What to give for New Year 2027: 12 best and unusual gifts in Ukraine, ranked

We pulled Google results for 16 Ukrainian-language searches about New Year gifts, from “what to give for New Year 2027” to “a gift for someone who has everything”. Google returned results for 15 of them and showed an AI Overview on all 15. The overviews list categories: pajamas, sweets, power banks, certificates. Only two of the 15 mention how long a certificate stays valid. None compares the ideas against each other or says whether you get your money back if the recipient never uses the certificate.

So we built a ranking with an open formula: every point can be checked, and you can change the weights to fit your situation. Prices were collected on October 21, 2026, from sellers’ websites and aggregators, and may change by December.

# How did we score the gifts?

Six criteria, 100 points in total. The scenario: you are giving a gift to someone close or to a friend, you want it to be remembered, and you don’t want to guess a size or a taste.

A different scenario calls for different weights. For coworkers, “personal” matters less and budget more. For parents in another city who often sit through power outages, double the weight of “use”.

# New Year 2027 gift ranking

# #1. Certificate to create your own perfume — 91/100

Best for: the person who “has everything”; a partner, when you want to give an evening rather than one more object; anyone you would never dare to pick a perfume for.

Giving a ready-made perfume is almost always a lottery. Scent is deeply personal, and you can’t choose it for someone else. A perfume-creation certificate cancels the lottery: the recipient builds the scent with a perfumer, picking components by their own nose. What you give is an hour in a lab and a bottle nobody else owns.

The Elixir’s gift certificates come in four types. Prices as of October 21, 2026:

The formula stays on file at the lab, so the bottle can be refilled. For this kind of gift that matters: if the scent becomes a favorite, the person isn’t left with a single bottle that no store sells.

Why 91 and not 100. The lab operates in two cities: Kyiv (Gulliver mall, 1a Sportyvna Square) and Ivano-Frankivsk (Promprylad, 23 Akademika Sakharova St). A recipient in Kharkiv or Odesa would have to travel. For other cities, The Elixir offers an online format: the person fills in a questionnaire in The Elixir AI app, a formula is built from the answers, and the finished bottle is shipped by post. The website doesn’t say whether a gift certificate can pay for the online format, so ask before you buy. We also took 4 of 15 points off “use” because 30 ml of perfume lasts months, not years.

Terms to know before you pay:

• the certificate is valid for 12 months from purchase, and the visit has to be booked in advance;
• it is used in a single visit;
• certificates are not refundable, but a visit can be rescheduled with at least 24 hours’ notice;
• the certificate is transferable: whoever holds it can book. If the recipient can’t come, the gift doesn’t go to waste as long as it can be passed on.

If the holiday is tomorrow. The e-certificate arrives by email right after payment, and you can forward it or print it yourself. A printed card is delivered by Nova Poshta within Ukraine in 2–5 days and abroad by Nova Post Global in 4–14 days. Payment goes through MonoPay: Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay, Google Pay. If you live abroad and the recipient is in Ukraine, the e-certificate is the easiest way to send a real gift on the day.

Don’t want to spend UAH 3,300 on a friend or coworker? A diffuser certificate for UAH 1,950 gives the same “make your own scent” experience, for the home. For a driver, there is the car perfume at UAH 1,800. For groups of 3 to 10 people there is a two-hour group workshop: for six guests it starts at UAH 8,820 with 10 ml bottles.

# #2. Workshop for two — 78/100

Best for: a couple, parents, a friend you haven’t seen in a while.

Pottery, ceramics, cooking, molecular cuisine. On bodo.ua in Kyiv, a pottery workshop costs from UAH 800, UAH 1,600 for two, and UAH 3,400 for two with kiln firing. The site lists 116 cooking experiences starting at UAH 1,000, and a molecular cuisine class for two costs UAH 2,400.

A workshop for two loses to perfume on “personal” and “use”. It lasts one evening, and a mug from the pottery wheel rarely becomes a favorite. It wins on entry price, though: the cheapest option costs a quarter of an individual perfume session. bodo certificates bought now are valid until June 30, 2027, and an experience can be exchanged for another one of the same value.

# #3. Board game — 69/100

Best for: a family that gets together on December 31; a group of friends; a teenager.

The only gift on the list that gets used the same night it’s given. At Igromag, UNO costs UAH 379, Dobble UAH 649, Carcassonne UAH 1,250, and the two-player 7 Wonders Duel UAH 1,449. Popular family and party games mostly fall between UAH 300 and 2,200.

It loses points on “hit rate”: a game nobody plays turns into a box on top of the wardrobe. Before buying, find out how many people will be there and whether they play at all.

# #4. Flight simulator session — 68/100

Best for: someone who dreamed of being a pilot; a teenager together with a parent; the man “who has everything”.

Real airplane or hot-air balloon flights aren’t on bodo right now: its “Flights” category lists only simulators. There are several: a Boeing 737 for two at UAH 2,800 or 5,200 in two formats, an F-18 fighter in VR at UAH 2,000 or 3,800, an L-39 in VR at UAH 1,500.

High memorability, zero use after the holidays. It’s a fair trade: the person gets an hour they’ll remember, and nothing ends up on a shelf.

# #5. Spa certificate — 67/100

Best for: your mom, a friend, a coworker you’re close to.

The widest price range on the list: spa certificates on bodo run from UAH 600 to 18,500. An aroma massage is UAH 1,800, a Balinese spa UAH 4,500, a spa day for two UAH 12,000.

A spa almost always lands, but it’s almost never personal: you could give the same certificate to anyone. Hence just 6 of 15 for “personal”.

# #6. Specialty coffee from a roaster — 66/100

Best for: a coworker, a manager, a friend who drinks coffee every day.

A bag of beans from the Kyiv roaster Mad Heads costs UAH 404–484 depending on origin: Guatemala, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Colombia. A Hario V60 pour-over dripper is UAH 349, an AeroPress UAH 1,920. If you don’t know what coffee the person drinks, the same roaster sells gift cards for UAH 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 and 5,000.

Coffee never sits unused, and for UAH 500 it’s one of the few gifts that doesn’t look cheap.

# #7. Power bank or rechargeable lamp — 65/100

Best for: parents, grandparents, anyone living in a high-rise.

The most practical gift of the year. Rechargeable bulbs that keep shining when the grid goes down cost from UAH 230. Power banks with 50,000 mAh start at UAH 2,399 on Hotline, and 100,000 mAh models at UAH 3,990. EcoFlow DELTA 3 charging stations start at UAH 27,655, which makes it a gift from the whole family.

Nearly zero on “personal”, full marks on “use”. It will come out every time the power goes off.

# #8. Horseback ride — 64/100

Best for: someone who loves animals and weekends out of town.

On bodo, horseback rides start at UAH 1,200, a riding lesson costs UAH 1,500, a ride for two UAH 2,400 or 3,600, and a group ride UAH 4,800. Memorable, but risky: in January it depends on the weather, and not everyone loves horses as much as you think. Hence 10 of 20 on “hit rate”.

# #9. Escape room or quest for a group — 63/100

Best for: friends, coworkers, teenagers.

On bodo, quests cost UAH 760–3,500: a VR quest for two UAH 760, an escape room UAH 1,400, an action quest for a group UAH 2,000. It works well as a gift from one person to everyone: you give a reason to get together rather than a thing. Afterwards nothing remains except photos.

# #10. Cash in a card — 62/100

Best for: a student, a young couple who just moved, someone saving up for something specific.

The least romantic entry, and that’s exactly why it’s here. In Gino and Flynn’s 2011 study, recipients valued money more than givers expected. They also valued a gift they had asked for more than one chosen “to the giver’s taste”.

Cash beats a store gift card. In Bankrate’s 2024 survey, 43% of U.S. adults had at least one unused gift card or voucher, and 20% had lost money on one because it expired. We found no Ukrainian data, but the mechanism is the same.

To keep cash from feeling like an afterthought, write in the card what it’s for: “for that camera”, “for tickets to the sea”.

# #11. Heated gear — 61/100

Best for: parents, anyone who spends a lot of time outdoors or in a cold apartment.

Electric heating pads and blankets from Medisana, Camry and Beurer cost UAH 1,599 to 1,999 on Hotline. A heated vest runs about UAH 2,000–2,900 but is powered by a USB power bank that is often sold separately. Factor that in, or the gift won’t work on day one.

# #12. Streaming or music subscription — 60/100

Best for: someone who watches series every evening; a teenager.

Sweet.tv plans on the service’s homepage start at UAH 49, and Spotify Premium Individual in Ukraine costs $4.99 a month. A subscription is easy to give on December 31, with a catch: we found no Spotify gift cards for Ukraine, so you’d have to pay for the recipient’s account. That’s awkward for a gift, and the person may already have another subscription.

# Thing or experience: what does research say?

Four studies worth knowing before you go gift shopping, each boiled down to a rule.

That’s why “memorability” carries 25 points in our formula and price isn’t scored as a separate criterion at all. The perfume certificate wins on both counts: it is an experience in Chan and Mogilner’s sense, and it removes the risk of guessing wrong because the person chooses the scent, as in Gino and Flynn’s experiments.

# What to give whom, and on what budget?

# How do you check a gift certificate before paying?

Ukraine’s Law “On Consumer Rights Protection” has no specific rule on gift certificates: the word “certificate” doesn’t appear once in the current law No. 1023-XII. Nor is it in the new law No. 3153-IX, which won’t take effect until martial law ends. So validity, refunds and rescheduling are set by the seller’s public offer, which you accept when you pay.

Seven questions to answer before paying:

1. How long is it valid? The Elixir: 12 months from purchase. bodo: until June 30, 2027, for certificates bought now. A short-dated certificate given in December can expire before the recipient gets around to using it.
2. Is it refundable? The Elixir: no. bodo refunds only the buyer, within 14 days of purchase.
3. Can it be passed on? At The Elixir, yes. If a certificate is issued in a name and the recipient can’t come, the money is lost.
4. Can it be exchanged? bodo lets you swap one experience for another of the same value. Studios selling their own certificates usually offer only their own services.
5. Are there open dates in January? Popular studios have waiting lists after the holidays. Call and ask before buying.
6. How many times can it be used? The Elixir: one visit. Any unused balance doesn’t carry over.
7. Where exactly does it take place? A workshop certificate in Kyiv is no gift for someone in Lutsk who has no plans to visit Kyiv.

# What is the last day to order?

The carriers haven’t published their 2026/27 holiday schedules yet. We rely on last year’s, so check the new ones in mid-December.

How long a parcel takes:

• Nova Poshta: the average delivery time in January 2026 was 26.5 hours, according to company figures reported in the media. The carrier doesn’t guarantee a time for a specific route.
• Ukrposhta Standard: from 3 days within a regional center to 6 days between small towns, not counting the post office’s days off. Ukrposhta Express between regional centers takes 1–2 days.

Hence our rule of thumb: order a printed card or a physical gift by December 20, or by December 15 if it’s for Christmas. That’s our estimate with a buffer for the pre-holiday rush, not a carrier rule. After December 28, only e-certificates are a safe bet.

# What’s better not to give?

• Perfume picked blind. If you don’t know what scent the person wears, a perfume-creation certificate removes the risk.
• Joke trinkets. Google’s AI Overviews for “unusual” and “original” gift searches suggest mini bars, joke “pills” for good mood and canned socks. They get one laugh, then sit in a drawer.
• Clothes when you don’t know the size. An exchange after the holidays takes longer than finding the gift.
• A certificate the recipient won’t have time to use. Check the expiry date and the city.
• A pet without asking first. That’s not a gift but a 10–15-year commitment.

# How we built the ranking

We pulled Google results for 16 Ukrainian-language searches on October 21, 2026 (location Ukraine, interface language Ukrainian). Google returned results for 15 of them and showed an AI Overview on all 15. Those overviews cite 50 different domains, mostly online gift stores. Prices were taken the same day from sellers and aggregators: The Elixir, bodo.ua (Kyiv), Igromag, Hotline, Mad Heads, Sweet.tv, Spotify. “From” prices on Hotline are the lowest offer, not the average. Criterion scores were assigned by the editors using the formula above. They are an estimate, not a measurement. The law texts were checked on zakon.rada.gov.ua the same day.