So how do you get through the holiday season without having to scrimp for the next six months to pay for your generosity — and without feeling that you've short-changed someone on your gift list?
Well, for starters, make a manageable gift list — and check it twice.
Don't feel obligated to pick up something for everyone who provides you with a service. Check with your children's school. Teachers may prefer a donation to a food bank, for example, instead of yet another coffee mug. Your letter carrier — assuming that you still have one — may be carrying enough weight around at Christmas without adding more to his load. You'll have to decide for yourself whether overlooking your hairdresser will mean a hatchet job on your next cut.
Once you've decided on your list, there are several ways to check names off, without breaking the bank.
Some families have established rules for gift giving — such as a cast-in-stone dollar limit. Gifts could fall into one of these categories:
- A service to the recipient, such as a car wash.
- A donation to a charity or cause the recipient cares about.
- A purchase from a non-profit organization that uses the money for its projects.
- Something homemade.
There are many thoughtful yet inexpensive ways to give.
For families
One of the easiest ways to keep costs down when the entire family gets together is to draw names. Everyone buys one gift — and spends a pre-set amount. Turn gift opening into a production, so the fun's not over in the wink of an eye.
Start a "Secret Santa" exercise. Everyone is asked to bring a gift under $10. Put your names in a hat and draw the names to determine the order people open presents. Each person is allowed to select a gift from the pile or to take a gift from one of the people who have already selected.
Grandparents live out of town? Bet they'd love to catch up on some family pictures. You are reading this online, so it's safe to assume you're wired and probably have access to a CD burner. There are several tools you can use to make some pretty fancy slideshows.
Can't synch pictures and music? How about using the pictures to make a personalized calendar. Surely grandma and grandpa have room on the fridge for a different picture of their favourite grandkid every month.
Wait, there's more:
- Make an audio or videotape for someone who yearns to hear from you.
- For children, get an inexpensive large box with a lid and decorate it. Go to used clothing stores and sales and collect some dress-up clothes (wedding dress, overalls, hats, shoes, jewelry). It might not blink, flash or make a lot of noise, but it might spark a child's imagination.
- Put together a craft box for young children with wool, felt, googly eyes, clothes pegs, pipe cleaners, beads, etc.
- Buy a small wooden box and decorate it with the child's name and fill the box with unique coins or anything the child might collect. It can be their keepsake box.
- For teenagers, put together a gift bag with travel-size samples of toiletries and small-denomination gift certificates for video stores, movie theatres or fast-food restaurants (they're going to eat there anyway).
If you're stuck, remember: kids love to play with empty boxes and wrapping on Christmas morning.
For everyone
- Fill an envelope or small box with handmade "gift-certificates" redeemable for a home-cooked meal, pet sitting, babysitting or other activity or service. This can be a particularly rewarding gift for couples.
- Make a remembrance book. Fill journals or scrapbooks with memories of your family or friends and include photos of special moments.
- Everybody rave about your cooking? Share your favourite recipes — especially with someone who's on their own for the first time, or a couple establishing a home together. This could make a cherished gift — someday — for your children.
- Buy a nice mug from your local dollar store or second-hand shop and fill it with goodies such as nuts, a person's favourite tea or sweets.
- Make your own "of the month club." Give someone the gift of cookies of the month, candy of the month, movie rental of the month etc.
- Get a large plain cloth bag and decorate it with acrylic paints so the person can use it as a shopping bag.
- Head for a second-hand store and buy the first edition of a favourite book or an old picture of a favourite place.
- Buy plain wood frames at a craft store and paint or decorate with shells or stones, or decoupage with newspaper or magazine clippings.
- Personalize refrigerator magnets: cut a favourite picture down to a manageable size, put it in a clear plastic frame and paste a magnet on the back. Magnets can be bought at craft and dollar stores.
- Promise to teach a new skill to someone. For example, teach an older person computer skills or a child how to ride a bike.
- If you have a car, take someone who doesn't have one to a place they'd like to go.
- Consider a food basket/box/tin. Fill up the container with ingredients you can get in the grocery store. For example, for an Asian basket, put in rice vinegar, fresh ginger root, several kinds of noodles and other spices, and include a recipe, or put together a basket with one interesting recipe (maybe your favourite cookie or pasta recipe) and add the ingredients.
- Magazine subscriptions: periodicals always have Christmas specials. Give someone a subscription to a magazine connected to their interests.
- If you know a single parent, offer to take his or her children shopping, or to babysit while he or she shops.
Make it yourself:
- Buy an inexpensive T-shirt at a craft store and decorate it with bright acrylic craft paint.
- Take old shirts (ones with interesting designs or maybe a sports team/university name) and make them into pillows. Sew together the neck and sleeves, stuff it with foam and sew up the bottom. Great for cottages, the car and recreation rooms.
- Buy plastic spoons, preferably in festive colours. Dip them in chocolate (melted chocolate chips work well) and shake off the excess. Place them on wax paper and sprinkle with crushed peppermint candy. After they dry, wrap them in cellophane and tie with a ribbon. Put a few spoons in a coffee mug along with some individual hot cocoa.
- Make a candle in a teacup. Buy a second-hand teacup from a garage sale or second-hand shop, melt down leftover candle wax, add some oil or scents and pour into the cup. Insert a wick from the craft store.
- Make photo ornaments. Take colour copies of pictures, decoupage onto tagboard by brushing the back with white glue, apply to tagboard, then brush a coat of glue over the top of the copy to seal. The white glue will dry clear. Now glue ribbon, garland, or other "accessories" to your ornament along the edges, add a ribbon loop for hanging. You could also use this method with images from gift wrap or printed from the internet (as long as there are no copyright issues).
- Cookies. who doesn't love cookies?
As well, there are a number of other homemade treats you can make. Here are a few recipes:
Candy Cane Bath Salts
2 cups (500 ml) Epsom salts
1/2 cup (125 ml) sea salt
4-6 drops peppermint oil
2-3 drops red food colouring
Place one cup of epsom salts and half of the sea salt in a bowl or resealable plastic bag. Add 2-3 drops peppermint oil. Mix the remaining ingredients in a second bowl and add the colouring. Layer the red and white salts in a clear bottle or jar. Half-litre water bottles work well. Tie with a ribbon and some small candy canes.
Potpourri sachets
Make a nice-smelling sachet from a piece of fabric with a ribbon to tie it. Fill it with rose petals and cotton balls dipped in vanilla powder, or cinnamon sticks with orange peels and cloves, lemon thyme and lemon verbena leaves, or lavender flowers.
Bath bags
Use rose petals, lemon verbena leaves, lavender flowers, rosemary, thyme or other fragrant herbs and a few drops of essential oil (lavender, rose, lemon). In small muslin bags, place a spoonful of oatmeal on the bottom and then two spoonfuls of your selected herb mixture. Tie with a fancy ribbon. The bath bag can also be used as a washcloth. Each bag is good for one bath.
And there's more
Second-hand shops — like the Salvation Army and St. Vincent de Paul stores — can sometimes turn up some great buys. You never know when you'll come across something that someone else no longer had a use for, but could be the perfect gift for someone on your list — like a favourite board game or a toy from a long-faded childhood.
There are several websites that are dedicated to the notion of living frugally — and not just during the holiday season.
Here are a few of them:
- Favorville.com: a site where people can exchange favours with each other.
- RedFlagDeals.com: bills itself as Canada's largest bargain shopping community.
- The Freecycle Network: a nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns.
