It’s the most wonderful time of the year — and for our hardworking traveling nurses who work through sleet and snow, it’s one of the few moments that we can show our appreciation for the admirable work that they do daily. In this article, we list some fun winter gift ideas for the travel nurses in your life to help make the holidays a little bit more merry and bright!
Gift cards for local restaurants, coffee shops, and diners
This gift idea checks a lot of boxes, not just for travel nurses but for the community they’re currently part of. Giving them gift cards to local dining and drinking establishments will help them get access to great food or drinks (which is especially welcome after an exhausting shift or a long week at work) for free. It will also allow them to explore new places they haven’t been to, especially if it’s their first time being assigned to a specific state or city. Doing this also gives the local establishments the support they need and deserve.
Gift certificate for tours and experiences
If your travel nurse loved one enjoys outdoor adventures and new experiences, you can give gift certificates for guided tours and experiences. Depending on what they’re interested in, you can book historical walks, segway tours, educational museum trips, and even food and drink crawls.
Gift certificate for a spa, wellness center, hair, or nail salon
Nothing says “thank you for everything that you do” than the gift of relaxation and pampering. A gift certificate to a local spa can allow your favorite travel nurse to get a relaxing massage or their preferred beauty and grooming treatments. This is also another way to support local businesses while ensuring that your gift recipients have a fun, relaxing, and luxurious time.
A basket of curated items
The nurses in your life — or anyone, really — would greatly appreciate a gift that you’ve put a lot of thought into and shows how well you know them. Curating a box full of small, cool, helpful, and fun items that reflect their wants and needs is a great gift idea. The following are examples of nurse gift basket inclusions:
- Compression or fun socks, cute badge reels, snacks, drinks, and candies
- Hand lotion, body butter, shower steamers, bath bombs, fuzzy socks, hair ties or scrunchies
- Eye mask, face mask, massage oils, foot cream, robe, scented candles
- Coffee beans, hot chocolate packets, flavored creamers, coffee tumbler or mug
- Pens, stationary, planner or organizer for the coming year, fun desk signs
- Fruits (edible arrangements)
- Cookies, donuts, brownies, or other individually packed pastries
- Pajama set, comfy slippers, sleep mask
Acts of service
Not all gifts need to be bought and wrapped! If you live with a nurse, you know how heavy their workload is and how physically exhausted they get after each shift. If you know your way around cars, you can make sure that they stay safe on the road by keeping their vehicle winter-ready:
- Make sure that the vehicle is fitted with winter or snow tires.
- Completely remove all snow and ice from the vehicle — this includes the windows, roof, and lights.
- Ensure that the gas tank is full and your windshield wipers, lights, signals, brakes, and flashers are working properly.
- Make sure that all four tires are properly inflated.
- Ask a mechanic to check the antifreeze, battery, ignition, exhaust, heater, and defroster to ensure that everything’s working properly.
