The holiday season is upon us yet again. It’s the season to be merry and jolly. The only time in the year where festive lights are put all over home. The season for drinking eggnog, hanging mistletoes and playing Santa Claus. Christmas is the biggest holiday celebrated in most parts of the world. Christmas means family gathering together, singing and listening to Christmas carols and gift giving. Giving and receiving gifts is the best part of Christmas. Giving gifts to family members is easy. The tricky part is giving gifts to those who are going abroad to volunteer, backpack, work and study. This is because they will need something that is small enough to fit in their bags, and useful to use while they are abroad. Here are a couple of gift ideas to give someone who is going to volunteer abroad;

Backpacks

Every long term traveler needs a backpack. Volunteers who are abroad will require a good backpack for their journey to the country and to the project location.  A backpack should be comfy, stylish enough, and very sturdy. Other backpack qualities are roomy, ergonomic, air conditioned, well padded, water resistant, should have laptop ports, sound ports, and a waist strap. The well known backpack brands are Eagle Creek, Karrimor, Macpac, The North Face, Osprey, and White Mountain. Cheap backpacks are normally faulty and won’t do any good. The average price of a backpack goes for between $ 150 and $ 200.

Travel Shoes and socks

The volunteers will need a good pair of shoes and socks during their work abroad. The right pair of shoes will carry the volunteer further, faster and safer. The pair of shoes should have the following qualities: they should be comfy, durable, waterproof, not too heavy, good treads, lace hooks and soft soles. Apart from shoes the volunteer should have a pair of flip flops for going to the shower, bathrooms and hot days. A long with a good pair of shoes, they need good quality pairs of socks. The socks should be warm, cushy, cool and comfy. Popular shoe brands are Asolo, Danner, Garmont, and Merrel. The price of shoes varies greatly depending on various attributes and brands.

Hand Held devices

These are great for travelling, especially during long flights, layovers and idle moments. These are also great for those hours doing nothing. There are many devices that are available to buy for example iPod, iPad, gaming devices (PSP, Nintendo DS), mp3 players, and kindles. When choosing the best device to buy consider: the battery life; the storage space, practicality and price. The price of the device depends on brand, memory storage space, quality and popularity.

Books

Books are perfect gifts for travelers. The best books will be the ones that deal with travel for example guidebooks, language books or fictional novels that will inspire the volunteer during their work. Apart from inspiration and education they could also be for entertainment. When choosing a book to buy, get a book that the volunteer loves to read. Example of books that could be bought are: Lonely planet guidebooks, the gap year book, the complete guide to the gap year, How to Live Your Dream of Volunteering Abroad, and Green Volunteers: The World Guide to Voluntary Work in Nature Conservation. These books can be easily gotten from Amazon and EBay.

Cameras

Every volunteer wants to document their journey and their adventure through photographs and videos. Getting a good camera that would last the period of their work and is of high quality. Good cameras should have: a good megapixel count, image quality, shutter speed, great LCD screens, ergonomic and style. The most common brands are cannons, Sony, Samsung, Nikkon and Kodak. The price varies with the brand and a number of other factors.