If you’re tired of being on the giving and receiving end of a lot of unnecessary stuff, you may want to consider the SoKind registry. This online gift registry allows users to list gifts that are truly meaningful to them, like experiences or handmade items. You can set up a holiday gift list that reduces waste and ensures better gift-giving at the same time.
SoKind makes it easy to create a registry for special events like weddings, baby showers, and graduations. A student about to graduate could ask for the gift of time from an adult who could offer a résumé and career advice. Or maybe they’d like to experience an outdoor adventure that a National Parks pass could facilitate. A couple that plans to marry might request a personalized, handmade recipe book or for someone to photograph the wedding.
Users can ask for whatever they like, but SoKind suggests considering gifts of skill and time, gifts of experience, gifts of charity, and handmade or secondhand items. This broadens the gift-giving options, making it easier for you to give meaningful gifts that the receiver really wants.
To get you inspired, SoKind lists a selection of sample registries. They even include a sample holiday give list — demonstrating how the registry can help you give gifts that make you feel good as well as receive gifts that matter to you.
SoKind functions like a typical registry, allowing for easy gift giving without any duplicate gifts. Registry makers send out an announcement once their list is ready, and guests can see on the website which items have already been given.
Even if a registry isn’t the sort of thing your family would use for the holidays, browsing the site might offer some unique gift ideas for the kind of things that just don’t fit in a box. Visit SoKind to learn more.
SoKind is a project of the Center for Biological Diversity, an organization dedicated to securing a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction.
Originally published on December 6, 2013, this article was updated in November 2020.