Swanky Vintage Gift Giving: Part 1-Make It Personal

It’s that time of year again….time to start thinking about gift giving!

Too early, you say? Halloween is hardly over, you say?  Hey, unique gift giving requires some thought and planning, and Mod Bettie is here to help you figure out how to give a gift that is thoughtful, personal and has some authentic history wrapped in TO BOOT! Plus, if you’re giving vintage you may need a little extra time to plan trips to some of those secret outlying thrift stores to do your shopping!

Admittedly for this first group of ideas you may have to do some sneaky sleuthing to find out a few things before you start your vintage hunt for your beloved giftee, but being sneaky is fun, right? Here are a few ideas to get you going. In the end, you’ll win most creative gift giver of the holiday season!

ModBettie Vintage Gift Giving Tip 1: Use the dates to make it personal.

Many vintage items are dated, and if you can find out the birth year or anniversary year or any other important year to your giftee…the world of vintage gift giving will open up of you and you can personalize the gift using the date.

Easily found vintage items with dates that I love to own and to gift: tea towel calendars, calendar plates, figurines (look on the underside of the item for the date) and books! You’ll probably score a gift giver gold star for this one: a vintage version of a favorite book in a special year for the giftee.  The copyright dates for books are usually on first few pages.

  

ModBettie Vintage Gift Giving Tip 2: Keep family history and memories alive via items.

Have you ever been in a thrift or resale store, placed your eyes on an item and been immediately transported back in time to your favorite relative’s house with a fond memory? Whether it’s your mother’s china pattern, your grandma’s cookie jar or tea pitcher, that favorite book (Books again! Can you tell I love to give and receive books? ) your aunt used to read to you…the item is just the carrier and the memory is the true gift! A walk through your local thrift shop may be all it takes to find out this kind of info from your giftee…people typically can’t contain themselves when they see something from their past. Make mental notes and go back and grab!

ModBettie Vintage Gift Giving Tip 3: Locale is key!

Places hold history and personal memories for people as well. Many vintage items can be found with cities, states and countries on them that can hold significance for your giftee. Birthplace, hometown, formative years, college town, favorite vacation spot, favorite sports team…these can be found on vintage mugs, plates, glassware, postcards etc. A vintage map of a significant city or picture of a special place to the recipient can also be a great gift. This may be more of a vintage hunt to track down these specific items- but if you feel up for the challenge-just keep your eyes peeled and start looking-you’ll be surprised at what you can find!

Being a vintage gift giver is a unique and fun way to show people that you are truly interested in the things that are meaningful to them. It’s green, because you are recycling items and you are usually supporting a very worthy non-profit when you shop at most of the larger chain-type thrift stores–so you can feel good about where your money is going!  So get to your favorite thrift or resale shop and check some items off of your list!

Keep me posted on your great vintage gift ideas and finds and in the next segment I’ll cover some less specific but still very creative vintage gifting–so stay tuned!