Need Christmas Gift Ideas for Families Out of State

Blockbuster gift card, a package or 2 of microwave popcorm and some candy for a family movie night. I have also sent a big container of hot chocolate and a bag of marshmellows tied together with some holiday ribbon. Sam's has a huge container of hot chocolate mix that we love. The brand is Stephens.

Jen D.-Frisco

Make a gift basket with a certain theme such as a movie basket. Fill it with packaged pop corn, candy, a movie or two, hot chocolate and marshmallows and wrap it in holiday saran wrap.

Hope this helps.

What about personalized gifts, blankets, towels, ornaments, I have a website, however it needs to be updated...but feel free to look at it... www.nanapuddins.com. We do custom orders and can ship it to you if needed.

J. T.

Hi... I have several gift box options for out of town gifts... check out my website and I would love to create some custom gift boxes filled with your choice of items/theme and to fit your budget...give me a call or email

A. J
www.celebritypartyfavors.com

Do a movie night or game night in a bag. Get each family a movie/game that you know they would like, a box of microwave popcorn, some candy, and if you don't have to mail the gift, a two liter or 6-pack of soda. It's fun, it's cheap and everyone will love it.

Target has so much stuff that has free shipping.

Hello Shelia,

Go to amazon.com and type: christmas gift ideas
they have so many things that you may find something there or it might give you an idea of what you want to do. Good luck! ~C.~

What about family gifts. Board games, or movies for each family. You could even do a movie basket with a big bowl for popcorn, put some mirowave popcorn bags in there, put some candy in there, and a movie. Also remember that if you purchase something online, you can have the present shipped directly to the people and even have it gift wrapped. That might be worth it if they live out of town.

A mail order basket that has a variety of stuff in it for the whole family, and the mail order place will send it direct is one option. Another is box up a family game, movie, popcorn, hot chocolate etc. and mail it to the (family) and not have to try and get something individual may work. I had a great aunt that never could come for Christmas, and she filled a box with a bunch of silly stuff that we got a laugh out of for the whole family. Not knowing your family, it is hard to say what would work.

Send a calendar with pictures of your family for each month. Walmart.com, Walgreens.com, and Shutterfly all have this option and it is inexpensive and very personal. It's a big hit with grandparents.

I agree with the photo calendar idea. That's what I do for all of our out of state relatives. I use snapfish, but pretty much anywhere will do it. The thing about snapfish is, if you and your relatives share photos throughout the year, you can use some of their photos too! I personally like to utilize the photos on specific dates. Each person's bday has a photo of them on their day. It's a nice way to think of everyone throughout the year and the family has come to look forward to getting them each year! Good luck, and happy holidays!

A photo calendar ($5 or less at any printing place) + a note that asks how they're doing... or depending on the relationship, a brief recipe book of things y'all share or craft recipes for small kids - etc.

I'd preface this with a phone call suggesting that y'all not do big presents - if you usually do - given the state of the economy, that way everyone can take a big breath... everyone I've heard lately is worried about looking 'cheap' if they don't spend enough on - kids gifts, cousins gifts, babysitters, teachers... I'm giving my kids one big present (less than $50), and several dollar store presents to give esp. the little ones something to unwrap, everyone else is getting a picture, some cookies / candy that I make, and a Merry Christmas. With 4 children, including socks and underwear that will be in the filler and their big presents and their teachers I will be spending less than $200 this Christmas.

I'm more concerned about being broke than looking cheap.

Hi Shiela~
With the economy these days it's important to send gifts that are really needed and used but also something that will WOW the recipient. Please take a minute to checkout this website
tastefullysimple.com/web/cbywater
There are gifts for all budgets and you can be proud to give them because they are beautifully packaged. Every product is 100% satisfaction guaranteed and the best thing is that every product only requires 1 or 2 ingredients to make delicious foods, or they are open & serve like sauces & chips. My husband made the very popular beer bread last night and it literally took 25 seconds to prepare. And the website has may recipes ideas to stretch your food budget.
Best of luck to you and have a great holiday season.

Do a photo books of your family so your family can see how/what your family did this year and see how much your little guy has changed. If you need help with this or more explanation, e-mail me.

Pampered Chef has lots of gift ideas and as long as orders are finalized by the 15th, guaranteed RedEx delivery by the 24th. Check out the website and online catalog at www.pamperedchef.com. I would be happy to help you place an order, pm me if I can help!
Happy Holidays

Have you thought about Avon? We have everything to offer from jewelry, clothes, handbags, fragrance, and much more!!! Check out my website www.youravon.com/suzannewebb

Free Shipping Code: FSANY

Just an idea - Walmart site to store makes it affordable if they pick it up and wrap it for you. Also - check with your shipping companies like FedEx and see if they are comparative to the post office - they track every step of the way and insure up to $100.

If you are from Texas - maybe some good Texas items would be fun - a gift of wine, or food basket usually wins over. :)

Good luck and Merry Christmas!

Have you heard of Scentsy the Wickless Candles? It's a great gift for a family. Deadline is Dec. 15th for guaranteed delivery! Check out my website at www.scentsy.com/dfw

There is something about Texas... I have actually found that Texas orientated gifts are great for people out of state. Western themed, Dallas Cowboys themed, etc.

movie passes/gift card for their local theater. goto: www.movies.com and type in their zip code and see if they have the same theaters we do.... and then send a family pack gift card for movies and snacks.... or get a few popcorn tubs and fill w/ movie size candy (walmart has them in the candy section)and get blockbuster gift card for a family night...maybe even board games.

The nicest family portrait you can afford to send. Framed for those special person's in your life. And if your 20 month old can "design" the mattes with .... hmmm .... finger paints? - well all the better.

:)

I also do popcorn factory so they have family night at home movies and popcorn! Kansas City Steaks are good, Priesters Pecans, Beef Jerky, Fruit. All online and fun

Ship them a smoked Greenberg turkey (www.gobblegobble.com) So delicious-what could be better than not having to cook?

2 ideas... The Children's Art Project from MD Anderson is a great charity to support... you are helping kids with cancer. The kids produce artwork that is transferred to Christmas ornaments and various items-- they start at $5. Just go to the webisite and order... they'll ship it.

Also, you can get Christmas cards from the Arbor Day foundation. They are $5.95 each, and inscripted in the card is that "a tree has been planted in your honor". These trees are replentishing the rain forests and helping the environment, so it is a great gift!!

Those are the cheapest, best gifts I have found.

I always order a nice hickory farms basket with meats/cheeses/crackers etc for my grandparents in North Carolina. They love it and often have it out when family there comes over for the holidays.

For the past 8 years I have had to buy gifts for my parents, my husbands parents, and many other family members across the country. The hands down best was a graeters icecream variety pack. You can purchase this at graeters.com.
Whatever you decide to do it is generally cheaper and easier to just order on line and have it shipped than to purchase here and mail yourself. If the graeters proves to be too expensive, harryanddavid.com has really nice gift baskets of many different prices. Their pears are awesome! One of the best gifts I have ever gotten.

I have used Swiss Colony Catalogs to send breakfast for Christmas Morning, and when my sister-in-laws family lived in Michigan and couldn't get certain spices and pinto beans we would send what we call a care package of those things. Hope this has helped.

No ideas really...just encouraging you to do it online so that its mailed directly to them or if you purchase it here to just get a gift card you can mail with a christmas card. I was shocked last year when I mailed stuff and had to spend an extra $15 a box to send them off. It adds up!

Hi there:

I just bought some Nap socks for family out of state at Brookstone. They are selling for 2 for $30; however, there are three pairs of socks in each package. The family that I bought them for live in Minnesota so the fuzzy socks should keep each of them warm during the winter months.

What about a gift card to a restaurant so the whole family can go out to eat-maybe $20-25 a piece.

I also like Omaha Steaks - I get it for my dad cause he doesn't need anything :) Some of the online food things are great. Depending on your budget, there are "... of the month" clubs where you can give a gift that keeps on giving throughout the year - monthly, quarterly, etc. Just google "of the month clubs" and a bunch will come up - amazingclubs.com has a bbq of the month for example :)

Good luck!

Get someone to take your families picture, a neighbor or friend or you can go to Target or a photographer. You could do a Christmas picture with the tree in it or a regular picture, then get it developed. I would give them a "family" picture in a nice frame This would cost maybe $10-$15 or more if you want to do a bigger picture and frame. If you keep it a 4x6 or 3x5 those are the smaller pictures and frame you could get at a dollar store or Wal-Mart or Target.

Not sure what your limit is on spending per family? I know there is shipping cost as well. Gift card would be the cheapest, cause you could send that in an envelope. How about a Movie Gift card for $15-$20? That would help on a night out at the movies. You may have to do some research to find out what movie theaters are in the town they live in. You could also go with Arby's, McDonald's or other fast food restaurants. If they Putt-Putt, you could do a Putt-Putt gift card.

Do you cook? You could make or buy candy. I'm making pretzels and dipping them in chocolate and putting sprinkles on the chocolate and wrapping them up to give to church SS Teachers and Preschool Teachers. This is something that you could do that is easy, and not expensive. Or you could go to a specialty local chocolate shop and get a few things there too.

All my relatives are out of state. What I did for my brothers this year is buy local barbeque sauce-jars from the grocery store, queso sauce and local salsa. This is all made in Texas. I bubble wrapped it all and my Mom is putting them in baskets when the box arrives.

Central Market is neat and unique. They have handmade soaps, you could get a few bars and wrap them up and they have some that are made in Texas. I did this with my cousin this year.

Hope this helps! Merry Christmas!

YOu may want to check out www.personalcreations.com. They have some really neat personalized gift ideas. They have a wide range of costs and I believe they even gift wrap.

My family lives in CA so I know about the out of state thing. What I have started to do is send a ham (I get them from Honey Baked hams and have them shipped directly). It's a great gift and on Christmas they feel like I am there having dinner with them.

B.

Since I miss my family so much I always make them a puzzle. I make it large enough to send each person a few pieces of it. My daughter and I write messages an draw pictures all over a shaped puzzle like a heart. Then we take crazy scissors and cut it up. I then divide the pieces by the number of people in my family and put the pieces in seperate envelopes with their names - one per envelope. Sometimes I even send instructions - makes it more like I am there. IE: partnering people up, etc. Then they all have to get together and put the puzzle together and call me when there done. Last year I sent the envelopes to whom evers house they were in to make sure they saw each other LOL. Merry Christmas!

christmas ornaments with a gift card

Make a gift basket and personalize it with things from Texas like Texas magnets, salsas, soup mixes/dips, kitchen towels with peppers on them, or anything Texas-like.

there's a great holiday art sale today w/ a huge variety of gifts........

2417 Custer Cove, Richardson (Off Custer between Campbell and Renner.)