They Cost Very Little and Mean So Much: The Best Gifts No One Bought
December 18, 2025
- Author
- Mary Elizabeth DeAngelis
Dinners and dog walkers after a baby’s birth.
A loaf of warm sourdough bread and a “thinking of you” card after a mother’s death.
Two young sisters’ coupon for an argument-free 48 hours.
A scrap book compiled by a childhood bestie.
An unexpected compliment from an admired acquaintance.
We asked the Davidson College community to share stories of such gifts. And while their stories varied, one thing didn’t: It was the thought — and love and caring — that counted most.
These gifts brought smiles, laughter, and in some cases, the kind of tears shed when you experience genuine kindness during an extremely hard time.
If you’re still looking for last minute presents, we hope you’ll find inspiration here.
For Annie Porges, a bookmark made 20 years ago by her then eight-year-old daughter, Elia Ramirez, who graduated from Davidson in 2019, holds special status. It reminds Porges, senior associate director of major gifts at Davidson, how a tiny token of love endures.
“It is a gift I have treasured all of these years,” Porges said. “The happy faces on the angel and snowman still move me.”
For Katie Germana, chief human resources officer at Davidson, the gift came in the form of a beloved canine, Godfrey. They’ve been together since 2014, when she rescued him from a shelter.
The first day Germana met her dog, Godfrey, as a rescue
Godfrey in 2025
Yancy Fouché, the college’s director of sustainability, always looks forward to the annual arrival of a former coworker’s special holiday cookies, mailed from hundreds of miles away. The old family recipes offer another sweet source of sustenance, a friendship sustained.
Susan Cooke, who works in donor relations at Davidson, received an especially meaningful gift after the hardest year of her life. Her mom died suddenly in September of 2012. A week later, her husband, Dick, then the college’s head baseball coach, was seriously injured when a speeding drunk driver crashed into his van on I-77. His recovery was long and painful, but Susan “pretty much kept it together,” for him and their daughters.
The next September, near the anniversary of both events, a young colleague came to work bearing a beautiful note and freshly baked bread. Feeling a year’s worth of emotions well up, Cooke burst into tears.
“This sweet young woman gifted me not only some extremely delicious bread, but the gift of being seen and supported and loved,” Cooke said. “And I will never forget it.”
