Couple’s Holiday Gift Guide: Love Languages Edition
Thanksgiving just ended, which means that Christmas is just a hop and skip away. If you didn’t catch any of the good Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals, this season of “giving” can get a little expensive. Especially when you’re a broke college student. This time of the year, everyone is on the hunt for the “perfect gift” for their significant others. It also seems like everyone is in a competition on social media these days on who can give the most expensive or extravagant gift. This year I’m trying to switch it up. I decided to give my man a gift based on his love language.
If you’re not familiar with the 5 love languages, they are ways in which individuals express love and receive love. This can be tricky because your love language can be different from your partners. It takes observation and maybe even a question or two to learn your partner’s love language. For example, my love languages are words of affirmation and quality time. This means the way I receive love is through my man telling me that he loves me and other affirmations, as well as us spending time together. His love language is acts of service and quality time. He likes when we spend time together and I do things like cook for him or help him solve a problem.
My advice to you this holiday season is to learn your partner’s love language and try to get them a gift or create a gift that is centered around the way they receive love.
Words of Affirmation
This love language can be expressed in many different ways. This can be in the form of verbal compliments, words that express appreciation, or any words that affirm your partner. This person receives love by hearing that you appreciate them. A great gift for this type of partner may be a wallet insert that has a message from you engraved on it or jewelry that includes a nice message. This is a nice gift that your partner will have to remind them of your love for them.
Quality Time
This love language can be expressed in giving your partner your undivided attention. This can be in the form of going to dinner, learning a new activity together, or even exercising together. The best way to do this is find something that you and your partner both enjoy and do it together. A great gift for this type of partner may be a weekend getaway to a city within driving distance. You could possibly get tickets a concert for the two of you to attend. The key is to find something interactive for the two of you to do together.
Receiving Gifts
This may be the easiest love language to find a gift for this holiday season because their love language is literally receiving gifts. This doesn’t mean you have to break the bank. This just means that this partner receives love by knowing that a person is thinking of them because they got something for them. This could be anything from a book by their favorite author or a gift to support their hobby. This is thoughtful and it shows your partner you’re thinking of them.
Acts of Service
This love language means to do things that may be helpful to your partner or that you know they may like you to do. This expression of love is important because it takes, time, planning and effort. When trying to figure out this love language, think about the expression “actions speak louder than words”. This gift is more personalized. You’d have to think of something your partner likes or may need. For example, if your partner has a really busy schedule, you could get them a personalized planner or calendar.
Physical Touch
The first thing I want everyone to know is that this does not necessarily mean sex! This can mean any type of consensual physical contact that your partner is comfortable with. This could be anything from a hug, kiss to holding hands. For gift giving purposes, I’d say a cool idea could be to get a couples massage kit and give your partner a massage. Another idea could be to do an at-home pedicure for your partner. It’s a fun and creative way to explore physical touch.
These are just a few ideas I have that you can try to give a unique and more personalized for your bae this gift-giving season. You could even try to give gifts to friends and family members based on their love languages. I’ve found that learning about love languages has been extremely helpful in communicating and interacting with my loved ones. I encourage you all to learn your love language and your loved-ones’ love languages too.
