Holiday Gift Guide 2025: The Best Gifts For Creatives, From Creator-Led And Indie Brands

 Queue Mariah Carey, because it’s time! 

It’s the time of year we start pulling out the tinsel, putting wassail on the stove, and putting stockings over the fireplace. Best of all? It’s time to start putting gifts together for family, friends, clients, and colleagues.

If you’ve landed here, you’re clearly someone who gives a damn—and gives great gifts. This guide is packed with thoughtful picks for the creatives who help your business shine.

We’ve been extra careful in our curation this year to include some of our favorite creator-led businesses. After all, as our friend Kaitlyn Arford puts it, “with the way this year has sucked for creatives, it’s going to be extra important to spend money on indie businesses around the holidays.”

So, this guide is a double win: you get gift ideas that will spark creativity in the receiver and support businesses built by the very kind of people you're gifting to. Let’s do this!

1. Give the gift of nature

Want to give something that’s beautiful, low-maintenance, and actually lasts longer than a box of peppermint bark? Check out Easyplant—the self-watering plant that basically takes care of itself. With a hidden reservoir system, your gift recipient only has to water it once a month. Yes, really.

It’s the ideal gift for busy creatives, plant killers, and anyone who could use a little extra green in their space (aka all of us). Easyplant ships directly from the greenhouse, comes in chic pots, and even includes lifetime access to plant experts. Oh, and they’ll let you include a personalized gift note.

It’s fuss-free. It’s gorgeous. It gives forest energy with zero effort.

Want to support a smaller creator-led brand instead? Check out Nicole’s Jungle, a charming shop where artist Nicole handcrafts miniature paper plants for people who love greenery but don’t have the time (or talent) to keep real ones alive. They’re so cute.

2. Give the gift of the sweeties (but, like, really good ones)

If you’ve never gifted Swedish candy, the time is now, and the store is BonBonNYC. BonBon NYC delivers the ultimate pick-and-mix experience of Swedish candy. The candy is brightly wrapped, flavor-packed, and imported straight from Sweden by three friends who made it their mission to level up the U.S. candy game.

The added bonus? The flavors are fun (e.g., elderberry & licorice), vegan-friendly, gluten-free where possible, and made with natural colorants, making them perfect for anyone who deserves a dopamine hit in gift-box form.

The pink gift boxes are also gorgeously wrapped and ready to ship, so all you have to do is click, order, and not eat the entire box yourself before gifting.

(Just to be safe, better order one for yourself, too. You deserve it.)

3. Give the gift of sleep support - organic style

Great ideas rarely strike when you’re overworked, sleep-deprived, or running on fumes. They come after rest and recovery. And our favorite kind of R&R? Sleeeeeep.

Sleep is one of the most underrated tools in the creative process. It’s when your brain makes connections, sorts through ideas, and resets for the next burst of inspiration. But for many creatives, restful sleep is hard to come by -especially when late-night scrolling, client deadlines, and racing thoughts keep the mind buzzing.

Inspired by her own wellness journey and recovery from cancer, Hollie King founded Sweet Bee Organics on the belief that healing and creativity flourish when we care for ourselves naturally.

Her sleep support products make thoughtful, wellness-forward gifts for the people in your life who do too much and rest too little. Try bundling Sweet Sleep Magnesium Butter with the Sweet Little Detox Bath for the ultimate night of self-care.

The best part? Everything is organic, naturally scented, and beautifully packaged with gift tags and eco-friendly twine.

Wanna go the extra mile? Add my favorite sleep mask, the Manta Sound. Great for home or travel.

4. Give the gift of good spirits—literally

Sometimes the best creative fuel is a well-earned drink with good company. This is where Kasama Rum, a golden, seven-year-aged Filipino spirit with notes of pineapple, vanilla, and just a hint of sea salt, comes into play. It’s distilled from noble cane juice, aged in American oak, and—unlike most rum brands—joyfully crafted outside the world of Caribbean pirates.

Founded by Alexandra Dorda, a second-generation spirits entrepreneur (her father created Belvedere and Chopin Vodka), Kasama flips the script on what rum can be. With its bright bottle, sun-drenched flavor, and female-led story, it’s a vibrant, small-batch gift that brings island energy into even the coldest holiday day.

It’s perfect for clients who appreciate a beautifully designed bottle, or creatives who deserve a little tropical escape—no plane ticket required. Bonus points if you pair it with mixers and a handwritten recipe card.

5. Give the gift of hydration

Let’s say your favorite collaborators are sober, or just don’t want another bottle of booze this season. Meet Balloon, a fizzy, fruit-forward sparkling water brand created by Juliana Casale, a self-proclaimed seltzer superfan who built the company from scratch after realizing there weren’t any fun, flavorful, actually drinkable options for non-drinkers at social events.

Juliana’s mission? Create a low-sugar, naturally flavored sparkling water that tastes like a party but doesn’t come with a crash.

With every case you gift, you’re supporting a founder-led brand and giving your giftee something they can pop open at the next client dinner, work party, or late-night brainstorming sesh. It’s available in flavors like lychee, green apple, pink lemonade, and mango.

6. Give the gift of cutting-edge cooking

If your favorite creative happens to express themselves through food, here’s the ultimate flex: the world’s first ultrasonic chef’s knife. Built by Seattle Ultrasonics, this knife uses gentle vibrations to reduce cutting force by up to 50%, delivering cleaner slices, better food release, and easier cleanup so prep feels more like play than work.

I got to demo this knife myself and was genuinely blown away. And that’s after spending a full month shopping for knives in Japan. It’s that cool.

This futuristic blade is the latest brainchild from Scott Heimendinger, culinary technologist and innovator behind Anova, Sansaire, and Modernist Cuisine. His mission? Help every home cook feel great in the kitchen, starting with a radically better knife.

It’s the kind of gift that makes someone text you “wait…WHAT?!” the second they open it. The C-200 is sleek, wild, and a total power move for the home chef who’s tried everything, except slicing produce with ultrasonic waves.

7. Give the gift of recipes that Instagram can eat first (if they stick around that long)

For the person on your list who treats sandwiches like high art, watches food videos like they're cinema, and considers sauce a personality trait—this is the cookbook they need.

Salt Hank (aka Henry Laporte) is the internet’s reigning king of juicy, drippy, flavor-loaded food. He went from TikTok cult favorite to opening one of the hottest restaurants in NYC this year—and now your favorite food-loving creative can bring his big-flavor recipes into their own kitchen.

Inside the cookbook: viral hits like the French Dip, bang bang shrimp tacos, and the lamb burger that broke the internet. There’s also a fried food chapter, an entire section on pickles, and behind-the-scenes advice on how to make food content that absolutely slaps.

Give it to the home cook who always adds extra sauce, is constantly filming their dinner, or dreams of opening a late-night sandwich shop someday. You’ll basically be giving them their next obsession.

Don’t want to curate a gift yourself, but still want to support indie brands? Hire a gifting influencer to help you.

If curating gifts isn’t your strong suit (but you still want to impress), you’re in luck - some creators have turned gifting into their creative superpower.

Start with Marta Mae Freedman, the creator behind Air Milkshake. Marta pairs unexpected products with equally unexpected people (e.g., artists, podcasters, designers, and indie founders) so every connection feels personal, not promotional. Her work shows that gifting doesn’t have to feel corporate, it can feel personal and cool.

Then there’s Gifting Chick, a woman-owned business that helps you knock your holiday gifting out of the park. She’ll speak with you personally to get a feel for your vibe, then custom-curate a gift set complete with handwritten notes that hits the mark.

Bottom line: This holiday season, celebrate the people who bring your ideas to life with gifts that feel thoughtful, personal, and creative, and support the creator community while you’re at it.