Southern Belle in Training

Fashion, Travel & Lifestyle Blog || Est. 2012 || Virginia Beach, VA

November 1, 2021

Bloggers I Recommend For Great Christmas Gift Guides!

     Happy November 1st! This holiday season is going to look a little bit different on Southern Belle in Training for blog content. I've made the executive decision not to do any Gift Guides this year. I'll get more into why I decided not to do them later in the post, but I mainly wanted to share with you some other bloggers that you should check out if you're looking for Gift Guides. There are a few ladies I follow who absolutely kill it with this content every holiday season, and you should definitely check them out if you're looking for gift ideas!







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      First things first- let's chat this outfit! This sweater dress is definitely one of my favorite Amazon finds of the year. I am so impressed with the quality!! It is incredibly soft and comfortable, and well lined/warm. It comes in a variety of colors, but since I try to wear as many bright colors as I can throughout the whole year, I was drawn to this bright blue hue. My boots were my one Nordstrom Anniversary Sale purchase from this year's sale! I like how they have a slight Western feel to them. 

     
     Okay- let's chat Gift Guides! These have become synonymous with fashion and lifestyle blogs during the holiday season. I have nothing against Gift Guides. I actually love reading them on other blogs and discovering new items that I might not have previously been on my radar. I've done them myself for the past several years on Southern Belle in Training.

     As much as I enjoy reading others' Gift Guides, with each year that goes by I find that I enjoy making them myself less and less. While it's fun to think of items to feature in Gift Guides, they are very time consuming to make as compared to other blog posts. It can take a really long time to find the correct affiliate links for everything featured, not to mention making the collages. Last year I was starting to get pretty frazzled with putting these together, but at least I had a good amount of free time since it was 2020 and not much was going on. This year, I have so much less free time. Life has gone a lot more back to normal, and I'm also busier than ever with being new in Virginia Beach and trying to soak up my first holiday season here. 

    One thing that I've been really trying to focus on for the past couple years is keeping blogging very fun. This isn't my full-time job, and I have enough stress to deal with at work that I don't ever want blogging to start to feel like a chore. This is supposed to be my fun and creative outlet! As I was thinking about holiday blog posts for this year, it really hit me that Gift Guides aren't fun for me to put together. Once that realization hit me, I honestly felt pretty happy about deciding to cut them from this year's blog content!

    Since I won't be doing Gift Guides this year, I wanted to instead highlight a few bloggers who I think do an excellent job with theirs! I love the community over competition mantra, so I'm thrilled to share these ladies with you. For the record- I love their blogs at all times of the year too, not just for holiday gift ideas!


Bloggers to follow for great Gift Guides:
  • Thrifty Pineapple - Angela's personal style is pretty similar to mine overall, so if you like my taste and the brands/stores I shop at, you'll love Angela. She does some of the most detailed and jam packed Gift Guides that I've seen, with lots of affordable items mixed in.
  • Chronicles of Frivolity - For years, Katey has been one of my top three favorite style bloggers (if not my most favorite!). I always look forward to seeing her picks, and since Katey is a mom she's also a great resource for unique baby and kid gifts. Her guides do tend to be at a slightly higher price point, but they can be great inspiration.
  • Summer Wind - If you're looking for timeless classic and preppy style, look no further than Sydney's annual guides! I've followed Sydney for years, but have really gotten into her blog in the past year especially. I've already been impressed with the guides she's done so far.
  • Brighton the Day - Brighton is another style blogger who I have followed for years! She always does a variety of very specific Gift Guides with unique themes that you might not always see on other blogs (faith related, co-worker, etc). 
  • Carolina Charm - I just love Christina's blog! Her guides feature tons of affordable Amazon finds, and also a lot of great kid gift ideas. 

     Something I also realized is that a lot of the items from my 2020 Gift Guides are still in stock! Even though these are from last year, you might still find some inspiration from these:
     Happy shopping!!





     God Bless,


     xoxo Annaliese







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1 comment

  1. Ooooh, what a fun post! Thanks for the recommendations!

    xo,
    Britt
    www.basicbritt.com

    ReplyDelete

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