That is a great gift idea @fredrikaa! Love the idea of gifting Steem for Christmas!
I was thinking of doing something similar by creating business cards to give out with Steemit's brief info and how to create an account, and mention my steemit account that the new user would have to send a message to to receive their $5 worth of Steem from as an extra bonus from me. I think these kinds of initiatives do go a long way in bringing new people on board.
Also, the point about fiat on-ramps for Steemit is very needed for the Steemit ecosystem, as many new steemians are very new to crypto and do not know how to navigate through the fiat crypto on-ramps safely. Steem should become an additional fiat on-ramp in the crypto ecosystem, and we also need it to be trading on more exchanges.