9 Holiday Items To Splurge On, Settle For or Skip at Costco

Will you agree with all of our choices for holiday items to splurge on, settle for or skip at Costco? Some might make sense to readers and their budgets while others are more on the controversial side. (If you’re not sold on stuffed yetis yet, you might be after reading.)

GOBankingRates carefully examined Costco’s holiday inventory and selected nine items worth spending a little more money on, settling for and skipping — with plenty of solid reasons to back up our arguments.

See whether you agree or have already started shopping for these nine holiday buys at Costco.

• Price: $39.99

The Yeti plush family set is a splurge with an added savings incentive. Now through Nov. 27, Costco members receive $10 off their purchases.

Deal aside, what really sold us on this trio were all the positive reviews from Costco shoppers. Five-star reviews highlighted the size of the yeti plush, quality of the material used and how sturdy and well-made they are for reuse in later seasons. Some shoppers even said they planned to keep their yetis out year round at home.

• Price: $109.99

If you’re ready to invest in a high quality China set for the holidays, the Mikasa tartan red bone China dinnerware set needs to be on your shopping radar.

This 24-piece set includes eight dinner plates, eight salad plates and eight all-purpose bowls. Available online only, we were also impressed by all the five-star reviews praising how their sets arrived in perfect condition thanks to careful packaging.

• Price: $37.99

Instead of buying cheap wrapping paper this year to save money, splurge on Kirkland Signature double-sided gift wrap. 

A wide variety of designs is available for each six-roll package. Per roll, shoppers receive 90 square feet — which comes out to a total of 540 square feet of wrapping paper. That’s more than enough gift wrap to use this holiday season and into future holidays.

• Price: $29.99

Be careful if you decide to buy the Mina Victory loop holiday pillow. Several Costco shoppers are warning that its loops pull and snag easily.

Heidi wrote in a one-star review: “[The] pillow loop design is easily pulled and hard to fix. Just unpacking the cover and putting in the insert, a loop pulled itself tight and I can’t get it back through the fabric. A guest leaned against one, sat up and a loop was pulled. They are cute if you aren’t going to let anyone touch them.”

• Price: $29.99

There’s nothing wrong with this 18-piece set of glass ornaments, but we did find this three-star comment from MissusT to be potentially telling of the quality and escalating price of the ornaments sold this year:

“I’ve been buying the set of 18 glass ornaments for each of the last four years. This year’s version is just not as impressive as the previous years. They’re still glass, still a nice dimension and they’re still decorated. But where the previous ornaments were a higher class of decorations, on par with Balsam Hill’s ornaments, these are a bit of a step down. I think my disappointment is solely because the previous years were just so impressive, and so these are more ‘meh.’ I bought two sets of the red/green ones and the red is more of a burgundy red. And if I’m not mistaken, this year’s version is $5 more per box.”

• Price: $72.75

Costco members who have tons of holiday cards, letters and small packages to mail out will get plenty of use out of this 100-count set of USPS first-class holiday Forever stamps. 

However, if you don’t send nearly as much snail mail during the holidays, be forewarned that whatever mail you send in the year to come likely will use up all of these holiday stamps.

• Price: $129.99

The price tag for this 7-foot LED lamp post is not the only reason Costco members should skip buying it this year. 

Several Costco shoppers left comments complaining about the assembly required for it, ranging from a lack of written instructions to misaligned holes for the wing nuts.

• Price: $44.99

It’s usually a good idea to buy holiday greeting cards in bulk, right? This might be true only in scenarios where shoppers can see every card’s design in a bulk package. 

Several one-star reviews from shoppers complained about the poor card quality and lack of holiday cards. One reviewer wrote that in the package of 40 cards for all occasions, they found just 10 holiday-specific cards.

• Price: $48.99

We aren’t entirely sold on the live North Star table top tree, even though it has close to 500 five-star reviews. 

At nearly $50, it feels like a lot of money to spend on such a small (22 inches) holiday decoration. Consider picking up a small fake tree of similar size at Walmart or Five Below and pocketing the leftover money for other holiday essentials.

Editor’s note: Pricing and availability may vary depending on location.