Holiday Gift Guide For Your College Student

The holidays are here. If you haven’t already finished your Christmas shopping (or haven’t even started yet!) it’s time to start thinking about gifts for family and friends including, of course, your kids!

If you’ve got kids in college, it can be hard to decide what to get them. Do they just want gift cards, or should you pick out something more meaningful?

And can you pick out something meaningful that’s small enough to fit in the limited space of their dorm room? Fear not, for we’ve gathered together a guide of some of the best gifts for college students this year.

It includes some of the hottest items every student wants to find in their stockings.

1. Amazon Prime Student

If you haven’t discovered the joy of Amazon Prime, what are you waiting for? You get two-day shipping along with tons of free movies, TV shows and music to stream all for $100 a year or $10.49/month — you can’t beat that!

If you’re a student, it’s even better. It makes an awesome gift.

With a student account, your college kid will enjoy Prime free for the first six months. It’s only $5.49/month after that — half the price of a regular Prime account.

Set your college student up with a year of Prime and never have to worry about their orders accidentally coming to your house again! Add on a couple of Amazon gift cards, and your college kids are set.

2. Microwave Cooking Gadgets

Let’s face it — it’s nearly impossible to cook in a dorm room. Eating out or using the college meal plan can get expensive quick.

Hot plates can be tricky, so why not make it easier for your kid to cook in their microwave? It’s a lot easier than it used to be.

There are a ton of gadgets to turn soggy microwave food into nearly gourmet meals. They can make fresh pasta with the Fasta Pasta microwave cooker, or even grill meats in their microwave with the Microhearth Grill Pan.

There are even gadgets that let them bake brownies or even make their own potato chips, all in the microwave. If the meal plan at their school is a bit lacking, this is a good gift option.

3. Food

College kids eat a lot. Even though they may not be growing anymore.

Yet, they’re still running around with their hair on fire trying to make it to class, finish homework, get good grades, all while maintaining an active social life and in some cases working a job.

Sometimes, your student doesn’t want to break out their awesome microwave kitchen gadgets. They just want something hot and fresh they didn’t have to cook, sound familiar?

Restaurant gift cards can be a good option here. However, if you want to give them something a little more personal, why not send them their favorite food from back home?

Many places, like Lou Malnati’s Pizza in Chicago, offers frozen deep dish Chicago-style pizzas that you can ship to just about anywhere. Also, check with your favorite local food spots and see what sort of shipping options they offer.

4. The Pizza Pouch

Okay, I promise this is the last food-related gift idea. This one was too cute to pass up.

Don’t you hate it when you’ve got a slice of pizza in each hand but no room for a third slice? Enter the Pizza Pouch.

This silly little device enables you to carry a third slice of pizza in an easy-to-use and easy-to-clean plastic container you hang around your neck. It may be silly, but it makes a great gift for the college-attending pizza lover in your life.

5.   Multi-function Lighting

Dorm lighting is traditionally either insufficient or nonexistent. However, a lack of space makes it difficult to fit the lamps they need to fix the problem in their room.

To consolidate, try a lamp that has multiple uses. Like this one, which doubles as USB charging port for your phone or other battery powered devices.

As an added bonus, it’s also got a dimmer feature. If your student or their roommates keep odd hours it will help avoid complaints about the light.

6. Silly Pencils

These engraved pencils are the perfect for finals — they instruct you to snap them if you get frustrated! They’re a great way to help your student keep their sense of humer amid the stress of finals.

Plus, they just might help them get a little bit of that frustration out so they can focus on their work better.

7. Heated Slippers

There’s nothing worse than stepping out of bed onto a cold floor because you don’t get to control the thermostat in your dorm. A pair of heated slippers can make everything better, and if they look like adorable narwhals, then that’s just the icing on the cake.

You charge these super comfy slippers by plugging them into the wall or a USB port. Once it gets warmer out, you can remove the detachable warmers.

If narwhals aren’t your kid’s thing, don’t worry. They come in cats, unicorns, and s’mores styles too, just to name a few.

8. Money

If you run out of ideas, or just want to throw something extra on top of your silly microwave gadgets or pizza pouches, money is always one of the best ideas for college students. Whether they’re using it for food, supplies, or a night on the town, a bit of extra money always comes in handy.

Especially, if your kids are going to college away from home. Chances are, your college kid would love at least one of these gift ideas.

But if we’ve missed anything, feel free to let us know in the Comments — we can all use some new gift ideas when the holidays are upon us!

About the author

Author Jennifer Landis is a healthy living blogger posting on parenting, fitness, and food on her excellent blog, Mindfulness Mama. Originally from New Joisey 😛 she now calls Pennslyvania home where she is a proud wife and mama. Jennifer describes herself as a tea-drinking, yoga loving, distance running, nutrition nut, writer and journalist. She loves making new friends.

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