Frugal and Creative Christmas (or other) Gifts
For children- the best way to reduce your children's expectations and cases of the 'gimmes' is to turn off the television, or at least the commercials, and take them to the library or the park instead of the mall or toy shop. If they don't know what's out there, they can't yirn for it (yes, yirn is what I meant):
Use magazine or catalog pages (because they are glossy so hold up better) and make a set of paper boats. Make them really small and give them in an old metal tin formerly used to house mints (altoids, usually). Paint the tin or decoupage it if you like.
Use the old metal tins to hold the beads from several pieces of costume jewelry picked up at a thrift shop or yard sale (or from your old stash)- take apart the costume jewelry and give the beads, findings, and a bit of floss or fishing line to a child interested in making her own necklaces or bracelets.
We have found lots of old classic board games and puzzles at the thrift shop. Games are easier to check to be sure they have all the pieces, and you can either take a chance with a puzzle or watch for puzzles that haven't been opened.
A small basket of 'go-together' things from the thrift shop and your own head:
- A couple of matchbox cars, a book about cars, a toy stop sign or house, and a plastic or vinyl placemat upon which you have drawn a few roads.
- A toy shark, a book about sharks, and a framed picture of a shark (you frame it from a picture from an old calendar or a book that the thrift shop tossed in with a batch of other books because it was falling apart), or some viewmaster cards about ocean creatures.
- A 'bedtime basket: two or three bedtime story books, a stuffed animal, and a comfy pair of pajamas made from a pair of sweat pants and a co-ordinating t-shirt.
- A jump rope, a set of jacks, and a book of jump rope rhymes (you could put this together yourself from jump rope rhymes you find online.
- Blocks and toy soldiers or toy animals.
- Have you ever noticed how many Christmas ornaments would also make nice items for the dollhouse? Don't do this if any of your children still mouth their toys, as Christmas ornaments are not tested for child safety issues, such as lead paint and other hazards. Use common sense.
- A few wood scraps, some old tools (simple things, a small hammer, a screw-driver, a wrench), and some nuts and bolts.
- A home-made batch of play-dough and some cookie cutters and a rolling pin from the thrift shop, along with other odds and ends that would make interesting shapes and patterns in the dough.
For young cooks or older cooks, look for small kitchen gadgets and build a present around that. One year at our house the 'easter basket' for each of our little girls was a stainless steel mixing bowl, a small wooden spoon, a small whisk, and a small baking tin, and it was a big hit. Other kitchen related presents I thought of while browsing the thrift shop:
A nutmeg grater (I picked one up at the thrift shop for .50), a couple of whole nutmegs (this package could contain as many as a dozen whole nutmegs so you could make several little presents with them), and a batch of a recipe using grated fresh nutmeg along with a copy of the recipe (or forego the batch if you the present won't be opened for a while). We like nutmeg muffins, immensely.
Cookie cutters, colored sugars (you can make your own by putting sugar and some food coloring in a small jar and shaking very, very well), and a recipe for sugar cookies. Include a batch of dough if the present is to be opened immediately (this freezer recipe looks good).
A fluted pastry cutter and a recipe for these cookies (instead of cookie cutter shapes, roll out the dough and use the pastry wheel to make squares and diamonds), or for home-made noodles.
A teaball or tea infuser, a teacup and saucer (or a pair) and some looseleaf tea (check your local natural foods store, or consider making your own blend).
An apple corer-slicer and a recipe for an apple dip. If you find a pretty bowl with a lid this would go nicely with this present , especially if you fill it with a batch of the dip.=)
For somebody with a green thumb:
If your recipient has a sunny window, consider a pretty pot of soil (I saw lots of pretty planters at the thrift shop) and some herb seeds, or buy some mint at the grocery store (produce section) and plant it in a pot.
A book on gardening , some seeds, graph paper, and an out of the ordinary gardening catalog (Johnny's Selected Seed, Seeds of Change, Territorial, Peaceful Valley Seeds, for example)- I saw lots of nice books on gardening at our thrift shop- not all 'how-to' books, but also pretty coffee table books, devotional type books, gardening memoirs both funny and sad.
A pretty shallow bowl, some flat glass beads, and a bulb for forcing.
For a young couple:
A basket of Christmas decorations
A pair of matching mugs or bowls and home-made hot cocoa mix, spiced tea, or ice-cream topping; add a deck of cards or some other game.
For a man:
Find a nice 'manly' tin, and wrap up a batch of cookies or home-made bread. Include a home-made certificate entitling the recipient to one refill (or one refill a month, or membership in a 'cookie of the month' club).
Pick up a good thermos, if you can find one (I've seen a Stanley thermos at our thrift shop a couple of times), or a couple of sealable lunch containers. Promise to keep them filled.=)
Put together a shaving kit- I found a boar hair bristle brush one year (admittedly, this will not be a common find, but you never know, and the point of this post is to prime your pump, not give you a dot to dot list), and included the brush, a bar of goat's milk soap, and mug to put it all in. You can add a good razor and some aftershave.
A tie and a tie-pin- and if you cannot find a tie-pin you think he'll like, put together one of your own by finding a plainish, flat tie tack and using something like a dab of Gorilla Glue to attach a better front- look through thrift shop jewelry, craft supplies, and even on the fastentings of clothes to find something you think he'll like.
If your guy travels, you can put together a traveling kit for him- look for a nice small and manly bag at the thrift shop and add things like:
- small bottle of shampoo
- nail clippers
- pain-killer
- chapstick
- unscented lotion
- mouthwash
- toothpaste
- toothbrush
- floss
- laminated photo of you and the kids
While the items on this list are not exactly frugal, this is a really good source for ideas on all things manly.
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Those are a few of the ideas I had while browsing the thrift shop. What are some of your more creative ideas for frugal gift giving?
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3 Responses to “Frugal and Creative Christmas (or other) Gifts”
December 5th, 2009 at 2:48 am
What are your tips for finding a good thrift shop? All of the ones local to me are the same price as Wal-Mart and Target for most of their stuff, and mostly not in a very good condition so in that case why not buy new? (Although adding to the landfills isn’t good, and I understand that, this IS a frugal blog, not a green one.) I do make trips into the “big city” occasionally, and I know there are probably more offerings there. How do you know whether it will offer better prices than the box stores? Is it just a case of trial and error?
December 5th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Excellent list! One of my favorites on there is Christmas decorations. When someone gets engaged before Christmas with plans to marry after, I shop the 90% of sale at Target and am able to get so much for so little. One year, several of us when in together and for $44 (total) we bought a large tree, skirt, stockings, lights, glass bulbs, garland, everything. It was unique and I didn’t have to worry about duplicates since it was a June wedding
We canceled everything but basic cable earlier this year and I’m amazed at the difference in the gimmes in the house. Without access to those kid-focused channels, there is so little pressure on my children to ask us to buy specific, expensive toys. It’s wonderful.
Stacy
December 7th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Jennifer, we have been very blessed in the thrift shops around us every where we have lived. It does pay in the long run to take the time to shop around. I would just make extra time to go look at different thrift shops the next time or two you’re in the ‘Big City.’ Once you’ve looked around and seen what they typically have to offer, pick one or two near each other (or near where you have to run errands) and plan some extra time to run into the thrift shop whenever you’re in town.
Stacy, what a fun Christmas present! And yes, it’s rather frustrating seeing how effective marketing to children is. We haven’t had television at all since sometime around 1990 (for five years before that it was one English speaking channel only), and it was enlightening to see how the gimmee-gimmees went down- even for the grown ups.
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