A Year of Zings

November 17, 2022

The most memorable holiday gift I've ever received from my husband was a plant-of-the-month club that he gave me the year we were married. Between deliveries, I'd forget all about it, so when every 30 days or so I'd find a miniature rose or a coleus or a spider plant or a cactus in a carefully-packed box on my doorstep, I'd get that little zing of delight you feel when someone surprises you with a gift.

That was a year of discovery in many ways, not least of which was the discovery that I have the blackest of thumbs (see the "I'd forget" comment above). Barely would one plant arrive than its predecessor would wither; by July, we had nicknamed the monthly arrival The Latest Victim. But the point is, every month I'd get a sudden little reminder of being loved. One click of the mouse on David's part in December generated a whole year of zings.

In the fall of 2020, many of us were contemplating the holidays with gloom because the pandemic made in-person visits minimal or impossible. So subscription boxes became all the rage, enabling gift-givers to be there even when we were not there, over and over. KidsOutAndAbout.com's editors compiled our now-classic article 170+ Subscription Boxes for Kids and Families: Gifts that Keep on Giving. We updated it last year and again this year to make it easy to find perfect ways to keep reminding your loved ones how treasured they are, in a way that lasts beyond the holidays.

Our subscription box article has nicely-organized categories for crafts, snacks, drinks, cooking, beauty, jewelry, pets, sports, books, clothes, even coaching and mentoring for teens. And, yes, for plants. Just don't send me one of those, even if you love me, because we all know what will happen.

—Deb