18 gift memberships to make life easier this holiday season - from Amazon Prime to Thrive Market
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We commonly associate the word "gift" with a neatly wrapped box holding a tangible product inside, but the best gifts can sometimes be more than a piece of jewelry, a phone accessory, or a home tech gadget.
Don't forget about services and memberships as viable gift options. They're just as thoughtful and useful, sometimes even more so, because they tend to be more customizable and centered around convenience.
With the following gifts, you can purchase a gift card with an amount of your choice, or gift the membership directly to your recipient. We found services and memberships you probably didn't think of, like a grocery delivery service and a city-wide studio fitness pass.
Looking for more gift ideas? Check out all of Insider Picks' holiday gift guides for 2018 here.
A designer clothing rental membership
Rent the Runway Unlimited Membership, $159
This disruptive company has made a name for itself by changing the way women dress and approach clothing ownership. Instead of wasting money and letting seldom-worn clothes pile up in their closet, they can rotate through designer clothing for a set price each month. Use it for work, weddings, or just everyday life.
An Amazon Prime membership
Amazon Prime Gift Membership, from $39
If you're tired of your sibling or roommate mooching off your Prime account, give the gift of their very own Prime membership this year. You'll find all the benefits of a membership here, but a few highlights are of course, free two-day shipping, movie and TV streaming through Prime Video, and access to Amazon Fresh.
You can gift a three-month membership for $39, or an annual membership for $119.
The best way to help your parent friends find a good babysitter
UrbanSitter Gift Card, $25-$200
Parents who desperately need a night to themselves but have trouble finding a sitter will surely benefit from using nationwide service UrbanSitter, which is home to over 150,000 trusted babysitters.
A $34.95 one-month access pass (or $99.95 annual membership) allows parents to browse, interview, and book a sitter that meets their needs. The site also gathers mutual connections and recommendations from their community of fellow parents.
An underwear membership that sends them a new pair every month
A membership to this fun online brand sends them a specially priced pair of underwear every month. Its ultra-comfortable underwear usually costs $16 to $24, but the membership brings the price down to $14 to $16. The membership also grants access to exclusive prints and discounts on more comfy apparel like lounge pants and bralettes.
A custom meal-planning service
PlateJoy Gift Membership, from $59
No one ever said meal planning was easy. PlateJoy steps in with personalized meal plans for any course, complete with waste-reducing grocery lists, on-demand advice from personal nutrition coaches, and Fitbit syncing.
For less than $10 a month, it makes everything about making healthy meals — short of actually cooking them — more thoughtful and convenient.
A genetic testing kit and access to billions of family records
Ancestry DNA: Genetic Testing Kit, $79 Ancestry Gift Membership, from $99
The Ancestry DNA test opens up many doors to their past and lets them start building a family tree beyond their expectations. More than a test, it's an interactive experience that draws from a community from more than 10 million users and helps them connect with their DNA matches.
Ancestry offers two different memberships, US Discovery and World Explorer, to help them dive into billions of family records.
A vinyl record membership
Vinyl Me, Please Gift Membership, from $99
Every person's vinyl collection is deeply personal, so instead of trying to guess their taste, let them choose the record themselves. Each month, they'll choose and receive one LP, pressed exclusively for Vinyl Me, Please, from a collection of Essentials, Classics, and Rap & Hip Hop.
The three-month gift membership includes one bonus record, while the six- and 12-month ones include two bonus records.
A convenient grocery delivery service
FreshDirect Gift Card, $20-$250
FreshDirect delivers fresh groceries, from pantry staples to gourmet treats, to their door, letting them bypass all the struggles of shopping in real life. We know from experience that its produce quality is excellent, and its delivery slots are frequent and affordable.
If your recipient gets the $129 annual DeliveryPass membership (unlimited free deliveries, time slot reservations, and exclusive perks), they'll also enjoy unlimited free deliveries from FreshDirect's sister service FoodKick.
A personal interior design plan
Modsy Gift Membership, from $59
Shopping the furniture and decor for a completely empty room sounds pretty terrifying to us, which is why we entrusted the design process to the experts at Modsy and came away impressed.
Give a Modsy gift card and they'll get 3D-rendered design plans created by designers who always see fresh potential in rooms of all types. The designs come with links that they can shop directly.
A membership to a popular outdoor store
Whether their activity of choice is camping, cycling, or skiing, they can find the gear, resources, and inspiration to get outside at REI.
A $20 REI membership quickly pays for itself, with benefits like 10% back on eligible purchases, members-only discounts, and special pricing on outdoor classes and events. Best of all, once they become a member, they're a member for life.
A wine club membership
Join the club — the Winc wine club, that is. Wine enthusiasts love receiving the four bottles of wine geared toward their specific tastes and preferences every month. Through Winc, which makes its own wine and also sources from winemakers around the world, they get to discover new wines to add to their list of favorites.
A different wine club membership that sends smaller portions of wine
Vinebox Twelve Nights of Wine, $129
Give your recipient a taste of another wine club, Vinebox, with this limited-supply, adult spin on the advent calendar. They can celebrate the days leading up to Christmas with special, holiday-edition reds and whites, and hopefully, be one of 10 lucky people to pull out a golden bottle that wins them a year's supply of wine.
A regular Vinebox membership works like this: Every season, receive a box of nine 10 cl glasses of wine. Members also receive credits to purchase the full-sized versions.
A personalized travel planning service
While planning a vacation or trip to a new city is undoubtedly exciting, it's also confusing and stressful. Where do you begin, how do you know which places aren't just tourist traps, and how should you arrange each day's activities?
The expert travel concierges at Journy take care of it all for your recipient after they take a short questionnaire. The standard travel plan ($25 per day of travel) includes up to two rounds of revisions to make their trip perfect and hotel booking assistance. For an additional $25 per day, Journy will book activities, tours, and restaurants for them, plus provide in-destination support.
An online market that saves them money on organic groceries and personal care products
Thrive Market Membership, $59.95
Natural and organic products have a reputation for being really expensive. By selling them for 25% to 50% off traditional prices, Thrive Market and its curated collection of brands is better for the body and the wallet. Membership is the perfect gift for anyone who loves incorporating chia into everything or beats herself up when she forgets to take her probiotic supplements.
A membership that lets them visit tons of fitness studios for less
ClassPass Gift Card, choose your amount
Cool studio fitness classes like candlelit yoga and kickboxing convincingly show participants that exercise can be fun. Forking over $20 per 45-minute class is the more painful part. A ClassPass membership lets them try out different classes in their city for less so they can leave behind the treadmill for real.
Access to all the ebooks and audiobooks they could ever want
Encourage their reading habit with a Scribd membership, which offers hundreds of thousands of ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, and newspapers on their phone or tablet. Insider Picks reporter and member since 2015 Mara Leighton calls it one of her favorite services, an especially noteworthy honor when memberships can often seem like intimidating commitments.
Recently, Scribd announced a joint subscription with The New York Times for anyone who also wants their daily news fix.
A personal styling service
Trunk Club Gift Card, choose your amount
Personal styling service Trunk Club is more involved than others such as Stitch Fix because customers actually chat with the stylist online to determine the contents of each trunk. This experience does mean they're more likely to be happy with the clothing, and the service's association with Nordstrom brings additional perks like complimentary alterations.
It only sends clothes within their chosen budget, and each trunk has a $25 styling fee that's credited toward any purchases.
Unlimited online classes on a large variety of topics
Skillshare Premium Membership, from $36
Skillshare is home to thousands of online classes covering creative, business, and technology skills. They can use it to learn a new creative hobby, start a side hustle, or equip themselves with the skills needed to move to the next level in their career. The flexible nature of online learning and the accompanying apps also mean they can learn anytime, anywhere.