By Hayley Eselevsky, Student at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

With the holiday season officially in full swing, it is a fact that nobody wants to be left in the dust come time for Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa and the infamous gift exchanges. Here are some fun and cute gift ideas for your favorite people:

Mom
I am all about making my Mom look hip, so here is a fun idea for a gift for your mom. Coming from the Midwest, it gets COLD here in the winter. So I am all about getting my mom cute scarves for the holiday season. Even if you come from a warm-weather place, thin scarves are always a great accessory. Some of my favorite places to look for scarves are Forever 21, Target, Urban Outfitters and Macy’s. Check out this scarf that I may or may not be getting for my mom this holiday season (hope you’re not reading this, Mom).

Best Friend
When thinking of gifts for your best friend, since most people are similar to their friends, I normally think of gifts that I would love to receive and then get that for my best friend. One of my favorite gifts to give to my best friend(s) is a free mani-pedi on me. No, not a gift card to a local salon, but a trip to the salon with me. This allows me to spend time with my best friend at the salon wile getting our mani-pedis together. This block of time allows us to catch up and gossip. What could be better?

Roommate
This could be a tricky one. Depending on if you are close with your roommate, this could go two ways. First, if you are very close with your roommate, I would recommend you go with the “best friend” gift outlined above. If not, scratch that idea. If you’re not that close, hopefully you can name a musician, actor or any other public figure that they like. I am all about getting a fun and cool poster for my roommate that they can hang up in their room. I am a HUGE Lady Gaga fan, and last year my roommate got me a Lady Gaga poster. It was the best gift ever, and it still hangs in my room today. If you guys are closer than buying just a $10 poster, which my roommate and I were, you can accompany the poster with a CD of their favorite artist, in which my roommate did. My roommate told me that she ordered my poster from AllPosters.com.

Sorority Sister
It is completely unnecessary to get all of your sorority sisters gifts for the holidays, but you can give gifts to your closest friends in the house. One fun idea  is to get each girl a different accessory, such as earrings, necklaces, bracelets, scarves, etc. This way, in getting everyone something different, you can share and swap accessories when trying to spice up a new outfit and getting each person a different accessory makes this easy. Some of my favorite places to buy accessories are, once again, from Target, Urban Outfitters, Forever 21 and Macy’s. Check out this cute necklace from Target for only $15.

[Image from Target.com]