Don't Forget the Host that Made Your Thanksgiving Happen. photo courtesy of CarbonNYC

Anyone who has prepared a Thanksgiving meal at home (without the help of the Honeybaked Ham Company!) knows that the entire process is time consuming and exhausting. While the rest of the family is watching football or the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the cook is in the kitchen making sure the meal is perfect. Wondering how to make sure your Thanksgiving host feels appreciated? Show her your thankful with a fabulous gift.

Dessert

Take something off the host’s plate by bringing dessert. Make something from scratch or enlist the help of the best local bakery to create a yummy pumpkin or pecan pie. No matter what type of sweet treat you bring the host will be thankful for your contribution to the meal.

Ritz Engraved Wine Bucket

Few names embody luxury like “Ritz.” Bring a little glam to your Thanksgiving table with the engraved Ritz wine bucket from CentralChef.com. It holds two bottles, which you may want to include as well for extra points.

Gourmet Food

Bring a tasty addition to the dinner table with some gourmet food products from Williams-Sonoma. A couple tasty options include the Pecan Pumpkin Butter or organic Butternut Squash Puree.

Home Spa Gift Set

The Thanksgiving host will surely be ready to relax once the meal is complete. Give them a gift that does just that. The Home Spa Gift Set from GiftsandBlessings.com has everything you need to help your host relax after a long day in the kitchen.

Box Frame

Pick up the Lexington Box Frame from Pottery Barn and fill it with happy photos from Thanksgiving celebrations in years past. It will remind your host why all their hard work is worth it.

Do Some Dirty Work

Better than many gifts would be the offer to help do some of the dirty work. Create a “coupon” redeemable for free dish washing services. The cook should definitely not have to handle clean up as well.

Are you Thankful for What You Have? photo courtesy of andrewarchy

Chances are if you’re reading 1HappyCorner.com you like to shop. You enjoy giving the perfect gift to your loved ones and, from time to time, you enjoy treating yourself to the perfect gift, too. But making sure we can still be passionate about shopping while feeling thankful for what we have can be tricky. Even though Thanksgiving is five months away, here are some ways to keep that quest for bigger and better things from letting you forget how blessed you are.

Stop Comparing Yourself

If you find yourself shopping right after you notice the neighbors have new patio furniture or your sibling saunters around in a new designer outfit, then you may be comparing yourself with others. Shopping should be a fun search for lovely things that you need or that make you happy. But if you’re simply buying in order to keep up with the Jones’, then ask yourself why you’re feeling the need to impress others with your purchases.

Rethink About What You Have

Always feel like someone else has it better than you? Consider the fact that one billion people in the world don’t have clean drinking water. Just enjoying that cool glass of water or that long hot shower should make you feel thankful. Rethink about what you have. Your surplus may be what someone else needs to survive.

Find Some Suffering

A great way to get your priorities straight and truly be grateful for what you have is to find some suffering and do something about it. Maybe you can start shopping for supplies for a local homeless shelter or help an unemployed mom get an outfit for a job interview. There are plenty of ways you can put your passion for shopping to good use.

See What Others are Doing

Need some inspiration to help you realize just how much you have? Check out The Junky Car Club, run by a man who exchanged his nice car for a beater so he could give to more causes or The Uniform Project started by a woman who’s wearing the same dress for 365 days to raise money for school children in the slums of India.

Give It Away

Giving  your treasured belongings away may seem scary. After all, they’re yours and you bought them for a reason. But if you can give a few things away to someone who might need them even more than you do, you’ll prove that you own your stuff, and that your stuff doesn’t own you.

Ornament

An ornament is a great Thanksgiving gift. It arrives at the perfect time– just as the tree is about to go up. This hand-crafted “Love Dove” ornament from Lilly Pottery is just $10 and comes stamped with the word “love”. A jute rope allows the ornament to hang from a branch all season long.

Calendar

As 2008 winds down, a calendar can make a great thank-you gift. Especially when accompanied by a note describing your excitement of looking towards another year of their friendship. This beautiful Keisuke Serizawa calendar has been popular since it first appeared in 1946. Serizawa created it using stencil-dyed Japanese paper. It was a popular gift for well-to-do army wives and now it’s a popular gift around the world! You can pick up one from Tortoise for just $18.

Snow Globe

Snow globes can be beautiful works of art. Bring a miniature winter wonderland into a loved-ones home with the tree snowglobe from West Elm. It’s a modern take on this classic gift. It’s just $29 and shipping is free.

Luggage Tag

Looking for a lovely way to say thanks to a travel buff? These colorful luggage tags from Pottery Barn can be monogrammed for a few extra dollars.

Sweets

Say thanks with a super sweet gift- cupcakes. Order a set of nine from RedEnvelope.com. They’re made in San Francisco at the Teacake Bake Shop. Your lovely box of sweets comes with four combinations: three vanilla with vanilla buttercream, two vanilla with chocolate buttercream, two chocolate sour cream with vanilla buttercream, and two chocolate sour cream with chocolate buttercream

Card

Saying thanks doesn’t necessarily require a gift. Just a thoughtfully written note can be worth a lot– especially when written on cute cards like these from Swoozies. Ten cards are $15.95.

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If you have tried the products mentioned in this post or if you have any other gift ideas that would make great “thanks” gifts, please leave us a message!