Christmas gift guide: What to get your host family for Christmas

Christmas songs, hot chocolate, Christmas lights and decorations – it’s the most wonderful time of the year. Though thinking about the fact that you might should get Christmas gifts for your host family might just make you panic a little. It can be pretty challenging to find the right gift for everyone, so hopefully we can give you a few ideas!

For your host kids: As you spend a lot of time with your host kids, they are probably the easiest to get presents for. Just remember what they like and don’t like. What they enjoy to play with or what they wish they would have. However, always make sure that your host family is okay with the kind of gift you are planning on getting for the kids. Your host parents will most likely not be very happy if you buy your kids a ton of candy.

Your host parents are probably a little harder to buy gifts for. One thing they love for sure are their kids. So it can be a good idea to get them something with pictures of them on it. Website like Shutterfly or Snapfish are great places to start. You can get a whole lot of inspiration and ideas from there. And who knows, you might just find the perfect Christmas gift.

Have you considered making something crafty with the kids as a present? Like using salt dough to make a hand print of the kids! A memory that will last forever, even if the kids, and their hands, grow up. What’s also a fun idea is using a big white sheet and having the kids make handprints all over it. You can then transform it into a blanket or a pillowcase! Get creative!

A gift that costs basically no money and is crafty as well, is making a recipe book for your host family with recipes from your home country. Food you have cooked together, food you have cooked for the children or food that you think they should definitely try. You can write it by hand or print it out and put it together or even design it online. A gift that is useful and will last!

Another fun idea – if your family is into that kind of stuff – is getting matching PJs for the whole family. But this might be a little more challenging, because you need to know everyone’s sizes, it’s a bit more expensive and your host family might just not be into that kind of stuff.

A homemade gift card/voucher can also be a great and more importantly cheap idea! You can put things on it like “Free date night”, where you offer to watch the kids for a night – free of charge so to say. Include things that usually aren’t your responsibility. If your kids are older and usually have to clean their own rooms, give them a voucher that says you will clean their room for them one time. If you usually don’t have to do the laundry or dishes, give them a voucher with that!

Combine the voucher for watching the kids at night with a restaurant gift card and turn it into a “Date Night Kit”. Maybe you want to get fancy and add a bottle of wine or a lipstick for your host mum.

When it comes to finding gift for your host family you just have to be creative and attentive. If you know what your host family likes, like their favourite bands, hobbies etc., it’s always easier to get them gifts. Get creative with their gifts! And don’t forget: small but personal gifts matter more than big, expensive impersonal gifts!