Christmas gift ideas for book lovers, gardeners and more

Christmas is fast approaching. It’s a time to catch up with loved ones, to worship and reflect, a time to savor the long-awaited smell of pine needles and taste of family-favorite meals. But the days leading up to Christmas can be full of big decisions, most of all: what should I give my friends and family this Christmas?

With MCC’s 2024 Christmas Giving Guide, you can find gifts that will delight everyone on your list, while bringing joy, hope and new opportunities to families worldwide.

Here are some ideas from our Christmas Giving Guide that may just fit each of your loved ones. 

What can you get for the friend or family member who never leaves home without their library card or e-reader? Why not help them share their favorite pastime with a new generation of readers? 

This year’s Christmas Giving Guide offers the gift of books for peace, which fill the shelves of peace libraries in Rwanda and beyond with books on friendship, creation care and more. Epiphanie Ujeneza, a mother in Gicumbi, Rwanda, says that her two kids have developed a love of reading, and dedication to mediating conflicts between their peers, since they started visiting their local peace library. 

Perhaps all year-round, you know you can count on them for a lovingly made meal. Or maybe you only get to enjoy their company, and culinary masterpieces, once a year at Christmas.

In any case, the cook in your life has shown you how God’s love so frequently takes the form of a filling plate of food. This Christmas, you can share that love with families around the world, including those who have had to leave their homes due to conflict or disaster. A gift of emergency food provides families with staples like beans and grains each month, nourishing adults and children like Zero Mawang Juch and Sudan Koang Ruei in South Sudan and beyond.

The days are getting shorter and colder, but this loved one is dreaming of the first signs of spring, when new life will sprout from their planter boxes. 

Of course, gardening isn’t just a hobby – it’s a way to nourish the earth and family members alike. Celebrate the hard work, and great rewards, that come with a garden or fruit trees by helping a family grow fresh food. Around the world, MCC partners help people find the crops and growing methods that work best for them, their land and their climate. Etel Salas, who works for an MCC partner in Colombia, has seen how the planting of fruit trees can help nourish families, boost income and cultivate peace in the communities she serves.

They already have insulated tumblers in turquoise, periwinkle, true blue and navy. Rather than get them the same water bottle in cobalt, why not honor the cup collector in your life by helping families find clean, safe drinking water? Through the Christmas Giving Guide, you can help a family get clean water close to home, support the construction of a well or cover the full cost of a well. 

Can’t decide which gift will delight the animal lovers in your life the most? This year, you can buy a whole farmyard of livestock for a family across the world. 

Christmas brings out a stitcher’s love language: your embroidered Christmas stocking, the handmade tree skirt, the quilt they lovingly made to help you keep warm on winter nights. The Christmas Giving Guide has sew many ways you can give back to quilters and tailors this December. 

By giving the gift of a sewing machine, you can help people around the world turn their textile talents into extra income for their families. Or you can help your loved ones wrap up their warm wishes and send them to someone across the world, like this woman in Ukraine, in the form of cozy comforters, plus other winter essentials like stoves.

Perhaps, you’ve already landed on the perfect Christmas present for your younger family members. But if you’re still looking for Christmas gift ideas for kids and teens, they may take great delight at the chance to help other young people. 

Do you know a tween who’s passionate about empowering girls and women? Give them the chance to help keep girls in school in India and around the world.

Honor a younger child’s love for recess with a gift of parachutes for peace, which provide therapeutic playtime for kids living amid conflict.

This gift is for the aunt who keeps a cache of toys ready for the younger relatives or neighbor kids who may stop in. Or for the mom and dad who have been so grateful for the gift of childcare to their own lives and careers. Having a safe space to play, learn and grow is such a gift for children and the adults who love them.