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When you’re looking for a gift for the freelancer in your life, you want to find something that’s useful for someone working for themselves. You want to find something they’ll really appreciate, something unique, something that they can use and enjoy for a long time.
I suggest you take a look through my list of 20 gifts for freelancers. All of these items fit the above criteria. I either use or have used these myself, or they’re highly rated by others. In this list you’ll definitely find the right gift for the freelancer in your life.
Fun Gifts for Freelancers
Freelancer coffee mug
Coffee mugs are the ideal gift. They’re necessary (if your freelancer is a coffee drinker) and they’re always fun to look at if you pick the right one.
Ugly Christmas sweater
Christmas sweaters are awesome because you only get to wear them for about one month out of the year. Ugly Christmas sweaters are not only awesome but fun. I personally don’t think ugly Christmas sweaters are ugly at all. They’re usually really cute!
You’ll find a huge selection of ugly cute sweaters right here.
New York City Pass
Everyone needs a vacation, and this includes people who work at home. If your freelancer wants to travel to New York City, you can help their dream come true by gifting them a sightseeing pass so they can see everything they want to see in the Big Apple.
Viator offers a variety of New York City discounted sightseeing passes in a wide range of prices so you can send the freelancer in your life to New York City at a price you can afford. You can see all the passes and buy the one you want here.
Practical Gifts for Freelancers
Panda Planner
A Panda Planner is a small, portable, motivational journal which helps freelancers stay focused and hit their goals. This is called a “panda” planner because in some cultures pandas represent balance, and Panda Planner is all about bringing balance into your life and keeping it.
Panda Planner has great sales. You can check out the many varieties of Panda Planners and buy your freelancer one here.
Amazon Prime membership
This paid subscription service is becoming almost a must-have, especially if you don’t like waiting for things. Prime is so convenient. With Prime, you can get free next-day delivery across the U.S. and free same-day delivery in select locations in the U.S. Freelancers who might be reluctant to pay for a Prime membership themselves would definitely appreciate Prime as a gift.
You can buy the gift of Prime here.
Wall calendar
I love getting a wall calendar every Christmas, and I love giving them to people as gifts too. There are such a huge variety, with different photos and artwork for every type of person, you can always find a suitable calendar for someone. They not only help you know what date it is, they decorate your home a bit.
Calendars.com has hundreds of calendars you can choose from to give your freelancer a calendar they’ll enjoy here.
Noise cancelling headphones
Noise cancelling headphones don’t have to be super expensive. If you’re really close to a freelancer who works in a busy, noisy environment (such as a home filled with children and animals) they might really appreciate them.
These Bose headphones are highly rated and reasonably priced.
Oil-filled radiator space heater
This is one of my favorite things in the winter. The heat that radiates out of the space heater feels so much different and better than forced hot air heat. This is the perfect way to heat up a small home office in the winter.
You can buy your freelancer a highly-rated radiant HomeLeader space heater to warm up their office here.
Keurig K-Mini coffee maker
You can grab a Keurig K-Mini on Amazon here.
Echo Dot
This smart speaker is compact and can fit in most any location, plus it has a really nice-looking fabric covering. With the third generation Echo Dot, you can voice control your music and your smart home, call people hands free and play music, all super-handy for busy freelancers.
You can grab a third generation Echo Dot here.
Relish recipe membership
Relish is a complete online menu planning service especially good for busy freelancers with a family.
Using the Relish online menu builder, you choose the meals you want to make, along with serving sizes and side dishes. The menu builder tells you exactly what ingredients you need, so you don’t have to try to remember them or waste time searching for recipes one at a time online. Take the list of ingredients it gives you, head to the grocery store, and quickly and easily buy exactly what you need.
You can buy the freelancer in your life a Relish membership here.
Books for Freelancers
Work at Home book
In this 266-page book, super-successful work-at-home entrepreneur Caitlin Pyle shares her personal job history, three steps to success and 28-day launch plan to show you how you can succeed at working for yourself by helping other people. The freelancer in your life will really appreciate this. You can grab the Work at Home book here.
The One Thing
A Number One New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller, this 133-page book has won 12 awards and been translated into 27 languages. In The One Thing, the freelancer in your life will learn to “cut through the clutter” to achieve better results in less time. This is a great read for freelancers who want to improve their focus and increase productivity.
You can get The One Thing here.
Liquid Gifts for Freelancers
Wine club membership
Everyone’s heard of wine, but have you heard of wine clubs? I hadn’t until recently. Rather than having to drive over to the liquor store every time you want a bottle of wine, you can give your freelancer friend the gift of a Gold Medal Wine Club membership. This wine clubs offers a variety of ultra-premium, hard-to-find wines from California’s small, family owned wineries.
You can give your freelancer the gift of wine here.
Coffee
If your freelancer loves coffee like almost everyone else, then the gift of coffee would probably be very appreciated. Lavazza has a fun and delicious gift of four of their best flavors – Classico, Perfetto, Gran Selizione and Gran Aroma. Maybe your freelancer will find a new favorite coffee thanks to this gift and be grateful to you forever.
You can get this coffee gift set right here.
Health Gifts for Freelancers
Massager
Working all day can be hard on so many parts of your body. Massage is super healthy and can really work out the kinks you might get from sitting all day, or anything you’re doing. Professional massages, though, are expensive.
Electric massagers, at usually less than the price of one professional massage, last for years and can really relieve backaches, shoulder aches and any other muscle tightness that your work gives you. I love my heated shiatsu massager because it gives a powerful, warm deep tissue massage and really helps a lot with muscle tightness.
You can grab a Homedics Shiatsu Plus shoulder and neck heated massager here.
Yoga mat
You’d think that when you’re working for yourself at home you’d find all of the time in the world to exercise, but for many people that is not true. It may be just as time consuming for a freelancer to drive to the gym as it was when they worked in an office, but surely it’s not so hard to unroll a yoga mat and do 20 to 30 minutes of yoga a few times a week.
This BalanceFrom GoYoga mat was voted Best Budget Yoga Mat by VeryWellFit.com, and you can get it for your freelancer here.
Exercise ball
Exercise balls really help strengthen your core. I use one almost every day. You don’t even have to set aside time to work out with them; you can substitute an exercise ball for your office chair so that you can naturally be strengthening your core while you work. You’ll also be helping to improve your posture and prevent discomfort from sitting in one place for too long.
The GoFit Pro professional grade exercise ball was voted the best budget exercise ball by Wire Cutter magazine, and you can get one here.
Standing desk
Sitting is the new smoking, as you may have heard. Fortunately, freelancers who work at home don’t have to sit as much as in the past, with the invention of the standing desk. With this, you can alternate between sitting and standing to keep healthier and more comfortable during your working hours.
This Bright Stone standing desk goes up and down with ease, can hold about 26 pounds and comes fully assembled. You can get one here.
Light therapy lamp
Working at home logically means that you usually spend more time at home than elsewhere. Even if the freelancer in your life wants to go get some work done in a coffee shop or library, the weather may be so bad that they say forget it. Being cooped up inside all winter can really darken your mood, but a light therapy lamp can brighten it up again.
The VeriLux HappyLight is compact and portable and has been voted best budget light therapy lamp. You can get one here.
Still want more ideas of gifts for freelancers? If know someone who freelances while traveling, check out these gift ideas for traveling freelancers.
(This post was originally published in November 2019.)
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Cover image by Christine Sponchia
Sabina Lohr is a lifelong freelancer turned entrepreneur who created World of Freelancers to help others discover how to work for themselves online and live the freelance lifestyle. She’s always really enjoyed the freedom that freelancing brings, including several years on and off of working online while traveling and living abroad.
