Canadian Gift Guide

Forgive me, for today’s gift suggestion is a little cheesy, but there is a logical explanation. For Christmas this past year I was trying to figure out what to get the boyfriend. It occurred to me that he really truly and deeply loves chips. Everyone has their weird food fixation – cheese, wines, even vinegars – but his is chips. I looked for a ‘chip of the month club’ and was disappointed to see they only exist in the USA. In fact, I couldn’t find any ‘Of The Month’ clubs based in Canada.

That is, until today. MonthlyClubs.ca is exactly as you’d expect – they offer half a dozen different monthly clubs you can sign up for, starting at $34.95 a month. Three of them are for the main beverage aficionados around which an entire industry is built – coffee, wine, and beer. The other three are candles, chocolate, and flowers (the most expensive), perfect for grandma or your mother-in-law.

Whenever I think ‘of the month’, I can’t help but think of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, when Clark is given a subscription to the jelly of the month club in lieu of the Christmas bonus he expected to build an in-ground pool with. It’s not a pretty picture. However, MonthlyClubs.ca actually has a pretty nifty system. Each month your gift recipient will receive a selection of gourmet products delivered ‘free’ to their doors, with a newsletter that gives some background on the selection.

A nice little bonus about something like this? You can easily capitalize on a friend or family member’s obvious ‘likes’, but you aren’t the one that is necessarily responsible for picking out something totally unique for them. Chances are they’ll have sampled at least one of the beers or chocolates delivered to them, but they’ll likely also get to try something new, and appreciate the variety. It’s literally the gift that keeps on giving – for an entire year!

Obviously this is a little on the pricy side (a year of candles would set you back $420 plus tax), but it is an ideal gift for the holidays so you know exactly when the subscription is starting and ending. Alternatively this could work for birthdays, anniversaries, or even as a kitschy wedding gift for a special couple. A nice feature of this site is they don’t require you to subscribe for one full year. If you want to only do a half-year, or if you’re giving out corporate Christmas gifts you could just do three months – the site is totally flexible. They even let you choose the distribution schedule. So for example, if you wanted to pay for a bottle of wine to be shipped to a pair of newlyweds each month of their anniversary for the next five years, the site makes it incredibly simple to do so. Genius!