It's no secret that our team here at Shop TODAY is product-obsessed. We spend all of our working days thinking about and looking for the latest and greatest finds. And plenty of our off hours are spent scouring sales and testing products just for fun.
So when we get the chance to talk to some of our favorite celebrities, it's inevitable that the conversation turns to their go-to products. For our Shopping Diaries series, we've gotten to hear about the items the stars really love, including the hot sauce that Priyanka Chopra Jonas keeps in her car, the beauty product that Colin Jost convinced Scarlett Johansson to start using and the item Drew Barrymore always has in her bag.
In the hours we've spent speaking with these stars, we've also heard a fair amount about their go-to gifts — which means we have plenty of inspiration for anyone who is shopping for the holiday season. From beauty finds to picks for parents, these are the top gifts that celebrities love to give and receive.
Best celebrity-approved gifts under $25
If you’re going to a party, actress Mindy Kaling said that “a big faux pas” is bringing something “that needs to take the host away from having fun. So if you get them loose flowers in a bouquet, it’s like now they have to go be a floral arranger. Or if it’s like oh this is a food you need to heat up, it’s room in the fridge or the oven which might already be spoken for, so I’m very sensitive to this type of thing.”
So instead of those common options, she has two go-to hostess gifts. The first is her homemade apple chutney. The other is an ornament that will remind the person of her. “Weirdly enough, you can find Kelly Kapoor Christmas ornaments or the character from ‘Inside Out’ that I play called Disgust,” she said. “And so whenever they look at it, they’ll be like, ‘Oh yeah, Mindy gave that to me.’ So if it’s something from one of my more memorable roles I think that is funny and also has meaning attached to it.”
Country singer-songwriter Kelsea Ballerini told us that this phone case is an “easy, cute stocking stuffer for your girlfriends,” and we agree! It's compatible with a range of iPhone models and will also make the perfect white elephant gift or present for a teen.
Beloved Broadway star and actress Kristin Chenoweth recently told us that she is an “avid reader” who loves autobiographies. And that’s why fellow Oklahoma-native Reba McEntire’s latest book was on her gifting list last year. “It has great easy, easy recipes in it, so [for] people like me who don’t love to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, it’s really fun,” she shared. “But all her anecdotes are just hilarious.”
Actress and television host Drew Barrymore told us that her go-to gift is “anything engraved.” She added, “For me, if it’s been engraved that means you’ve thought about it before, you had to come up with something to say. You could engrave a piece of wood, it doesn’t matter, anything engraved is my go-to.” She said that she loves a heart locket or an ID bracelet, specifically.
We found this one on Etsy, which can be personalized with their name, initials or a special phrase.
Stuck on what to get your food-loving friend? Kaling said this Spicewell’s New Salt (and its New Pepper) make good gifts for both men and women. “It’s salt and pepper that also have vitamins and minerals in it but it doesn’t taste weird,” she said. “It’s awesome and I’ve been using it in all my cooking and it’s a great inexpensive present.”
Reality star and entrepreneur Khloé Kardashian told us she was gifted a rhinestone-decorated water bottle by a friend for her birthday and “it was really cute.” She shared that having a gallon water bottle “motivates me to drink my water.”
This one is an Amazon bestseller and features motivational sayings along the side to help you stay on track with your hydration.
Fashion mogul and "Real Housewife of New York" star Jenna Lyons told us that a "marker of a good gift" is something that she loves or wants. One of those things is her staple red lip, which she says she gets asked about all the time.
"Now you don’t have to DM me and ask me what it is. This stuff does not come off, not at all," she said at the Klarna's Holiday Celebration, which Shop TODAY attended.
When it comes to hostess gifts, Martha Stewart tends to give things that feel personal — and have the signature Martha homegrown touch. “It might be a tray of my beautiful homegrown eggs. It might be a bottle of my homemade cider. It might be a basket full of homemade jams and jellies that I’ve been making all summer long, I like to take things from my farm.”
Though, she shared that her new cookbook would also make a great present. “If I do give a hostess gift, that will be one of my gifts this year.”
While you might not immediately think of this snack as a good gift, Ballerini says it will make a great stocking stuffer. “My mom, at least, growing up, would always put certain treats in my stocking, whether it be little Hershey’s Kisses or whatever, so I’m used to having some kind of little snack in my stocking,” she says. “And I think that’s a great one, it’s healthy, it’s really good protein.”
When we spoke with author and mom Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt, we were obsessed with her sweet personalized gift idea. For a couple of family members recently, she said she created custom beauty kits with some of her favorite products. She starts with a monogrammed travel case (she likes this one from Cuyana) and then adds her top five to 10 products and a description of each into the bag.
Some of the picks that she's included in these bags are L'Oreal's Bambi Eye Mascara, the viral Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask, Kosas DreamBeam Sunscreen, Haus Labs' Concealer and this lip balm from Summer Fridays.
“I put in the Summer Fridays lip balm because my lips get so dry around this time of year, and also my girls go through all of my products now — which is so fun,” she said. “So I feel very comfortable letting them use a product like Summer Fridays because it’s OK for them to use and also put all over their face.”
Best celebrity-approved gifts under $50
After receiving this guided journal as a gift herself, Ballerini gave this journal to her dad a couple of a couple years ago and he “loved” it. “I feel like it’s offering someone the gift of presence. For me, it helped me take account of my life in each day, because everything moves so quickly the older we get.”
Hair stylist and “Queer Eye” star Jonathan Van Ness shared with us that the key to a good blow dry is clean sections of hair, which is why he says he loves this giftable brush. “It has this pointy thing in the bottom of the round brush that helps you create really clean parting so you can really control your blow-dry.”
"I focus in on stocking stuffers for my mom friends,” actress Kristen Bell told us of her go-to gift. And this balm is not only one of her own personal beauty favorites, but also a great stocking stuffer.
“Throughout history, moms have woken up Christmas morning with a flat ass sock hanging on the mantle. I find that unacceptable. So what I usually do is I will get my favorite products: I’ll get the face wash, I’ll get a couple of lip balms, I’ll get tinier things, like maybe a really good set of tweezers — things that are really important to have, that feel practical. And during the month of December, I fill up my girlfriend’s stockings, so they have something there.”
We knew we loved Chenoweth from the second we hopped on a Zoom call with her, but what really sealed the deal was hearing that she was also a fan of Crocs’ controversial shoes (and she shared that they’d make a great gift). “Crocs are back,” she told us. The 7-Eleven x Crocs collab is her favorite, but those are currently sold out. You can still take a page from her book and grab the brand’s bestselling classic style.
Chenoweth calls herself a “big cozy person,” which is why this heated blanket is one of her essentials. Though, she told us that she’ll also likely be gifting it to a lot of people this year, too.
“I have a lot of gifts that I need to buy for my staff or for all the housewives,” television personality Andy Cohen shared with us. So, he got the idea from a friend to start gifting people personalized notepads. “Everybody loves to have their name on things, but people don’t usually buy it for themselves, and it’s really very cool to have a big set of pads. I bought them for the housewives for several years, and for my staff, and it’s great.”
While he didn’t mention a specific brand, we love Papier for their more luxe look and feel. This one comes with the option to get the recipients initials emblazoned between a bouquet of flowers.
If model and activist Pamela Anderson is going to someone's home, odds are, the gift she'll be bringing is a "fresh-baked loaf of my sourdough," she told us. If you're a baker, this proofing basket set will make the perfect gift for yourself, to help you bake all those loaves to give away to loved ones. Or you can gift them to a home chef who is hoping to start their sourdough habit.
You may know Kristin Cavallari best as one of the stars of “Laguna Beach” and the final season of “The Hills,” but you may not be aware that she’s also an avid cook. She’s authored two bestselling cookbooks, so we were eager to hear about one of her favorite kitchen products, the Caraway Baking Sheets.
“I roast vegetables on those baking sheets almost every single day,” Cavallari told us. “And what I love about those is that they’re non-toxic, but they also are so easy to clean, and they’re pretty, honestly. I think that they’re a great gift for people who love to cook.”
"What I like about the balsamic is that it’s not just like a one-night sort of gift where they drink it and they’re [done]," says private chef Meredith Hayden, more commonly known as Wishbone Kitchen. "They’ll use it for months, if not a year. Every time they use it, they’ll think of you.”
Hayden's bestselling debut cookbook, "The Wishbone Kitchen Cookbook," provides readers with tips and tricks for their next dinner party, including ways to curate a menu utilizing the recipes within.
Best celebrity-approved gifts under $100
Another go-to item Lyons wears often is this compact, natural nude eyeshadow palette. She says this is a product she will probably give to her fellow RHONY co-stars. “I love the Charlotte Tilbury palette,” she says. “It’s my go-to and a couple of the girls have asked me about it when I’ve been wearing it.”
Back in 2021, Garner told us that she buys these hair brushes to give away as gifts. "They’re perfect for detangling a little kid’s hair,” she said. “I mean, you wouldn’t think it because they’re just straight wires, so you don’t want a little kid to whack you in the face with it, but they are great at detangling and they also just move through your hair really easily.”
Singer Kacey Musgraves revealed to us that when she’s not sure what to get someone, she opts for a gift that anyone can appreciate. “I’m giving them a gift certificate to get a message ... who can hate on that?”
“If I don’t really know someone, but I want it to be good, I’ll find a really beautiful Diptyque candle,” model and actress Brooke Shields told us. “People seem to really like those.”
While she says the L’Ombre Dans L’eau is her favorite scent, it's not available in candle form. But you can't go wrong with this flowery, berry-scented candle from the brand.
Best celebrity-approved luxury gifts
Actress Amanda Seyfried told us that this gift is perfect "for the bird fans." And we agree! Once they set it up in their backyard, not only will it feed all the birds who stop by, but it can also take high-quality photos and slow-motion videos.
Schwarzenegger Pratt was given this milk frother by a friend and she said that it's one of the gifts she's received that she uses most often. “I am really happy that she actually convinced me to use [it], because it makes such a difference in my morning. And also my morning coffee — I wake up really early — and it’s the thing that I really look forward to in the morning.”
Cohen said that Doona's stroller is a "lifesaver" for airplanes, malls and drives. "You can put baby in the Doona in the car and then you make it into a stroller very easily, you press two buttons and it turns into a stroller. And then you’ve got the next leg of your trip. It’s a lifesaver. I found out about it from Khloe Kardashian. When Ben was born, she sent me one and I never looked back. I’ve given so many of them."
If you're really hoping to spoil your loved one this holiday season, the Dyson Airwrap is the way to go. "It’s so convenient, it just doesn’t damage the hair," Van Ness said. "The way that it heats the hair is really just safer.”
Kardashian also told us that the hair tool was a "game changer" for her, adding that it makes her "look like a real hair professional."
How we chose the best celebrity-approved gifts
We've interviewed dozens of celebrities for our Shopping Diaries series over the years. During these conversations, we often ask about their go-to gifts. All of the above items were recommended by the celebrities we spoke to, including Jennifer Garner, Martha Stewart, Kristin Chenoweth and more.
Don’t forget to check out Shop TODAY’s other gift guides to find the perfect gift for everyone else on your list, including luxury gifts, gifts for the foodie in your life and even finds for those who love their furry friends more than their actual friends.
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