The Healthy Parenting Blog

Inexpensive Gifts for the Holidays

The holidays are a coming! Someone was asking about inexpensive gifts that one could make at home for family and close friends to lighten the financial load come the Holiday Season.

I started thinking about some of the crafts we’ve done and other ideas and this is what I came up with.

~Homemade Gift Ideas~

Trivots! The kids can help. Some craft stores
sell ceramic tiles that the kids can paint on (use appropriate ceramic
paints) or you can just buy the tiles with a nice picture already on them. Then you can select an unpainted wooden frame that you hot glue the tile
into (these are special frames made specifically for this, not photo frames). A few bucks for supplies and you’re all set.

~Wind Chimes. Here’s a great craft that your kids can make (with your help). Homemade wind chimes using upside down terra cotta pots (which they can also decorate/paint). What a great gift for a grandparent!

Homemade Terra Cotta Pot Windchimes at HGTV

~Baskets! Baskets are fun and go a long way. You can do themed baskets, food baskets, spa baskets, etc.. The list is endless. One year, I made my famous Applesauce Bread, wrapped it nicely and attached a beautiful recipe of it to each loaf and brought it to the people we visited. Be sure to buy the plastic that you can wrap around the basket and then use a hair dryer to tighten it so it looks like a professionally made basket.

Other basket ideas…

~ A jar of soup makings.
For instance, for my Lentil Soup recipe - I’d find a nice jar…add all the
dry ingredients and do a nice recipe card and attach it. You can do the
same with other soups, hot chocolate, quick breads, etc. Be sure to rewrite the recipe so that it entails just adding dry ingredients to whatever is needed to be added.

~Spa care. You could also make such things as bath salts, EO spritzers, bath
bombs (molded soaps not needing any saponification, I believe),
scented powders, loofa pad, body brush, etc.. Though this can get expensive as you’d have to get the ingredients you don’t have to make them.

~Potholders. How about good old fashioned pot holders like the kind we used to
make with the loom when we were kids?

~Potpourri is another cool thing to do. I save every flower every
given to me as well as neat plant things (like tiny pine cones or anise star). Simply combine and drop on your favorite essential oils…spritz with water to refresh and you can add more oils anytime you want.

~Framed Poetry. How about making a nice poem for each member of the family and
printing it nicely and framing it. The cost would really only be the
frame.

~Ornaments. One year we made Christmas Ornaments for everyone as gifts. I
actually used wooden doll heads (which come in a big bag and with a
hole in them). I painted them and then sponged with gold and used
gold wired thread and hot glued it into the hole.

~Pencil/Pen Cup. How about making pencil cups with cans and extra fabric you have
laying around?

~Coupons. Create a booklet of “coupons” for family to use. One “get out of trouble
free” coupon, a “dinner at our house - just bring yourself” coupon. A
“movie night - our treat” coupon, a babysitting for free coupon, Etc!