Creative Inexpensive Family Gift Ideas

I make fudge every year and give it as a gift. People love it and its easy to make. If you are interested in the recipe send me a personal message.

We pretty much eliminated all adult gifts but throughout the year I take a photo of the grands with their kids and grandkids (candids) and put it in an inexpensive frame. Last year I saved folgers small plastic coffee cans (red and green). They are on sale at Walgreens all the time and the Folger's web site makes labels you can print with holiday designs and nametags that fit. Then I made caramel and traditional chex mix. Not expensive, and appreciated as a treat.

In the non-food category I like:

homemade note cards (this is a great gift from kids - have them draw a pic, you ink it over, photocopy onto cardstock and fold into note cards. package with envelopes in bunches of 10 or 12. always useful, plus a great way to have a "record" of your kid's drawing for posterity). We did this as kids from about age 4-15. They make great gifts for teachers, extended family, etc. plus i think it's fun to look at how my art skills and subject interests changed over the years.

candles - i'm doing this w/ my 3 1/2 yo son right now. we took some old 1 pint wide-mouth mason jars (could do w/ 1 cup jars too) and tore up tissue paper and glued on the outside w/ watered-down glue. Then we will pour wax in to make a candle.

homemade xmas tree ornaments - we have done this for the past couple years too - head over to a craft store and get some to paint/decorate. they end up being cheap but fun, if you like doing that sort of thing.

For the food items, I generally send either christmas cookies, homemade fudge, homemade toffee (betty crocker has a great recipe that has nuts and is chocolate-covered) or peanut brittle, or homemade granola.

we also have a large family. one year I printed blank calendars off my computer, I printed family pictures and cut out everyone's head then glued them onto their birthday. All year long everyone knew when it was someone's birthday. I also put a theme appropriate sticker on each page. (hearts for Feb, flowers for May, etc). They were a big hit!

This year I am making a Spaghetti basket for my brother. I bought the pasta and sauce on sale for a $1 each. I am going to include breadsticks and buy a pasta strainer from the Dollar Store. You could also make a pizza kit for around $5. Google gifts in a jar and you will get tons of recipes. Make candy pizza and ask your local pizza place for pizza boxes and include a note that says "Thank-you for being a piece of my life." Make Snowman soup and included some homemade cookies and cheap coofee mugs. Go on Chex cereal website. They have tons of recipes. I love that you want to do something for all the wonderful family in your life. Have a beautiful holiday!

How do you feel about giving $5 Starbucks cards (most everyone likes them) or going to a fair trade/craft fair and buying some small but useful and/or pretty items (e.g. embroidered luggage tags, a small hand-made purse, decorative mirror, etc?) I do a lot of my shopping at a fairly-traded gift table our church offers before Christmas. You could google "MayaWorks" -- that's the name of the organization where the gifts come from. I like to give these gift because they are appreciated by people who get them, and by buying them, I'm helping the artisans -- usually women in developing countries - support their families.

stop giving gifts!! Seriously we only give presents to the kids that we actually SEE at Christmas. This works great. For those relatives without kids have the kids make something for the aunt/uncle.

One great easy thing to make is a book mark. Put a picture of the child on a bookmark sized paper, have the kid scribble on the paper and write a message to the person. Laminate and there you go, nice, great, easy, cheap and perfect gift for every person on your list. I still have mine from my nephew from 12 yrs ago and I use it still. Lots of relatives still use the one from my daughter 8 yrs ago.

Hi, Celina -

I love to give ornaments as little Christmas gifts. I shop around at different stores collecting, and pass out one or two to friends, relatives or hosts. You can find beautiful ornaments at nice prices at places like Hobby Lobby, Pier One, Kohl's, etc.

I like the jar mix idea, too.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

S.

We make a family mix-CD for our relatives and their kids. My fiancee, son and I pick some of our favorite tunes from the year and burn them onto CDs. My fiancee is a designer, so he makes a cool cover for them and a song list, just like a regular cd. It's very personal and always inspires family anecdotes about why we picked a certain song or what we were doing when we all heard it, etc. My son has also done this as a birthday party favor and it is always a HUGE hit.

Adding to the brainstorm:
So my brother-in-law already has done the personalized photo calendars and picture mugs for the last two years featuring his family to the rest of us. I wanted to also do some kind of personalized picture thing featuring our kids but without repeating what his family has already done (do we all really need another set of picture mugs?). In brainstorming, I thought about personalized picture bookmarks since the adults on my husband's side are avid readers and personalized photo puzzle for the grandparents since they are always doing a puzzle. We're hoping to get a nice picture of our kids and the grandparents over Thanksgiving. I'm still figuring out how to actually creating these items instead of buying them from an on-line photo store.

Hi Celina,
You should try the catalog called Oriental Trading, it is filled with alot of great items and ideas.

Happy Holidays!

you could fix the sand art cookie mix in a jar with a cute, decorative fabric covering the lid. there are also recipes that you layer in the jars for soups etc. this might be a nice "family" type gift. You could also pick up some nice glass ornaments at hobby lobby or michaels and embellish them with extra ribbons, floral pieces, glue and glitter. this would make each one unique.

Check out Borders or Barnes & Noble's discount book tables/sections. I recently saw one of those books that has the recipes for making those hot chocolate, cookie mix, etc. jars...Gift in a Jar, I think they're called and it was under $10. I'd suggest checking out a dollar store and Michael's craft store for the containers, cards, and ribbon, etc.

You could wrap a nice bottle of salad dressing. Nordstrom has some in their cafe that are delicious and would look very cute packaged. They are only $5 each and you can get gift sets that come 3 in a package - maybe it's cheaper that way (not sure).

hi! - how about some cute cookie cutters tied onto a bag of homemade cookies? i just bought some homemade scarves at a craft festival for $5... you could also go to jo-ann fabrics and pick up something in their craft aisle and paint it.. like the letters of their last name.... we just received a homemade sign that said 'The Deegans Established June 4 2004' (which was our wedding date - very cute... ) GOOD LUCK!

Hi Celina Try going to a Family Dollar or Dollar Tree in your area because you aren't going to find anything for five dollar worth anything at any other store. I the Dollar Tree they had plenty of nice things.

hit up your local Dollar Tree....that place has everything. you could make a small basket with a pretty holiday candle, small serving platter and two glass wine glasses for 5 dollars!

just decorate the basket with a festive ribbon.

Hi Celine,
Holidays approach quickly, and todays economy makes thing very difficult. I have a website that is offering up to 80% off of PartyLite favorites. This might help. It is www.partylite.biz/raquelscandles Let me know if you have any questions. My no. is on the website. It is called an after Thanksgiving cyber sale 4 days only.!! Nov27-30. Be sure to shope early for the best selection! oVER 200 ITEMS WILL BE AVAILABLE.
R.

I loved the idea of the family calendar. its great to have that to refer to throughout the year.

If you do make mixed CD's, keep in mind that some of your family members may not like the fact that they have been given pirated music. I gave a mixed CD to a friend of mine when we were in HS, and the friend got very upset and gave me a stern lecture about copyrights and piracy.

Last year I made my family CD's of traditional holiday music that we all love with custom made CD covers. They loved them. I also had a small basket of mini sized lotions, bubble bath and lip balm I purchased from AVON for .89 or .99 for folks to grab one as they left our holiday gathering. Everyone is aware of tough times and there was not one complaint or grumble.