With the Christmas Season fast approaching, we here at CelebMix decided we’d do something to help you out a little by highlighting some of our favourite Christmas gifts that we think would suit a person by their fandom! Over the next few days, we’re going to help you choose presents for the people in your life who are massive fans of One Direction, Little Mix and Fifth Harmony to name but a few! We’re going to do our best to be a bit more original and inspiration than just T-Shirts with their faces on, so these guides aren’t for the casual fans, but for the massive, die-hard lovers of some of our favourite artists!
To kick things off we’re bringing you the best gifts for fans of Taylor Swift, so if you’ve got a massive Swifty in your life and you’re stuck with what to get them, then we have got you covered!
Up first….
GIFT 1
What: Her albums…on Vinyl!
Where: Any major music retailer, or Amazon, or TaylorSwift.com
How Much: $20 (Plus delivery) from her site, Around $25 elsewhere.
Why:
Vinyl is something I’ve loved for a long time, and it’s recently made a resurgence in popularity. In fact, it’s becoming rare that an album that sells well on CD is not released on Vinyl format at some point or the other! Given the nostalgic, vintage feel that surrounds Taylor Swift right now – The 1989 era of her career has seen throwbacks in fashion, photography and sound – the Vinyl editions of her albums are particularly enticing right now! Presently, only Speak Now, Red and 1989 are available for Vinyl purchases, but if you look hard enough you can also find Jukebox 7″ single versions of some of her earlier hits like Love Story on Ebay! Vinyl is a great thing to collect, an original and less commonly owned piece of merchandise that’s widely available from retailers! For a while I collected Vinyl like you might collect art; I enjoyed the aesthetic and the look of it, and had a couple of my favourites framed on the wall, but a few Christmas’s ok I was gifted with a record player and let me assure you, everything sounds better on Vinyl. It’s all crisper, more clear and sharper, and you’ll notice beats or changes in pitch and melody, little intricacies in the music that previously passed you by! For anyone who really loves Taylor and her albums, the Vinyl editions would be a great gift!
GIFT 2
What: Paper Airplane Necklace
Where: Notonthehighstreet.com
How Much: £32
Why:
Everyone loves a piece of jewellery, and this is one that’s been referenced by Taylor a few times lately! It pops up briefly in her music video for “Style”, and she’s been seen wearing one just like this on many, many occasions. Not only this, but a reference to a paper airplane it features in a line from a song on her most recently released album, 2014’s 1989, in the song “Out of the woods”:
Your necklace hanging from my neck/ The night we couldn’t forget/When we decided (We decided)/ To move the furniture so we could dance/ Baby, like we stood a chance/ Two paper airplanes, flying, flying, flying…
As a result, during the live performances of “Out of the woods” on the 1989 World Tour, giant paper airplanes on flagpoles are waved around by her backing dancers and the confetti that falls from the ceiling is all in the shape of…you guessed it, paper airplanes! With so many references to paper airplanes, and such a beautiful piece of jewellery, this is the perfect Christmas gift for any die-hard Swifty!
GIFT 3
What: Polaroid Instax Mini!
Where: Pretty much anywhere it seems, Argos, Walmart, Amazon
How Much: Between £60-£80, with film.
Why:
Ok, so this one isn’t strictly gonna appeal to Taylor Swift fan, but if they’re crazy for Tay, i think they’ll love it! In fact, during “Swiftmas” – the time that Taylor sent out holiday gifts to her fans to thank them for her support – polaroids were a frequent addition to the surprise packages! Polaroids feature heavily in Taylor’s life/image/era now – Her album art is polaroids, as is all the single art, and the album comes with a free packet of polaroids of her, captioned with her lyrics, of which there are 5 packets to collect! It’s another throwback; yet more of the vintage, Nostaligic atmosphere that’s present on Taylor Swift’s album these days, and I think most Taylor fans will love it. The fact that polaroids are becoming so widely available now just shows how popular they’re becoming. I have a polaroid 600, the film is not cheap and at present only developed by one company. They do a great job, and i’d never give it up for anything, but for someone a bit less adept and wanting something easy to operate with just as good results, The Instax mini is a safe bet, as the film is more widely available, easier to handle, and is not so sensitive to light/movement. I’ve used it for years, all of my cousins got one last year, and I’m buying them for my nieces this year! A great gift for all ages, but especially for the Taylor Swift fans looking to follow in her footsteps, and who are as equally enchanted by the 1989 throwback that came with this era!
GIFT 4
What: Bakers Gonna Bake kitchen items!
Where: Notonthehighstreet.com
How Much: £5.50 – £29, depending on what you buy
Why:
Taylor Swift is a big fan of baking, and since she started using Tumblr to connect with her fans on a more personal level, she’s shown this over and over again. During “Swiftmas” she did, on multiple occasions, send her fans stuff she’d baked herself, her favourite baking ingredients/recipes, and baked goods baked by her friends like Super Model Karlie Kloss! She has used Tumblr to share her own personal recipes for her favourite baked goods, during her secret sessions (And the behind the scenes videos) personally baked hundreds of cakes and cookies for her fans. She has confessed herself a love of baking, Ina Garten, and terrible, terrible puns…so anything from this Bake It Off range would be great for any like minded Taylor Swift fan (and Taylor would probably like them herself, too!)
Bake It Off is a pun on her hit song Shake It Off, and the pun rose to prominence when Taylor and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver made a parody video of Shake It Off called Bake It Off for Stand Up To Cancer last year!
So, if like Taylor the person you’re buying gifts for has a love of baking, then anything from this range, whether that’s the cup, the apron, the cutlery or the tableware, this is the perfect gift for them!
GIFT 5
What: Taylor Swift Lyric Stickers
Where: Red Bubble
How Much: Various prices, generally a couple of £/$
Why:
Taylor Swift is known for her lyrics – witty, hard hitting and award winning. She’s won Grammy’s on the back of them, and they have seen her inducted in to the song writers hall of fame. It’s one of her fans favourite things about her, too, so stickers of some of her best lyrics would make a great gift! If you know someone has a particular favourite, or even if they just like them all, they’d really appreciate this kind of thing. They’ve been used to caption Instagram pictures, or subtly express her fans mood through Facebook statuses and Tweets (I continuously have one of her lyrics in my Twitter bio, it seems, and only take it out to replace it with another!). Well with the help of the more artistically talented Taylor Swift fans, her best lyrics can be used to decorate books or boxes or laptop/phone cases, and they’re really cheap, too! They’re the kind of thing you can buy a few of and make in to a nice little bundle for quite cheap!
So, there you have it! Our quick and simple guide to Christmas gifts for Taylor Swift fans that are a bit more imaginative than just T-Shirts with her face on! As a massive Swiftie myself, there’s only two of these that I don’t have already, but I’m hoping someone takes my advice and buys them for me this Christmas!
If none of thick appeals to you, or you’re looking for something a bit more than gifts this Christmas Season Taylor’s official site does a great range of Christmas tree ornaments, stockings and winter-wear especially for the occasion!
Any ideas what you’d buy for a Taylor Swift fan this Christmas? Tweet us know @CelebMix, or in the comments below!