Gift giving season is coming around once again. The season to be jolly can be fraught with anxiety-ridden shopping sprees trying to find the perfect gifts for your loved ones. You want to surprise them with something they will truly love. Provoke squeals of unbridled delight when the wrapping paper comes off. Avoid awkward smiles while surreptitious fondling said package to see if the gift receipt is still in tact.

Inclusive sex toy store kandid.com and their sexual wellness doctor, Dr Elesha Vooght, have put together reasons why a sex toy is the best most thoughtful gift you can give this Christmas. They are on a mission to remove the stigma surrounding sexual pleasure and make masturbation part of our self-care routines due to the amazing mental and physical health benefits.

1. The gift of better orgasms
Seriously, tell us a better gift?! You’re basically playing god. Remember that rumour about regular masturbation with a vibrator means you can never orgasm from manual stimulation again? This isn’t true. Regular masturbation with a vibrator, especially toys which produce rumbles like The Small One or The Big One from Kandid, can actually improve nerve sensitivity. If you happen to have a clitoris, this tiny powerhouse has 8,000 nerve endings, so imagine what improving that sensation could be like. Regular vibrator use can also lead to higher levels of desire, arousal, wetness and orgasm. It’s essentially a natural way to help kick start your libido, with almost no associated side effects.

2. Rabbits are for life, not just for Christmas

A good quality sex toy is the one present option almost guaranteed to be used again and again, loved, cherished and never ever put in the bin. Unlike many other self-care gifts that will be gone in a few expensive pumps or squirts, this is the gift that keeps on giving.

3. This present will make you happy

Mental health is a key issue for many of us at the moment, with ‘self-care days’ often touted as a way to combat anxiety and depression. Dr Elesha says: Solo-sex is a great way to combat this, especially with a vibrator. Masturbation activates and releases the brain’s store of “happy hormones”. The big players here are dopamine and oxytocin. Dopamine acts to give you a temporary mood boost. Oxytocin reduces levels of cortisol in our blood. For those of you who don’t know, cortisol is the hormone produced by the adrenal glands which is the chemical signal for “stress”. By reducing the levels of cortisol in our blood, we become more relaxed.