Nine shelves of small presents, sorted by budget, by who gets them and by what fits in a stocking
Tiny gifts and mini gifts
Presents small enough to post in a padded envelope and cheap enough to buy twenty-four of. Sorted by what you want to spend, who is getting it and how many of them there are.
Picked first
Eight presents from across the nine shelves, in the order they leave the shop.
Lip balm
4.8 · 121.5K ratings
$10.48
Pocket token
4.8 · 6K ratings
$6.49
Keyring
4.6 · 7.5K ratings
$22.99
Plush
4.8 · 102.8K ratings
$15.00
Pen
4.6 · 16.4K ratings
$5.99
Pocket light
4.6 · 50.6K ratings
$9.99
Bracelet
4.5 · 6.5K ratings
$6.99
Candle
4.6 · 8.7K ratings
$20.99
Small treat
4.8 · 88.7K ratings
$8.54
Soap
4.5 · 87.7K ratings
$20.94
Dollhouse mini
4.6 · 4.2K ratings
$9.99
Keyring
4.7 · 7.2K ratings
$7.98
Plush
4.6 · 7.1K ratings
$14.39
Pen
4.7 · 12.6K ratings
$9.99
Fidget
4.6 · 23.7K ratings
$7.99
Necklace
4.6 · 5.9K ratings
$20.99
Candle
4.7 · 5.4K ratings
$17.99
Boxed set
4.6 · 29K ratings
$21.99
Grooming mini
4.8 · 74.8K ratings
$7.99
Figurine
4.9 · 4K ratings
$8.99
Tool keyring
4.6 · 5.1K ratings
$3.89
Plush keyring
4.8 · 4.4K ratings
$19.95
Pen
4.5 · 8.6K ratings
$11.99
Pocket light
4.7 · 20.8K ratings
$39.99
Every one of these is in the Tiny Gifts pick list, and the nine shelves below hold the rest.
Who is it for
The same keyring is a thank-you for a teacher, a favor in a party bag and a stocking filler for a nine-year-old. These pages sort the shelves by which of the three you are doing.
The three shelves this question almost always lands on, and the one measurement that separates a present she wears from one she puts in a drawer.
329 presentsKeyrings, card tools and pocket pieces, sorted by whether they go in a coat, a suitcase or a drawer.
134 presentsParty bags, class sets and stocking toes, with the size printed so you can decide the age rather than guess it.
281 presentsThe two purchases this page holds: one present for one colleague, and forty of the same thing for a floor.
191 presentsSomething small at the end of a term, chosen so it does not become the fourteenth mug on the shelf.
118 presentsThe presents on this page are mostly bought in twos, and that changes what to look for.
69 presentsThe nine shelves
Something to use up, something to keep, something to wear, something already in a box. That is the fork, and it is the only one you can answer before you know the person.
Something to use up
85 presents · from $3.69Something to keep
85 presents · from $1.76Something that goes with them
85 presents · from $2.00Something to hold
85 presents · from $4.99Something to write on
85 presents · from $2.69Something that does a job
85 presents · from $2.90Something to wear
84 presents · from $3.49Something for an evening
85 presents · from $5.99Something already wrapped
85 presents · from $4.79Nine shelves, and the Tiny Gifts approach is the same on all of them: the widest measurement, the pack count and the price per piece on every card.
The measurement that decides it
A stocking toe is about the size of a plum. A party bag is a fist. A padded envelope is a quarter of an inch of clearance. Those three measurements throw out more presents than any budget does.
Anything wider than two inches across sits at the top of the stocking and makes it bulge. Lip balm, a keyring and a resin animal go in the toe; a boxed set of six candles does not.
Under five ounces and flat enough to slide, and a present posts for the price of a card. Over that and the postage costs more than the thing inside it.
Twenty-four children means twenty-four of the same thing, and that is how half of what stands here comes to be counted in dozens and priced by the box rather than the piece.
A small object and a child under three are the one combination this shop takes seriously. Where a present is small enough to swallow, the page says so instead of leaving you to work it out.
Those four figures decide what reaches the Tiny Gifts list and what stays off it, whatever a search calls a mini gift.
Asked for by name
Each of these is a phrase people type in full, and each has a page behind it with the presents that answer it.
The question people arrive with most often, and it lands on three shelves: plated chains that have to survive a shower, hand creams sized for a handbag rather than a dressing table, and candle tins that burn for six evenings instead of promising sixty.
Presents for children are bought by the table rather than by the person, so almost everything here arrives in a box of ten, twenty or thirty. The number that decides it is the one under the price: eighty cents a child, or thirty.
An office present has to survive being looked at by everybody, which rules out most of what a search returns. What is left is two purchases: a box of tokens with cards for a floor, or one desk piece that has to still be funny in June.
Nothing here is sold one at a time. Every price divides into a price per person, and that third figure is what decides between two boxes that look identical in a photograph: forty cents a head buys a token with a card, two dollars buys a proper present.
A stocking narrows to a toe, and the thing that goes in the toe has to be about the size of a plum. That one shape throws out more presents than any budget does, and it is what this page is sorted by.
Before you order
None of them takes a minute, and each one is a mistake somebody makes every December.
A photograph of one keyring is often a box of thirty. The price under it is the price of the box, and the price per person is the number that decides.
Mini means one thing on a notebook and another on a candle. Two and a half inches is a back pocket; four is a handbag.
A lip balm ends. A resin frog does not. Buying for somebody with a full shelf, pick the one that runs out.
Anything that lights up runs on a coin cell, and the compartment should need a tool or two hands to open. Test it the day it arrives.
If the present is going in the post, flat and light beats clever. A tin survives a letterbox in July; a glass jar and a chocolate bar do not.
A pack sold as a party favor can still be too small for the youngest child at the table. The pages here print the size so you can decide.
Who is behind the shelves
Small presents get bought in a hurry and given in front of somebody. That is a harder job than it sounds, and it is the only job this shop does.
Every present on this site had to clear three things before it reached a shelf: a photograph that shows what comes in the parcel, a price that makes sense next to the count, and a size printed somewhere other than the marketing line. A surprising number of small presents fail the third one.
What that leaves is nine shelves of things that fit in a hand: something to use up, something to keep, something to wear and something already boxed. No shelf here holds a mug, a hoodie or a candle the size of a fire extinguisher, however often a search calls those a mini gift.
Longer reads
Four pieces on the arithmetic: what a stocking holds, what two dollars a head buys for a classroom, what survives the post, and how to give something small to somebody who has everything.
A stocking is a narrow bag that tapers to a toe, and the toe is what decides. That one shape throws out more presents than any budget does, and nobody checks it until the thing will not go in.
Twenty-four children, one budget and one evening to get it done. Here is where the money goes, and which of the counted boxes are worth their price per piece.
Under five ounces and flat enough to slide is the difference between a stamp and a parcel. Wax, glass and chocolate are the difference between a present and an apology.
The problem is not money. It is shelf space, and a present that needs some is a present that costs the person something.
Written by the Tiny Gifts catalog out of the shelves themselves: the counts, the measurements and the sums that go with them.
Questions people ask
Six of them. Longer answers live on the shelf pages and on the guides.
Every buying button on this site opens the present you were looking at, in the pack size shown, at our retail partner. That is where the payment and the delivery happen, and where the price you see is the price you pay.
The wide button at the foot opens the whole catalog at once, which is quicker when you are still deciding between two shelves.
Small enough to close a hand around. In practice that means under about four inches at the widest point, and most of the catalog is between one and three.
Where a measurement exists in the product data it is printed on the card, because "mini" means one thing on a notebook and another on a candle.
For the whole pack, always. Half of this catalog is sold by the box, and a photograph of one keyring is often a box of thirty.
Where a pack has four pieces or more, the price per piece is worked out and printed underneath, because that is the figure that decides between two boxes that look identical.
That is what the bulk pages are for. The counted boxes run from twenty pieces to a hundred, and the cheapest of them work out under a dollar a child.
For a class set, pick a pack where every piece is identical. Assorted colors photograph better and start an argument at the back of the room.
Most of the catalog goes in a padded envelope: under five ounces and flat enough to slide is the practical test, and keyrings, balms, tokens and pocket notebooks all pass it.
What does not travel well is glass and chocolate in summer. The candle tins survive a hot letterbox; a glass jar does not.
We print the size and let you decide, because you know the child and we do not. The measurement on the card is a fact; the age on the packet is the maker's opinion, and the two are not the same thing.
The federal small-parts ban covers products intended for children under three, and most of a trinket shelf sits outside it: a keyring sold to an adult is not a toy in the eyes of that rule. The pages that touch this name the agency and link to what it says.
A small present is a small object, and small objects are what a child under three puts in their mouth. The federal small-parts ban is written about products intended for children under three, and most of a trinket shelf is not that: a keyring, a charm or a desk piece is sold to an adult and falls outside it. The age printed on a package is the maker's own, and neither the rule nor the package knows the child in your house. Look at the piece before it goes in a stocking, and keep anything that would fit whole in a small mouth away from a crawling baby, a toddler and a dog.
Every price, every pack count
Every size, price and pack count in the Tiny Gifts lineup sits behind this button, with the figures from our last update against each one.
Burt's Bees classics gift tin, six pieces
Mini plush animals, 32-piece set
Scented candle tins, eight in a box
Heart initial necklace, gold plated