Ideal Christmas gifts for someone who is learning French

credit photo: www.brusselsisyours.com

I hate Christmas and Christmas shopping but…

I’m not anti-social and I still have a family and friends, so as long as I’m still interacting with people I love, I won’t be able to avoid the Christmas season. The only thing I love about Christmas is the Vin chaud. 

I hate Christmas for many reasons and one of them is that it’s very hard for me to find useful and great gifts. I always want to be original and I don’t want to fall into the trap of giving the trendiest item. I always take it very personally when, for example, I offer a book and the person doesn’t read it. I know I shouldn’t, but I’m like this. 

I know finding useful gifts is challenging and we never have enough time to prepare our Christmas shopping. In this article, I will help you find useful, fun and interesting gifts related to the French language. Bye bye boring and horrible Christmas gifts. 

Here you go with my personal selections. I want to add that I’m not sponsored to talk about these products and I’ve been working on this article for many many months. 

Posters in French 

• How to swear like a native speaker: Poster to swear like a local
• The dreamer poster: make your 100 dreams come true before you die! Dreamer poster
• If you are a fan of French pastries, this poster is all you need. Pâtisserie française. 
• The 100 things you should do before you die. In case you don’t have a list already, why not have a list in French? 100 things to do before you die.

• If you or your friend is a fan of movie, this poster with the 100 most important and must-see movies of all time can be a nice gift. 100 movies to watch before you die
• If you (or your friend) are wine lover, while visiting the fair of the independent winegrowers association, I’ve found the best gift ever: Poster about wine, grapes, maps of French wines, Argentinian wines, How to choose your wine and based on your cheese, wine and yoga,… La carte des vins-svp

Decoration in French

• If you are trying to help someone learn French in a fun way, this gift might be nice as it helps people to create sentences on their fridge. It’s time to write poetry in French on your fridge. Magnetic words in French
• Buy some light for your friend. This is a French company I discovered on Instagram and they create amazingly cute and customizable candles. I love them. Bougie personnalisée végétale by BougiesVolige on Etsy

Books in French

I’m a bookworm and there are soooo many books I would like to recommend and share with you. If you would like to get my list of favorite books, you can get it here. 

• Les monsieur Madames d’Amazon.fr : Adam Hargreaves

They are available in many languages. They are very cute and little, easy to read books for kids and adults. 

You can personalize your gift and choose one character that defines your friend the most. For my boyfriend, who is French and very grumpy, I’ll certainly choose the Monsieur Grincheux. 

Calendars are always a good idea

• A calendar with beautiful quotes so you or your friend can enjoy inspirational quotes everyday and be in a good mood. Les plus jolies citations du monde. (Not available in 2022 – unfortunately)
• Dark Humor — as we call it in French. 
• One fun quote a day, 2022 edition. When you understand a joke in French, it’s the best feeling ever. 
• Wine lover, here we go again with something for you. A calendar to discover wine… in French. 365 jours pour découvrir le vin. 

If you think you should be able to laugh about absolutely everything and you have no filter, this calendar is for you. Calendrier humour noir.

• Le saviez-vous? : in French “did you know” is as you may have guessed, the calendar to become smarter everyday. As you know the French loooooove culture and being (or thinking) they are super smart. Le saviez-vous?
• In the same approach, this calendar will teach where expressions come from and why. There is also a website, I highly recommend for French expressions : www.expressio.fr  Calendrier 365 jours d’où vient cette expression ?*
• You can learn French and be very positive. Yes, trust me, being positive is still something you can do in 2020. Calendrier des idées positives
• The calendar for a well organized family. Are you a well organized family ? Calendrier de la famille organisée
• Enjoy 365 French expressions. Everyday, you’ll learn a new expression or quote. If your aim is to speak like a native, this gift will be your daily partner in crime in 2020. Calendrier 365 jours d’expressions françaises – L’Année à Bloc*

What about a bit of geography and French 

• Map of French wine 

The best way to become smarter when you drink wine. You’ve probably experienced that but the French love to talk about regions when they talk about wine. Map of the French wine. 

• Scratch-off Map of French specialities. If you are a foodie, you’ll enjoy discovering new specialities. Foodies map

Activities and games 

• There are many games available in French such as Trivial poursuit or Monopoly and I found this one very useful and original. If you don’t know what to do today, it will help you find inspiration and new ideas. And you, what do you do  today? 100 activities.

My last selection is more course and practice oriented. I highly recommend you to have a look at the following memberships to help you (or your friend) boost your French. 

• Le français avec Yasmine. This is the membership of my podcast. Every week, you’ll receive a newsletter in French with all my tips and tricks to boost your French including resources that I share nowhere else. In addition, and most importantly, you’ll have access to the library of all the transcripts of my podcast. In December 2021, there are more than 79 podcast episodes and with its transcripts waiting for you inside my membership. 
• Learning French with movies is an excellent idea to boost your listening skills and immerse yourself with content that it’s not books. Also, you’ll be able to pratice and discover a more “real life” French rather than “classic French”. This is what lignopie offers. Learn a language with great TV shows.  

I hope this helps. If you found value in this article and would like access to my exclusive content, join my weekly newsletter where I share tips and tricks to learn French! You won’t find the content of my newsletter anywhere else and you will have direct access to me and my expertise.