When someone you consider a friend isn’t feeling well, naturally, you want to help. However, you may need to keep your distance if they have a contagious illness. Sending gifts during this time lets you care for your friend while keeping yourself safe. For those not in the same city as a sick friend, gifts show your support when you can’t be there.
But you might want to send more than a card, flowers, and a get-well balloon. Your wish is to give your friend a more thoughtful gift. Here are four ideas to consider putting on your shortlist.
1. Gift Baskets With Comfort Foods
It goes without saying that your appetite changes when you’re under the weather. You may not feel like eating much at first. Your throat could hurt, making it difficult to swallow. Yet, you need to stay hydrated and consume foods to help fight the inflammation or bacteria in your body.
A get well gift basket can include foods like chicken soup, along with rolls and cookies. When your friend is ready to eat solid foods, these items provide comfort while saving them time in the kitchen. Vegetable soups, on the other hand, still provide soothing hydration for sick individuals with dietary restrictions.
Gift baskets full of comfort foods express care regardless of why your friend isn’t feeling well. It could be the flu, a recent surgery, or a chronic condition. Include a personal note with your good wishes while stating you’ll get together when possible. Your friend will appreciate not having to cook when they need to focus on taking care of their recovery.
2. Personal Care Items
Do you remember the last time you came down with an illness? You probably had multiple symptoms you wanted to get rid of. At the same time, you didn’t have the energy to go to the store to get items like cough syrup and sore throat lozenges.
Put together these personal care items for your friend, including self-care gifts they can use in the future. A neti pot, an electric blanket, and tissues are items an ill friend will use more than once. Other ideas are a neck/shoulder massager, lip balm, lotions, and ointments with menthol. If your friend doesn’t have a humidifier, it will help alleviate breathing and congestion issues.
The devices are also beneficial for someone with laryngitis. They can be used year-round in dry climates should your friend live in one of them. Throwing in some herbal tea and honey means they’ll have additional sources of relief.
3. Entertainment
The number one thing you want to do when you’re sick is sleep. Getting more rest than usual is critical to helping your body heal. Nonetheless, there are times when you’re awake and needing something to pass the time. Entertainment like movies, TV shows, and books get you through the moments when following the doctor’s orders means staying in bed.
Sending books your friend has been talking about reading for weeks is a thoughtful gesture. So is buying a subscription to a streaming service they’ve been wanting to try. Alternatively, you could send them a digital gift card that lets them choose a few movies from a service’s library. Some platforms have add-ons, films, and TV series available for purchase.
But say books and the small screen aren’t your friend’s cup of tea. You could send them crossword puzzles or adult coloring books instead. Maybe send them a puzzle to work on during their waking moments. Other ideas include journals and the materials they need to create a vision board.
4. Personalized Gifts
Whether you’ve known your friend since kindergarten or as an adult, you know things about them that others don’t. They have an eclectic taste in music and love dogs but can’t have one in their current place. Perhaps your friend has an avid interest in seashells from when they used to live by the coast.
These hidden quirks can be inspirations for personalized gifts you can give while your friend isn’t feeling their best. For instance, you could create a playlist of the top 10 songs your buddy listens to. Even if those songs jump from one genre to another, the tunes are what bring comfort and inspiration. Likewise, afternoon play dates with a dog that visits the sick can lift your friend’s spirits.
Personalized gift ideas can also include framed poetry and mementos using something your friend cherishes. It could be a refurbished family heirloom, a piece of jewelry, or parts of a past loved one’s clothing. Quilts and stuffed animals can be made from a departed parent’s favorite shirt your friend wants to hang on to. Use your imagination and knowledge of your pal’s inner world to come up with a unique gift.
Thoughtful Gestures for an Ill Friend
If someone you care for isn’t feeling well, you want to do everything you can to help them. Short of eradicating their illness, sending gifts is a way to lend a hand. But you want to give something thoughtful and useful to your friend in their time of need. A card doesn’t seem like it’s enough.
Gift baskets with comfort food, personal care items, entertainment, and personalized mementos go beyond typical get-well wishes. With these ideas, you’re showing you understand what they’re going through and addressing their needs. Knowing a friend isn’t feeling well may not be easy, but your support can alleviate their discomfort while they recover.
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