With finals week crushing our souls in all of its sleepless nights and stress-inducing glory, winter break is a college student's beacon of light across at the end of a dark, depressing road. Although all we really want is to win the lottery so we never have to go through this terror again, or maybe a clone machine so our duplicates can do all the work for us, or even just a college degree/guaranteed, stable career, below are plenty of inexpensive and underrated gifts that will be very much appreciated by college students come the holidays.
1. Stickers
They go everywhere...laptop, Nalgenes, cars, you name it. Sites like RedBubble and Society6 will find you some of the best.
2. Socks
Happy feet = happy life. I don't know who started the whole "socks are the worst present" stigma because I believe there is no better feeling than that of a pair of cozy wool socks. Especially in a New England winter that threatens frostbite every time you step out the door.
3. Cash
Tuition, textbooks, late night pizza delivery. No further explanation needed.
4. Candy
Let's be honest, we're all still pretty salty that we can't go trick-or-treating anymore. You can't deny that any holiday is made better by a few Butterfingers and Reese's.
5. Home-cooked food
I never thought I'd say that I wish I had some of my mom's kale-quinoa medleys instead of a deliciously cheesy pizza or a steaming hot bowl of pasta, but the time has come. After a year and a half of dining hall food, I'm ready to go back to the stuff that doesn't give me heartburn.
6. Posters
White-washed dorm room walls could always use a little more jazzing-up. Just don't forget to include some Command strips, because there's nothing worse than a poster that won't stay posted.
7. Textbooks
These suckers cost a fortune to pay for, and half the time only 0.001% of the material covered in class has anything remotely close to the textbook readings. So if you feel like indirectly supporting an academic endeavor while simultaneously flushing money down the drain, this is your best bet.
8. Toothpaste, shampoo, etc.
I never realized that all it takes to nearly empty a bank account is a bottle of shampoo here, a box of bandaids there, and suddenly you're only a few dollars away from bankruptcy. (Side note: college dorm toilet paper is 1/2 ply. I'm not saying you should gift toilet paper, but I'm also not saying you shouldn't...)
9. Therapy dog
After being home for a week or so, the realization hits that the train wreck of a semester is going to repeat itself in the spring. What better way to cope with these emotions than with an energy fur ball.
10. A hug
Let's be honest. All anyone ever really needs is a hug after a semester chews them up and spits them out five times over. Coming from that, permission to sleep for a week straight and not be obligated to interact with anyone during that time can go a long way.
