September is looming and if you've got a new student counting down the days until they fly the nest for halls of residence, you'll know the shopping list by now: bedding, a mini fridge, a lifetime supply of pasta. However, we think there's one gift that isn't on that list, but should be...
A small photo album filled with photos of family and friends is a lovely thing to pack them off with, safe in the knowledge it'll provide a little taste of home when they need it. Here's why:
Why is a Photo Album a Good Gift for a Student?
While most gifts for new students are about their room, a small, personalised photo album is about the person. As such, it keeps its place on a shelf (or under a pillow) long after the fairy lights and dog-eared posters have gone up and come back down again.
It's not sentimental for the sake of it. Freshers' week is a genuinely disorienting experience in a new city with new flatmates and no-one who's known you longer than four days. A handful of well-chosen photographs - family, friends, the dog, last summer, the school leavers' do - is a quiet reminder that home hasn't gone anywhere and is just a train ride away.
Don't feel your album needs to be curated within an inch of its life. Twenty to thirty photos is plenty. The point is to create something they can flick through in five minutes on a homesick Tuesday in November.
Why is a Small Album a Good Choice for a Gift?
You don't need a coffee-table album when you're squashed into a shared kitchen and a single bed. Instead, a mini personalised photo album is deliberately compact - it's small enough to tuck into a desk drawer or a suitcase pocket, and is perfectly sized for a shelf that's already fighting for space with textbooks and instant noodles.
What's more, a huge, heavy album can tip into "this is a big, momentous goodbye," which can add to emotions that are already running high. In contrast, a small one treats their leaving home a bit more lightly.
Is it Worth Personalising an Album?
For many people, the bit that turns an album into something they'll genuinely keep forever is the personalisation with a meaningful phrase, a name or initials hot-foiled onto the cover. What's more a personalised gift tends to get kept - the fact that you went to that trouble means that album stays with them through house moves, graduation and into the world beyond.
However, if you've got a teenager who would find the idea of a personalised message totally cringe, we make perfectly plain small albums too.
When is the Best Time to Give a New Student a Gift?
Two windows work well and they do slightly different jobs:
- Before they leave - as part of the send-off, alongside the practical stuff. They receive their album when they're packing, which means it goes in the suitcase rather than getting left on a shelf at home.
- In the first care package - a few weeks in, once the novelty of independence has worn off slightly and the first pang of homesickness has landed. Arriving unannounced in a parcel of biscuits and clean socks, a really thoughtful, personal gift means the world.
Finally...
Granted, a small photo album filled with personal photos isn't trying to compete with a new duvet cover or an Ikea drying rack. But we guarantee it's the one thing your new student will still have - and still look at - long after the mini fridge you bought them has been sold on for £15 at the end of term!