Update
The Happiness Project Experience 2022 is here! The Happiness Project Experience is an interactive, twelve-month video course dedicated to helping you build a happier life. It includes video lessons, expert interviews, monthly calls (with me), and support that will give you the strategies and structure needed to pursue your personalized happiness. Sign up today for our early-bird price of $250. Prices will go up on December 1.
I mention my new app! Check out the Happier app in the Apple App store or in Google Play. Use the early-access code: HAPPIERNOW. We mention that the Fantasy Island two-hour holiday special, “Welcome to the Snow Globe,” airs December 21 on Fox.
Try This at Home
Consider this Happier gift guide if you’re stumped on holiday gifts. We asked listeners for their suggestions, and added a few of our own.
Stuff:
- Wad-Free – a simple gadget that keeps your bed sheets from tangling up in the dryer, so they dry the first time.
- Hardcover Cook – you get one recently released cookbook, along with five or more full-sized specialty ingredients chosen to complement it
- Notes to Self – great socks
- LEDGLE rechargabeable LED book light – hands-free, around the neck
- Cheese of the Month – or any “___ of the Month” – there are many of these to choose from!
- Bark Box – subscription box with toys-and-treats for dogs
- Tackle Box – a tin box with a set of sticky pads with something for everyone: To-Do, Ta-Da, Could-Do, and To-Day. Plus, To Doodle.
- Beats by Dre – headphones
- Noise-cancelling headphones
- Tile – to help you keep track of keys, TV remote, toy, etc.
- Milk frother
- Electric waffle-maker – how I love to make a chaffle! We talked about the chaffle in episode 241
- Salt sampler from Jacobson Salt Company
- For more products from me—journals, drinkware, productivity tools, t-shirts, etc.—check out my Happiness Project Shop.
Personalized gifts
- Puzzles — we also talked about giving customized puzzles in episode 335
- All About Vibe — personalized pillows
- Memento Book — this book organizes keepsakes and souvenirs, and can be personalized for the person and the occasion. Elizabeth also mentions the One-Sentence Journal.
- Williams-Sonoma Holiday Monogram Silicone Spatula
Intangible gifts:
- Holmes Letter – “Get Victorian-era mysteries mailed to your door”
- Embark – dog DNA test
- Spotify subscription
- Flying in a family member or friend to visit
- Photoshoot – Elizabeth and Sarah discuss this idea in the Happier in Hollywood episode 14
- Family memberships to a museum
- New York Society Library e-membership – this membership is great for people who want deep access to electronic databases, e-books, digital magazines, or audiobooks
- Cameo — Elizabeth and Sarah discussed receiving a gift from Cameo – which allows you to send a personalized message from a celebrity – in episode 226 of Happier in Hollywood
- The Happiness Project Experience 2022 – For more happier gift suggestions, check out episode 231 of Happier in Hollywood, as well
Happiness Hack
Give praise to people doing a tough job to give them—and yourself—a boost of happiness and gratitude.
I mention a story that I love, about an acquaintance’s experience in Harrods department store. You can listen to that two-minute story in “A Little Happier: I Love to See Virtue Rewarded. For Instance, in Harrods.”
Gretchen’s Demerit: Ironically, with all this discussion, I haven’t done much holiday shopping, and I haven’t kept a list of what I’ve already bought.
Elizabeth Gold Star: Elizabeth gives a gold star to the Fantasy Island writers who have hit the ground running and have been flexible about meeting at Elizabeth’s house twice a week.
Resources
- If you’re giving one of my books as a gift, or you’d like to personalize your own copy, you can request personalized, signed bookplates. Feel free to ask for as many as you want. U.S. and Canada only, alas; mailing costs.