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Beating the Christmas Shopping Mania
I hope everyone had a wonderful Turkey Day. Now that it’s officially the ‘holiday season’ I got started on my holiday projects over the weekend. We have 5 wonderful nieces who need toys like Bill Gates needs a handout. Between their parents and very doting grandparents, they have overflowing play rooms, and really don’t remember half the toys they already have.  Five years ago, I came up with the idea of making Christmas ornaments for them each year. (Back then there were three of them, now there’re five… good thing everyone’s done having kids, or the ornaments might have to be paper snowflakes in the name of saving time). Anyway, this year I bought sheets of foam (one large brown sheet, and a packet of about 50 smaller, multi-colored sheets). Hobby Lobby has a 40% off any one item coupon that you can print out whenever you want, so I used that and got the package of foam for $2.40. I also bought double-sided adhesive sheets for $2 for a package of 3. I spent about 3 hours cutting gingerbread girls out of the brown foam, and cutting clothes for them from the colored foam. I stuck everything together with the adhesive sheets, added faces with fabric paint I already had, and stitched on embroidery floss hair. I wrote the girls’ names on the backs, and viola! Five unique ornaments, for a total of about $2, since I still have tons of foam and adhesive left over (great for scrapbooking and cardmaking!).Â
We’ve been sending the nieces ornaments for five years now, and I plan to continue the tradition. When they leave home, they’ll each have a box of personalized, handmade ornaments to take along, rather than a bunch of outgrown, forgotten toys. And since I love crafty stuff and saving money, it works great for us too.Â
That’s really nice…it’s one of the most frugal things I have seen people do.
I think such personalized gifts serve the “gift-giving” purpose much better than the ready-made gaudy stuff.
November 27th, 2006 at 4:05 pm
[...] I went to Hobby Lobby this weekend and bought two packages of blank ivory note cards and envelopes. They were 50% off, so I got 80 cards for $8.88 - worth stocking up, since I make cards all year for birthdays. We chose about 15 scenery pics that we liked best from Hawaii, and I ordered copies of them for 12 cents each. I use spray adhesive to stick them to the cards (I learned after I stuck newspaper to our hardwood floors that this is best done outside or in the garage…). It’s a pretty easy project, and the results are awesome. I tie them up with pretty string in stacks of about 10 cards, and give them to friends and family. It’s amazing how many people comment on how we should sell them at craft fairs, or tell us about how they’re so pretty that they just hang them up in their house instead of sending them out. Seriously, we get better feedback about the cards than just about any gift we’ve ever given. And they cost $2.30 for a stack of 10. Pretty sweet. Between that and our handmade ornaments for our nieces, we probably won’t even notice holiday expenses in our budget. [...]
November 27th, 2006 at 5:12 pm
[...] Overall, we had a great Christmas season. We only got gifts for three people: my husband’s parents, and one friend that I work with at the library. My husband’s parents always send us a big box full of presents, and I do enjoy finding something they’ll like. This year, I had pictures of their grandkids printed on a mousepad (for him) and a tote bag (for her). They turned out super cute, and I know they’ll both get used. For my friend at the library, I got a carved wooden plate when we were in Hawaii, and I also made her a set of notecards using pictures I took in Hawaii. I also made ornaments for our five nieces, as I do every year. For everyone else, we spent time rather than buying gifts. None of our friends or family really need any more stuff. But we could all do with spending more time together. So over the last few weeks, we’ve had a dinner out with my best friend and her husband (who are in the hospital today in labor with their first baby!!), dinner with another couple my husband has known since college, two parties where we’ve been able to see lots of friends at once, and a wine/cheese/game night with another couple. For each of these events, I’ve baked or cooked something to take along, and the atmosphere was festive all around. Now that everything is winding down, we’re grateful to have had time to spend with our friends (some of whom we only see a few times a year). I’ll take that over material gifts any day. [...]
December 27th, 2006 at 10:27 pm