Giftwrap’s Top 12 Best Virtual Gift Ideas Of 2022
Want to give a virtual gift this holiday season? We wrapped up this year's best virtual gifts for you in a neat little gift guide.
As an online gifting company, everyone here at Giftwrap is big on giving the best gift possible, physical or otherwise - and virtual gifts are such great last-minute options! Whether they’re gift cards, virtual experiences, online masterclasses, or monthly subscriptions to popular online stores or streaming services, a virtual gift can be an incredibly meaningful and memorable present for that special someone in your life.
So, following up on our previous virtual gifting post, we’re here to bring you our recommendations for the top 12 best virtual gift ideas for a friend or loved one! After a long trawl through the unprecedented variety of digital gift ideas (another term for virtual gift ideas) that 2022 has presented, these are our foremost suggestions for shoppers looking to give a great virtual gift this holiday season!
1. A monthly subscription to something they already use
This might seem like a lazy virtual gift idea, but taking care of an existing recurring cost is actually an awesome present - wouldn’t you like it if someone paid for your rent or mortgage for a month or two? Whether they’re music lovers hooked on Spotify or Apple Music or film fanatics almost addicted to their Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube Premium or Disney+ accounts, it’s not hard to figure out which entertainment services they use most and get them a great gift they didn’t even know they wanted! Their wallet will thank you for it if you opt for a twelve-month, six-month, or even just three-month gift subscription.
2. A new subscription service they might enjoy
There are some things that your giftee - whether family, friend, or coworker - might like to have, but just don’t bother getting for themselves. It could be a physical or digital subscription to the Wall Street Journal or The New York Times that an avid news reader would enjoy or a Kindle or Audible premium e-book and audiobook membership. There are plenty of subscription services just off the beaten path that plenty of people would love if only someone else would just get them started. Be the little push they need with a thoughtful gift!
3. A great gift gamers will be grateful for
Once you learn that someone enjoys a good video game from time to time, all that’s left in the process of great gift selection is figuring out what platform they game on. Whether your giftee has an Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo console or are a PC or Mac gamer is important to know in order to present the perfect present.
But if you’re looking for broad-appeal gamer gifts, in our experience, the most popular virtual gift idea options for gamers are Xbox Live or PlayStation Plus monthly subscriptions, and Steam, GameStop, and Nintendo eShop gift cards. These keep your gamer giftee online or give them the choice of what virtual worlds to explore next, and make great last-minute gifts!
4. A subscription service to provide for pets and their parents
While this technically overlaps with our first gift recommendation, we wanted to provide a more specific suggestion just for people gifting for pet owners - so we’re suggesting a gift card to a subscription service like Chewy, Pupjoy, PupBox, or meowbox! Chewy is a popular online pet supply store that many pet parents use to stay stocked up on things like pet food, toys, and miscellaneous pet-related supplies, while Pupjoy, PupBox, and meowbox are more focused on enriching their experiences as pets and pet parents with boxes of extra fun. An e-gift card shows your giftee that you care that their pets are well-cared for and can make a great last-minute Christmas gift for the dog or cat person in your life!
5. Online classes for lifelong learners
Just because they’ve graduated from high school or college doesn’t mean that their learning days have to be over forever. Whether they’ve been wanting to pick up a new language or a new instrument, services like Skillshare, Udemy, Rosetta Stone, Masterclass, Fender Play, and Uncommon Goods offer high-quality on-demand expert instruction on language learning, music composition, DIY cartography, and a wide variety of other fascinating subjects. They’re a perfect gift for curious minds and anyone who loves to learn!
6. Cooking classes for those wishing for richer dishes
Takeout is great and all, but with less expensive portions and a built-in learning experience with every dish, there’s no beating a home-cooked meal when it comes to value. So why not set them up with a few virtual cooking classes? Websites from Masterclass and Sur La Table to Uncommon Goods and even Airbnb all provide premium online cooking classes. From Knife Handling for Beginners to Master Mixology, there are courses that make great gifts for chefs of all skill levels!
7. Virtual experiences for the variety enthusiast
You could argue that the previous two suggestions are just certain kinds of virtual experiences, but according to our research, “online classes” and “cooking classes” are keywords people like you look for, so we wrote this sentence just so we could say them again. If they’re not particularly education-oriented or culinarily-inclined, other virtual experiences can still be great gifts that spark happy memories for your giftee and whoever they choose to share them with. Uncommon Goods, Airbnb, The Expert, and Havenly offer up an excellent selection of curated experiences ranging from virtual wine tastings to tarot readings to online interior design consultations for a variety of exciting last-minute gift ideas your giftee can enjoy in the comfort of their own home!
8. A wellness or self-care subscription box for the people you think should be pampered
2022 was a heck of a year, huh? Start their next one off right by signing them up for a wellness subscription box! Brands like Loti Wellness, TheraBox, calmbox, Love Goodly, and greenUP will set up a routine delivery service of self-care supplies ranging from books, candles, and aromatherapy blends for those seeking relaxation to eco-friendly skin personal care products for the climatically-aware DIY esthetician. With high-value bundles of stuff arriving in premium packaging on a set schedule, your thoughtful gift will have them hyped up to take better care of themselves and enjoy more wellness for weeks to come!
9. A ”book of the month” gift subscription for ravenous readers
Guess what the best “book of the month” subscription service is? You’re right: it’s Book of the Month! For the incurable bookworm you know, a Book of the Month subscription will have them choosing five to seven titles to receive each month and comes with the ability to pause their selection schedule whenever they want. They’ve been at it since 1926 - we figure they know what they’re doing. Buying for a younger giftee? Try Bookroo for children’s books!
10. A personalized Cameo appearance by one of their favorite stars
Celebrity-related gifting used to be a lot harder. If your giftee had a favorite music, TV show, sports, or movie star, the best thing you could get them might have been a signed photograph.
But today, there’s Cameo! Thousands of celebrities are happy to create personalized video messages for your giftee, including NFL Buccaneer Antonio Brown, rock legend Alice Cooper of Alice In Chains fame, Draco Malfoy actor Tom Felton, and Dean Norris, also known as Hank on Breaking Bad. Giving them a custom-made video (that’s theirs to keep) from one of their favorite people might just get you on their list!
11. A premium treat from a premium online food vendor
Some of the best things in life are things we eat. Everyone has fond memories of certain foods, whether it’s a special dish mama used to make or a singular taste of some luxury morsel. While you might not be able to cook up a killer cuisine yourself, you can leave it to the folks at companies like Goldbelly, Harry & David, and Wild Fork Foods, who will deliver fancy restaurant-quality meats, seafoods, baked goods, entire meals and more right to your giftee’s front door.
We’re talking gourmet cheese and charcuterie boards that come with perfectly-paired wine, mouth-watering seasoned cuts of USDA Choice beef, full steamer pots of wild-caught crabs, Maine lobster tails, Wagyu burgers... need we say more?
12. An Amazon or Uncommon Goods gift card for just about anything else
Has nothing on this list jumped out at you as a particularly perfect present yet? It might not be the worst idea to get something almost anyone will appreciate - an Amazon e-gift card! As far as excellent flexible gifts go, a chunk of change to spend at the world’s largest online retailer might just take the cake. An Uncommon Goods gift card might work as well if you’d like to get something more strictly giftish - or, if they’re looking to interact, invite them to choose their own virtual Uncommon Experience!