I recently read that Ina Garten likes to give "disappearing gifts." By this, she means consumable gifts that don't take up room in the recipient's home (maybe just some room in their stomachs). She noted that material gifts often come with an unintentional burden on the recipient to find space to use, store, or display an item. The easiest way avoid that? Give someone something that isn't a thing at all! So here are 30 ideas for gifts that won't take up any space at all - from experiences and edible delights, to subscriptions or meaningful charitable donations.

Continue reading 30 Non-Material Gift Ideas at Young House Love.

Every year, people ask us for theme ideas from my family's annual Christmas gift exchange. We first mentioned this tradition on a podcast episode in 2016 and now, nearly a decade later, we're putting the full, updated list in an easy-to-reference blog post. So if you or your family are feeling stuck or overwhelmed by your holiday shopping list, see why introducing a theme might do the trick!

Continue reading 25 Holiday Gift Exchange Theme Ideas at Young House Love.

They're here, all in one post for you: our 2025 Holiday Gift Guides! They include everything from the things that we're getting our own family & friends this year (from small businesses and Black-owned shops to big box stores) as well as things that we already own and love. Nothing has been gifted, nothing is sponsored, and they don't know us from Adam - these are all just things we genuinely like. We arranged all of our gift ideas into the following three categories for you: Gift Ideas for Grown-Ups, Gift Ideas for Kids, and Gift Ideas that are $15 & Under.

Continue reading 2025 Holiday Gift Guides – For Adults, Kids, Teens, and Ideas Under $15! at Young House Love.

We love having friends over to our backyard firepit, which means we eat A LOT of s'mores. That means A LOT of opportunities to try unique twists on traditional s'mores. There's nothing wrong with the tried-and-true recipe, but introducing new ingredients and combos keeps things fun, interesting, and even better tasting. So here are 5 of our favorite "upgraded" s'more ideas for your next firepit gathering.

Continue reading 5 Ways To Upgrade S’mores – Including Savory S’mores! at Young House Love.

Our kids are very much into the traditional Jack-O-Lantern-style pumpkin carving, often trying to make a scarier, grosser, or goofier face than last Halloween. But we still remember a time when toddler-friendly (even baby-friendly!) pumpkin “carving” was the name of the game over here. So we wanted to highlight six simple, fun, but unconventional pumpkin decorating ideas for kids that we’ve used in the past. Including a “romantic” one we made pre-kids (yes, I’ll pause while you ponder what exactly can be romantic about a pumpkin…).

We’ve included a brief description of each below, but you can also follow the link to the original posts for more photos and details about each pumpkin-carving project.

“Baby’s First” Handprint Pumpkin

Materials Needed:

• Paper or cardstock
• Pencil or pen (for tracing on hand)
• Sharpie or marker (for tracing onto pumpkin)
• Scissors
• Pumpkin carving tools

Our daughter was only 5 months old by the time her first Halloween rolled around, meaning there wasn’t much she could do to lend a hand in the pumpkin decorating process.

Continue reading 6 Fun & Easy Pumpkin Decorating Ideas For Kids at Young House Love.

I've daydreamed about buying a backyard movie set-up (projector, screen, etc) for several summers now. But the logistics and potential expense always stopped me... until last month! And now I feel silly for waiting, because we pulled it off with just 3 pieces of equipment that cost less than $200 total! That's cheaper than the cost of some projectors... or a few family trips to the theater! And now we can host unlimited movie gatherings with friends (we've already had two in the last two weeks!).

Continue reading Hosting An Outdoor Movie Night – All Of The Equipment You Need For Under $200 at Young House Love.

Just like we did for our 2023 Gift Guides and our 2022 Gift Guides, we’ve got all three of our gift lists in one singular post right here. So let’s dive right into the 3 categories that we cover each year:

1. Gift Ideas for Grown-Ups
2. Gift Ideas for Kids
3. Gift Ideas Under $12.99

Every year that we make these, we love including actual things that we own and enjoy, as well as things that we’re buying for others (like our own kids, each other, and relatives/friends). Also feels like a good moment to mention that nothing was sponsored/gifted to get into this guide. If something is on these lists, we just genuinely love it and think it would make a good gift (and in some cases, we already own it and truly like it).

Quick note: The “Under $12.99” list isn’t the only one with items priced that low – for example, there are also two gifts under $12.99 on the kids list.

Continue reading 2024 Holiday Gift Guides at Young House Love.

Over the last 17 years, we’ve decorated a whole bunch of houses for the holidays and it means that we have favorite methods and items when it comes to decking the halls. And why is finding the best Christmas tree lights so hard?! The point is, we’ve tried a ton of holiday decorations, and this post is your one-stop shop for photos, ideas, info, and links to our favorite things – from the faux Christmas trees that we like best to our go-to outdoor lights (if you ask John’s special eyes, there is definitely a correct temperature).

In this post we’ll cover all of our favorite:

• Artificial Christmas Trees
• Outdoor Faux Evergreen Trees
• Real Holiday Greenery
• Christmas Lights & Light Timers
• Tabletop Holiday Decorations
• Other Holiday Decor Items

Wherever possible, we’ve linked to the actual items we’ve purchased.

Continue reading The Best Christmas Trees, Lights, & Holiday Decorations at Young House Love.