It's About Time
Inexpensive Holiday Gift Ideas
The holidays are about showing appreciation to your family and friends. It is also a great time to show gratitude to those who give you support throughout the year such as teachers, postal staff or sanitation workers. The best thing about this time of the year is that you can show appreciation by giving a gift you and a young person enjoyed making together. Here are ten gift ideas that are fun, easy and inexpensive to make.
Cookie Basket
Who doesn’t love fresh baked cookies? Sit down with the young person in your life and select your favorite cookie recipes. Use a cookie cutter to create holiday shaped cookies. Don’t forget to decorate each cookie by using icing or sprinkles. Next, use ribbon to decorate your basket and you are ready to deliver your creations to your neighbors and friends.
Average cost: $7 per basket
Create your Own Ornaments
Add a personal touch to a Christmas tree by creating beautiful handmade ornaments. It is easy! Mix ½ cup of sugar, with a tablespoon of glitter and two (2) teaspoons of water. Place the mixture into a cookie cutter, leaving a hole at the top to run yarn through the center of the hole. Let it dry overnight. After the mixture hardens, remove the ornament from the cookie cutter and place the yarn through the hole.
Average cost: $8 for six ornaments
Christmas Performance CD
If your neighborhood or child’s school hosts a holiday concert or play, why not film it and give the DVD of the performance to your neighbors or your child’s teachers as gifts. The young person in your life can assist by filming the performances and packaging the DVDs. Be sure to notify event organizers prior to filming.
Average cost: $15 for 10 DVDs
Plant a Tree in Someone’s Name
Why wait until Arbor Day to plant a tree in someone’s name? Give a ‘green’ gift this year. You will improve the environment and leave a lasting memory. To plant a tree, contact organizations such as Tree Givers. They will assist you in planting a tree in your desired neighborhood.
Average cost: $24.95
Create Wordle Art
Show someone how you feel about them by creating Wordle Art and framing it. Get together with the kids and select words best describing the gift recipient. Place the words in the online template. Voilà! You have art. The Web site automatically and amazingly arranges the words, emphasizing words that appear more often in their system. You can also create your own design using the online tools. You can print or save your creation and use it as you wish.
Average cost: $5 (frame only)
Calendar
Designing beautiful calendars is a great project for the entire family. Whether you decide to design a yearly or monthly calendar, you can customize it to include pictures and dates that are important to your gift recipient. Here are a few great sites for creating stunning calendars: Keep and Share, My Calendar Maker and FedEx Kinko’s.
Average cost: $20
Movie Night Kit
A great gift for families is a movie night kit. Fill a basket with your gift recipient’s favorite candy, microwave popcorn and one or two movies. You can also include gift cards to a local video rental store.
Average cost: $30
Framed Children Artwork
Share your kids’ artistic talent by getting them to draw pictures on craft paper and framing it. It is easy and fun to do.
Average cost: $5
Coupon Book
Develop a coupon book and give it to your closest friends and relatives. Customize it by giving a coupon redeemable for things such as “A Day of Peace and Quiet,” “A Movie Night” or whatever you want. Involve a young person by having him or her develop and design the coupons. If you rather use a template, check out sites such as DLTK’s Growing Together or Kodak’s coupon book.
Average cost: $10
