Money is tighter than usual this year. We are all starting to feel the pinch. With the holidays right around the corner, it can be difficult to get in the spirit when all you can think about are the upcoming expenses you really can't afford!
The good news is that we are all in the same boat. Since money is more scarce than usual for everyone, we are all trying to find less expensive ways to have a happy holiday season. It's far less likely this year that anyone will scoff at you for getting more creative in your gift-giving (and who wants to give a gift to people who do that, anyway? Those people deserve coal in their stockings!)
I have assembled some fun, easy ideas for creative gifts that even you can make (yes, I'm talking to you - with the two left thumbs!). I have tried to include gifts that would suit a wide range of recipients and also that your whole family, from kids, to parents to grandparents can get involved in making.
My wish for you this year is that you let the financial crisis work for you rather than against you. Step back from our consumer culture for a month or two and look for ways to spend some quality time with your family and friends. That's really the best gift, after all, isn't it? What better way to spend time together than creating gifts for your loved ones, right?
Here are my ideas for you. Please share your own at the end. I would love to hear them!
Enjoy!
1. "Thank You" Frame
Perfect for: Mom, Wife, The Person Who Always Takes Great Care of You
This is a simple concept, and an easy gift to make, but it is one that will be treasured for years!
First, visit your local dollar or discount store and find an 8x10 frame. Go home and find a great, old photo of you and the recipient. Open Microsoft Word (or your favorite word processing program) and choose a nice looking, readable font. At the top of the page, in large letters, type "Thank you for..." Start a new paragraph. In smaller letters, start typing everything you can thank the recipient for, large and small, from as far back as you can remember through today. Feel free to include inside jokes and humorous memories as well. Once you start typing, you might find it difficult to keep it to just one page! When you have nearly filled the page with text, insert the photo you chose into a corner of the page. Make sure you adjust the photo and text each to a size that allows you to keep everything all on one page. When you feel that the page looks nice, set your printer settings to "best quality" and print your creation on a nice piece of paper. Pop the page into the frame you purchased earlier, and you have a gift that is sure to be treasured for a long time!
2. Hand-Stamped Stationary Set and "Letter of the Week" Club Membership
Perfect for: Mom, Grandparents, Your Friend Who Loves Writing Letters, Loved One Who Lives Far Away
This is a fun and easy gift idea that can be very personalized to the tastes of your recipient. However, you both will soon realize that the real gift is the peak into each other's busy lives that you will be sharing with each other!
To make the gift: First, go to your local craft store or online and choose a rubber stamp that reminds you of your recipient. Perhaps your loved one enjoys the ballet and so you choose a stamp with a picture of a ballerina. Maybe your recipient loves fishing and you find a great stamp with a picture of a fish. You could even find three stamps of the person's initials for creating a monogram. While picking out the stamp, choose a stamp pad in the recipient's favorite color.
Next, you need to decide if you want to buy a package of pre-cut and assembled blank cards from a craft store, or if you want to purchase some cardstock and try your hand at cutting, folding and assembling some cards and envelopes yourself. Once you have a few created (10-12 is a good number to aim for), begin stamping away! Use the stamp on the front of each card and a corner of each envelope so that it is clear they are a set. Once the stamps have dried on each piece, find a coordinating piece of ribbon and tie the whole set together. It will look like you purchased them in a boutique!
Wrap up the gift (consider purchasing a nice pen from a discount store and even throwing in a book of stamps) with a certificate you print off the computer enrolling the recipient into the "(Your name)'s Letter of the Week Club"! Choose 10 minutes one day each week (plug it into your e-mail calendar or phone alarm!) to sit down and write the person a quick letter. Buy or make yourself a set of cards and have a book of stamps on hand so that you never have an excuse not to write! In each letter, share highlights of the previous week and that you are thinking of the person. They will be thrilled with this gift that keeps on giving all year long!
3. Sports themed no-sew tie blanket
Perfect for: Husband, Teens, Sports Fans
These blankets are great! They are so warm and perfect for those chilly winter days ahead. At the same time, any sports fan loves to receive gear that is appropriate and useful for toting around when they are cheering on their favorite team. The best part of this gift is that it is so easy to make and comes out looking great!
To make the blanket: First, you need to buy the fleece material in the theme of your recipient's favorite team. For an adult sized throw blanket, you need 2 yards of one color/pattern of fleece fabric and 2 yards of a complementary color/pattern. Fabric stores do carry professional and college sports team themed fleece material, but I recommend buying through the stores' websites. It can be hit or miss to catch the exact fabric you want in the store, especially if you live in a different part of the country from your recipient. I would recommend checking out Hancock Fabrics, as I have noticed they often have licensed fleece on sale. If you wanted to save even more money, you could simply choose two colors of fleece that are the colors of the team and I'm sure the blanket will be an equally welcomed gift!
Construction of the blanket is easy. Lay the two pieces of fabric on top of one another and smooth them out so that all the sides and corners are pretty matched up between the two pieces of fabric. If you have a large area of floor that you can work on, that would be best. Second best would be a large dining room table or work table. Cut a 4"x 4" square from each corner of the blanket (through both pieces of fabric) and throw out the four (really eight) small pieces of fabric that you just cut out. Now, making sure that the two large pieces of fabric don't shift around at all, make your way down the four sides of the blanket, using a good pair of scissors, cut 4 inch slits, 1 inch apart, around the entire quilt (through both layers at once). When you are done with this step, you will have two large pieces of fabric (still laying on top of one another) with fringe around all four sides of the blanket. Now, start in one corner, tie each piece of fringe together, top layer to bottom layer - I would recommend a tight, or double knot for each piece of fringe. Work your way around the entire blanket. When you reach the spot where you started, you are done! Your recipient will be proud to be able to cheer for his or her team in style!
4. Personalized Coloring Book and Crayons
Perfect for: Kids
This is a fun gift to make and it is always a big hit! Your child's eyes will light up when they open their present and see a book full of their own adventures, ready for them to color! The best part is that it is so easy to create.
First, download a free "photo to sketch" software program such as this one. Then, either scan in your favorite photos of your child or collect your favorite digital shots. With the free version of the photo-to-sketch program, you need to upload the photos to the software one by one. As each photo is converted to a sketch, cut and paste the photo into a Word document. Most coloring books have one large drawing per page, so you should set the sketch to take up an entire sheet of paper. Decide if you want to include a caption at the bottom of each page. Print off all of the pages you have chosen, staple them together, with a piece of cardstock on the top and bottom of the stack, stick a color photo of the recipient on the front, and voila! It's a gift that is sure to be treasured! Pair the coloring book with a pack of fat crayons from your local department store for a complete gift.
5. Dress Up Chest
Perfect for: Kids
This gift is literally a treasure chest and you can make it happen for next to no cost. The first step is probably the most challenging, but you have lots of flexibility. You need to find something that can serve as the "chest" - I suggest visiting the Salvation Army, thrift shops, Craigslist.org, discount department stores, and garage sales (if you live in a less wintery area of the country!). Search for any type of large, sturdy box, with a lid. (I would caution you to be careful that the lid is not too heavy if your recipient has tiny fingers!). Then, feel free to personalize the box to suit the recipient. Use paint, stamps, stickers, glitter - anything that you feel will stir the imagination! Once your box is finished, start by raiding your closet and your halloween storage box - pull out anything that you no longer wear that would be fun for your child to use to dress up in. Get creative! Ideas would be a man's button shirt and a belt to be used as a dress, hats that are no longer in style, worn ladies' high heel shoes, a man's suit coat and tie, etc. If your own closet has been thoroughly combed, a trip back to the thrift store may be in order. Look for things like boas, oversized sunglasses and sparkly necklaces, uniforms and hats traditionally associated with different types of jobs (great finds would be a fireman type hat or an old nurse's uniform). If you are feeling brave, consider throwing in some costume makeup into the dress up chest to help your child with the finishing touches! The dress-up chest is sure to be well loved throughout the years!
6. Photo Calendar
Perfect for: Grandparents, Busy Parents, Teachers, Friends
This is not a new idea, by any means. You may have even given a photo calendar as a gift in the past. The great thing about it, however, is that it is the type of gift that never gets old! Even if you give a photo calendar to the same person every year for the holidays, they will be sure to love each and every one (they won't be exactly surprised after awhile, but they will still love the gift!).
If you have a simple level of familiarity with cutting and pasting photos and tables into Microsoft Word and Excel, you can create a calendar on your own pretty easily. If you need a little assistance, you can join a site like CalendarsQuick ($9.95 for unlimited use throughout the entire year). This site provides the calendars for you and shows you easily where to cut and paste your photos.
If you want to get really creative, you can even include special dates such as birthdays and anniversaries throughout the calendar. You might consider coordinating the photos associated with each month with the special dates that fall within that month.
Once you have created the calendar to your liking, you can print it off your home computer printer. The recipient is sure to enjoy the photos you include throughout the year!
7. Hot Cocoa Basket
Perfect for: Teens, Young Adults, Chocolate Lovers
This is an easy, inexpensive gift that is a wonderful way to give comfort to your loved ones during the chilly winter season.
Start with a basket of any size and style. You might have one around your house that you could use. If not, many discount and dollar stores sell baskets very inexpensively. If you live in the Northeast, the Christmas Tree Shops sell baskets very inexpensively and always have a wide selection. In the same vein, search the holiday sales for a couple of inexpensive coffee mugs that remind you of your recipient. Now it's time to fill your basket with goodies!
The secret to this basket is repackaging the items to give the basket a "boutique" (read: expensive!) feel. Go to the store and purchase the following items: a tin of hot cocoa mix, a bag of mini marshmallows, a package of heavy duty plastic spoons, a package of dipping chocolate, supplies to make your favorite cookies, and plenty of cellophane and ribbon to repackage all of the items (if you can find a package of small cellophane bags, that will be even better!).
If you have cellophane bags, open a few of them and fill them halfway with the hot cocoa mix. Fill each one to the top with mini marshmallows and tie each bag with some ribbon. Now you have several individually sized hot cocoa packets! Melt the chocolate until smooth and, holding each spoon by its handle, one by one, dip several of the spoons into the chocolate until the heads are completely covered by chocolate. At this point, you could add sprinkles for a festive touch, or leave the spoon as it is to cool. Wrap each spoon with cellophane and ribbon. Finally, bake a batch of your favorite cookies and wrap them festively. Arrange all items within the basket. A nice touch to include might be a holiday CD you could find while shopping for your basket and supplies. This time of year, you can often find such CDs for only a few dollars.
8. Tree Ornaments
Perfect for: Everyone!
I have always considered handmade, personalized tree ornaments to be the perfect gift. First, they are never the wrong size. Second, except in very rare cases, even if the ornaments are completely a different style than that of the recipient, the recipient will still use and enjoy the ornaments, since they do not feel they have to display them in their home throughout the year. Additionally, if you find an ornament that you would like to make, it's easy to make several of them at once in that style, and still personalize each one to it's recipient. Finally, as with all of these gifts, handmade items often come with extra care and thought included!
There are countless options for you to consider when choosing a pattern for an ornament, and it really comes down to what you feel like you can do and what you enjoy doing. Should you use wire and beads? Should you paint simple designs on globes? Should you bake cookies and turn them into ornaments? Should you use paper to create something interesting? As you can see, the possibilities are really endless.
Visit the blog "Not Made of Money" for directions to create 23 beautiful ornaments for your tree!
9. Baked Goods
Perfect for: Everyone!
I can't imagine anyone without a smile when receiving their favorite homemade pie, batch of cookies, or fresh loaf of fancy bread!
If you are a novice baker, you will need little more than access to an oven and a trip to the grocery store with your favorite recipe in hand!
You can purchase nice cookie tins, often for less than $1.00 each, at local discount or dollar stores around the holidays.
Once you have your recipe, ingredients and cookie tins in hand, start baking! It might take an afternoon to get through all of your baking, but you are sure to have lots of happy recipients when you hand out the gifts!
10.Family Recipe Book
Perfect for: All Members of Your Family, Especially Young Adults Just Getting Started on their Own
This idea may take a bit more preparation than some of the others on this list, but the preparation, itself, may turn out to be a gift for you that you were not even expecting! Think back to all the major family events you can remember - Thanksgiving? Christmas? Graduation Parties? Birthdays? What were the special foods and dishes that stand out in your mind as a part of those celebrations? Chances are, there are several dishes that are special and meaningful to your family. Start creating a list of all of those favorite family foods.
Next, make some phone calls, and better yet, some visits, especially to the older members of your family to track down the recipes. While you are visiting with each older family member and copying down their recipes, ask them about their earliest memories related to these meals and write down those stories as well. Ask everyone in your family for copies of photos, new and old, of your family over the years at special family events.
Once you have all of this information collected, type it up into a recipe book. You can divide the recipes however you think makes sense (often, they are divided into appetizers, entrees, desserts, etc.). Between the recipes, include the stories and photos that you got from your family members.
Print out several copies of the recipe book in color on nice paper. This is a great gift to give to all of your family members - and one that will be treasured for generations!
How do you hope to get creative in your gift giving this holiday season? Please share your plans - I would love to hear them!
Great ideas Lisa!
I love the one about personalized coloring books! Brilliant!