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Teaching your children how to be thoughtful and
caring when buying Christmas gifts should be an important part of Christmas.
It is also important to teach them how to manage their own money during the
holiday season. Be sure to let your kids get involved in Christmas by letting
them make or purchase their own presents, even if they are small or low-cost.
If the children are too young to handle money, encourage them to make gifts
for those they would like to give presents to. Homemade gifts are more personal,
and make for a fun and inexpensive Christmas for the kids.
Creating an Inexpensive Gift Basket
There are a number of things you can do to save
money during the holiday season. Think about making a creative homemade gift
before going out and purchasing a gift. Gift baskets are both fun and easy to
create and can be put together rather inexpensively. Take a picture of
yourself, your family, or your children and put it in an inexpensive frame
and give it as a gift to family members and close friends. You can also add
more practical items to the gift basket, such as cookie mix in a jar, a
disposable camera, a hand-decorated photo album, note cards and a book of
stamps, craft supplies, a movie rental gift certificate, a small radio or
clock, sewing materials, a handy flashlight with batteries, home-made cookie
mix complete with a recipe for baking, home baked bread with the recipe, new
paper and a pen, or a gift certificate to their favorite book or department
store. These inexpensive Christmas gift ideas may actually get used by the
recipient, unlike many more expensive gifts.
Other Money Saving Ideas
An excellent way to save money during the
Christmas season is to spend less on wrapping paper and Christmas cards. If
you own a computer, you can design and print out your Christmas cards on
inexpensive card stock paper. This also allows you to personalize the cards
by adding a personal picture, writing your own sayings, and adding your own
images to them, such as an image of your decorated house. You can even do
this without a computer. Simply glue or tape your images to the card and
write the Christmas message by hand. You may even want to let the kids make
the cards, especially the cards intended for their grandparents.
You can also make your own wrapping paper by
buying less expensive paper such as that used to prepare packages for
mailing. This type of paper can be found anywhere mail supplies are sold. You
can decorate the paper with sponges dipped in craft paints, rubber stamps, or
potatoes cut in half and carved into various Christmas shapes, similar to the
look of a rubber stamp. Immerse the imprint into paint and have a lot of fun
designing your very own wrapping paper. To give your gifts a more antique or
rustic look, you can use a combination of brown wrapping paper and twine
instead of a ribbon. Spending less on cards and wrapping paper will save you
money and allow you to spend more on other great Christmas gift ideas.
Putting Some Thought Into the Gift
Put some thought and imagination into different
gift ideas before you decide to go out and buy a Christmas gift. You will
probably come up with a number of better, more personal gifts, if you do a
little work and make the gift yourself. For a great and invaluable gift,
refinish a cabinet or chest and give it to a family member or close friend.
Think of items people wouldn’t normally buy for
themselves and what their interests are. You can give things like a gift
certificate to the local pet store for the pet lover on your Christmas list.
Give tickets to the movie theater to the movie lover, or a fascinating book
to an avid reader. A few other ideas such as prepaid photo developing
envelopes, a bag of cashews, or a month’s unlimited tanning at a local
tanning salon may also be well appreciated. Most of these gifts, while being
very easy on your budget, will surprise and please the recipient. These are
just a few examples of inexpensive Christmas gifts. Even the fussiest people
can’t pass up on a gift that that is both thoughtful and has a personal
touch. Kids Christmas Activities And Games
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