Bonfire's 2025 unconventional gift guide 🎁

A gift list full of unique ideas, digital delights, and one-of-a-kind experiences

Hi there! You’re reading the Bonfire newsletter from Kevan Lee & Shannon Deep. Each week, we highlight brand, marketing, and creative learnings from our experience as in-house marketers turned agency owners who think a lot about creativity, our relationship to work, and how all of that impacts our identities. We’ll also feature insights from our digital community of super smart folks (which you’re welcome to join).

Wishing you a great week!

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Gift Guide 2025

It is officially gift guide season.

Some of our Substack besties are already posting their holiday gift ideas, so with a generous spirit and a FOMO heart, we are here to do the same.

The same, but different.

Last year, we put together a list of uncommon and unexpected gifting ideas, based on some of the things that were meaningful to us throughout the year. Things like buying a ridiculous domain name just for fun. (Spoiler: silly domains will make a return on this 2025 gift guide.)

Bonfire's 2024 gift guide of unexpected delights

For this year’s list, we are drawing inspiration from the Bonfire 2024 gift guide and again putting an emphasis on unexpected gifts: digital delights, one-of-a-kind experiences, and giving back. And it’s all based on the work we do at Bonfire and the things we value.

You will notice that some of these ideas are gifts you can give to people on your wishlist. In other cases, the gift recipient is a creator or an organization. Sometimes the gift recipient is future you. Our gift-listing knows now bounds!

Bonfire’s 2025 unconventional gift guide

1. Make a mixtape of TikTok and IG follows

Inspired by the days of mixtape cassettes and burned CDs, how about creating a modern mixtape of amazing accounts to follow on social? It’s the longform equivalent of sending someone a single video that made you think of them. It is a whole curated playlist of creators you think they will love.

You can theme them, just like an old-school mixtape.

Knowledge influencer mixtape

A short list to get you started:

• Cy Canterel

• Eugene Healey

• Sam Ogborn

• Christopher Morency

• Agus Panzoni

Dog meme mixtape

For the friend who sends you dog memes at 1:43 a.m.

• We Rate Dogs

• Life with Duke

• Albert the pug

• Tucker Budzyn

Package it up in a note or a tiny Notion page, et voila!

“Here is your personalized algorithm, curated with love.”

2. Subscribe to a content creator you love

If you get a lot of joy out of a particular person’s content, give them the gift of your support by upgrading from an every-so-often lurker to an I-believe-in-you subscriber. Speaking from personal experience, our hearts light up whenever we get a new subscriber notification.

Here are a few to get you started. We polled our LinkedIn followers for recommendations, and sprinkled in a few of our favorites too:

• The Offbeat by Allison Stadd 🥁

• Delight Path by Ramli John

• Creator Spotlight by Francis Zierer

• Money Words by Joanna Wiebe

• VeryGoodCopy by Eddie Shleyner

• BTTM by Brandon Jeffs

• The Brief Creative by Dmitry Shamis

• Gobbledy by Jared Blank

• Good Thinking by Chris Danton

Bonus: Give a gift subscription to a Substack you love

Substack makes it easy to buy a gift subscription for someone else. If there is a premium newsletter you love or you know your friend or family member loves, you can buy them a paid membership in their name.

“Your Christmas present is that you get all the good content with none of the paywall.”

Bonus: Tell a content creator that you love their stuff

This costs zero dollars, takes only a couple of minutes, and means the world to the creator.

It is easy to assume that your favorite creator is inundated with email replies and DMs all the time. Most are not. Most content is consumed quietly, with very little response, so a short note or a thoughtful comment can be a big encouragement.

“Hey, I have been reading you all year and your work actually helped me do X.”

That sentence alone is such a huge gift!

3. Commission something tiny and delightful from an indie creator

Instead of a mass-produced print, commission something small and specific.

Ideas:

• A personalized doodle from your favorite illustrator

• A custom pixel character from a game artist

• A poem from a Substack poet

• A 30-second “theme song” from an indie musician

• A handwritten letter or postcard from an artist you admire

This is a gift for the recipient and also for the creator whose work you are supporting.

4. Buy someone a single high-intent hour

Gift someone an hour with a specialist who can tangibly improve their life or work.

For example:

• A resumé or LinkedIn glow up

• A one hour website or mini brand audit

• A portfolio review

• A creative coaching session

• A storytelling or editing session

• A values or career design conversation

• A personal values workshop

• A goals and energy mapping session

• A creative brainstorming sprint

• A tarot reading or astrology chart reading

(We can do a lot of these for you at Bonfire, or we can recommend someone in our network!)

This is perfect for the friend who always says, “I really need to finally do something about X,” but never does. You can be the one who moves that dream forward.

5. Sponsor one small dream

Ask someone you love, “What is one tiny dream or experiment you have wanted to try but have not gotten around to yet?” Then sponsor it! Let your inner Shark Tank shark out.

You could:

• Sponsor a test launch of their Etsy shop

• Pay for their first Substack upgrade

• Cover their first month on a tool they have hesitated buying

• Sponsor their first print run of stickers, zines, or pins

• Pay for their first creative class or workshop

6. Create a “starter pack” folder of creative inspiration

A modern care package, of sorts, but all digital. There’s a big, community version of this at Corners of the Internet Database, but yours can be a micro, starter version.

Fill a folder or shared doc with:

• Five essays or articles that shaped you this year

• Screenshots, moodboards, Pinterest saves, or links

• Songs you played on repeat

• A few favorite quotes

• A short note explaining why each one mattered to you

This is a deeply personal, totally free gift. It says, “Here is what lit me up this year, and I want to pass that spark to you.”

7. Gift yourself (or your friend) a one-of-a-kind retreat experience

We just so happen to know the perfect retreat.

We are hosting a weeklong creative retreat / professional getaway / career sabbatical in the French countryside this April. For the next two weeks, we have special holiday pricing of $250 off the original price.

If you want to give yourself the gift of time, space, creativity, and a bit of adventure, this might be it.

Check out all the details here, and fill out the form or send us a reply to let us know you are interested.

You can also frame this as a gift: “I am buying Future Me one unforgettable week.”

8. Donate to a charity of your choice

Donating to charity never goes out of season.

We have spent a lot of time in values conversations this year. Coaching clients through their values. Talking values at our retreat. Finding charities and non-profits and virtuous businesses that align with your values can be an incredibly meaningful act.

You can give in money, time, or skills.

Donate money

Here are some favorite tech-adjacent charities and non-profits you could donate to:

• Code2040

• Black Girls Code

• Lesbians Who Tech

• Black & Brown Founders

• Anita B

• Project Potluck

Donate your time and your skills

We have been fortunate to connect with multiple brands this year through our Brand Together initiative, where we give free brand marketing support to purpose-led businesses.

You have great skills to offer too. Subject matter expertise. Strategy. Copy. Design. Operations. Mentorship. Donating a bit of your time and attention can be a huge gift for any organization.

Sponsor someone’s favorite charity in their honor

If there is someone in your life who talks openly about causes they care about, you can donate in their honor and tell them:

“Your work has inspired me this year, so I made a donation to X because of you.”

Unexpected, generous, and very likely to make them tear up.

9. Host a personal workshop for someone

You can also give the gift of your own gifts.

Offer someone a short guided session that you host, based on what you know and love. Maybe for you, that’s copywriting or editing, personal styling, Meta ads wizardry, yoga or a weight training routine, plant parenting, closet organizing, or a particular dish you’re known for cooking.

This costs you only time and attention, which are some of the most generous things you can give.

10. Send someone an “online vibe refresh”

Do a small glow up of something in their digital life:

• Rewrite their LinkedIn headline

• Design a simple Canva banner for their profile

• Make them a personal color palette

• Curate content pillars for their personal brand

• Clean up the copy on their website or bio

It is the perfect “I love you and also I am a nerd about this” gift.

BONUS: All-digital stocking stuffers

No shipping. No clutter. Maximum delight.

A few ideas:

• Emoji domain name — aka 🔥🏕️🏰.agency
  A callback to last year. Buy someone an absolutely unnecessary but deeply amusing emoji or novelty domain that matches their vibe.

• iCloud or Google Drive storage space
  For that friend who is barraged by storage upgrade notifications. You can gift it in the form of an Apple or Google Play gift card.

• Online reading buddy
  With Pocket no longer with us, how about gifting an article-loving friend a new bookmarking tool like Readwise Reader or Sublime.

• Membership community
  There are so many cool online communities out there. Take a spin through Circle’s community network to spot a few, or find out from a friend or loved one if there’s one they’ve been eyeing.

• A premium Notion template

• Cool tools
  Gift a month or two to a favorite tech tool: Canva Pro for the design-curious, premium Zoom so no more 45-minute calls, a Slack upgrade so everyone gets custom emojis.

• Digital “peace” kit
  Password manager, mindfulness app, adblock extension, etc.

Happy holidays!

We hope this gift list gets your brain turning with some fresh ideas. Let us know anything we missed in the comments or in the replies!

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Upcoming Campout events

Let Go: A Release Ritual - RSVP HERE | Open to all

We’re joining up with with Play Into Being’s Kristen Pavle and Dave Gorum for a free 60-minute workshop to practice the art of letting go as we usher out the year. Learn a simple release ritual you can use again and again, swap stories with others, a move into 2026 with more creative energy.

Check the event description for more. Spoiler: Actual fire may/will be involved! 🔥

In Campout, our digital community, we talk about stuff like this on the daily in our channels and a couple times a month in our live events. All supported by exercises and templates to help you craft a career with purpose and intention.

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But wait! There’s more…

Wanna hang out in person?

We have a holiday discount on our next retreat in April 2026! Until December 14th, you can come chill in the French countryside while you explore your values, your inspiration, and your love of fine cheeses for $250 off the normal price!

Wanna be friends?

If you love this newsletter and wish it were more interactive, you’re in luck! Join us over in Campout, our digital community for creative marketers and the creative curious.

Wanna work with us?

If you need help with brand strategy and storytelling, fractional brand and marketing leadership, and bringing your brand strategy to life in impactful ways, send us an email at hello@aroundthebonfire.com to get in touch.

As always, you can find us on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Threads.