Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Stop Shopping Right Now!
Does the shopping aspect of the holiday season help you get into the mood, or does it make you veer farther and father away from the spiritual side of Christmas, Chanukah or Kwaanza? Sometimes the very best gifts are free--things you can easily make at home of you are not an arts and crafts wizard--like me--I can't sew a button, but can manage these "stay at home and cozy up by the fire and avoid the crowds" gifts.First, share a bunch of secrets as a holiday gift! Take all your best recipes, write them down on holiday type index cards, tie them with a colorful ribbon and wrap them right up as precious gift for someone who likes to cook! Or you can frame something special--for example, I might take the ticket stub from a football game my husband and I took our daughter to at Syracuse U. on parent's weekend--and frame it in a simple frame you can get from the drugstore or supermarket. With this gift, you are giving a happy memory and making it "for keeps" for the lucky recipient.
You can always give the gift of time as well. Let's say you know your co-worker is giving her daughter one of those glider rocking chairs for the holidays because she is expecting a baby. Offer to put the whole thing together for her, and write it down on a card and have it laminated as a gift to your co-worker. You can also give the gift of a homemade cookie bouquet--just bake some cookies and put lollypop sticks into them and tie them all up as a big bouquet for someone you care about. (That's an inexpensive one too!) Or make a popcorn bowl as a family gift--just take a plain white bowl ceramic and paint it in green and red, then bake it according to directions on the ceramic paint can. If you are really talented, write, "The So and So Family's Popcorn" and "Christmas 2007" on it!
Finally today, why not give someoe a spa in a bottle? Take a plain jelly jar, and combine 2 cups of raw sugar, 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup apricot kernel oil, a dollop of honey and you're done once you simply shake it up and attach a pretty ribbon to the jar! You can proudly present someone special with this homemade sugar scrub and if you are really ambitious add a candle or two for them to light around the bathtub and use with the scrub for some glorious moments of relaxation! Do YOU have any special gift ideas that don't involve much shopping? Please share them right here on this blog and we can all benefit! Thanks!
posted by meami craig at 7:52 AM
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