traveling. And since there’s no gift card that you can use on any airline to go anywhere (if they are in Europe, Ryanair is a good bet though), let’s focus on the other typical travel expense: accommodation. Airbnb offers gift cards for people residing in the United States. Or, for the real digital nomads who are looking into spending a longer period of time in each location (bonus point if they love pets!), there’s the option of an housesitting subscription, for example for the famous portal Trusted Housesitters.
- For the adventurers
If you know any budget travelers, give them the gift of a volunteering experience. Workaway is a website that connects locals and small businesses who need help and travelers who need a place to stay. For a few hours of volunteering per day, you can live an unforgettable experience, travel cheap, get to know the local culture and more. It’s available all over the world and the yearly subscription costs only 29€. Get it for your traveling friends!
- For the not-so-minimalist shoppers
I know, I know, I said we all don’t like material gifts, we are all a bunch of minimalists traveling around with only a laptop and a 10kg backpack. Well, that’s not always true. We like shopping as well, especially for electronics. So why not give us the gift of getting your newest tech gadget faster? Patience has never been a typical feature of our generation. An Amazon Prime gift card is the solution. And it comes with some pretty sweet side-perks too, such as unlimited cloud storage and Prime video (which is not as cool as Netflix, but still…).
- For the lifelong-learners
Working from your laptop means that you need to stay up-to-date with many technological changes and be always on top of the latest trends. Give the gift of an awesome Udemy course you’ve taken and you loved, or one that you think your friend will enjoy, or find useful. Check out their huge list of business, tech and personal development online courses that you can take how and when you want. When you buy a course, you can access it forever! - For the city-dwellers in a hurry
If you are one of the millions of Uber users, you probably know that it’s an easy and fast way to go around a city. Why not gift an Uber Voucher to someone that lives in a city and uses it a lot? You’ll save them money and they’ll be grateful every time they go out at night or are too lazy to get the subway or walk home. Remember to check if Uber is available where they currently live though, it’s not as popular in Europe as it is in the US.
- For the aspiring location independent
Do you have a friend or family member who wants to become location independent? Why don’t buy them the Workstyling Skills Analysis to get started with this lifestyle? It’s a realistic and complete skills analysis, like the traditional ones you probably did at school, but orientated towards remote jobs and designing your work around your skills, passions and desired lifestyle (nothing traditional here!). Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have doubts or questions about this.
We hope you liked our list of awesome holiday gifts for your nomadic friends! Go ahead, make a digital nomad happy this year with one of these presents.
Happy Holidays from the Workstyling team!