Frudal Friday: Homemade Gifts

Vicki has posted some great ideas about making your Christmas gifts this year to save money. I wanted to add a few that I have tried and that I will be doing this year.

Over the years, I have attempted to make some gifts- a fleece blanket for my niece and hubby (no sewing required, just cut some fringe on the edges), a Big Church Bag for another niece made from a simple square of fabric with some embellishments, and some picture ornaments. Mostly, I do my best to not make it look too crafty and many that don't require too much pre-planning. Projects that take the fewest amount of items to create are also good. Simple is the best plan!

Here are some of my ideas...

If you work outside the home, you often have some special friends that you may want to give a gift, but you do not want to spend a lot of money on. Like Vicki pointed out, food is always great. I have made peanut clusters (3 ingredients- how can you beat that), pickled vegetables, and eggnog cookies. These are all simple, but not so common, food items.

A new favorite this year are sugar scrubs and bath salts. All are very simple and very reasonable for gift costs. Find some nice jars and you have a great gift.

And let's not forget, cookies in a jar. Who can beat a premade jar of homemade cookie ingredients!

Pictures in frames always make a nice gift too. My mother never displays a picture unless you give her a frame too. There are some great photo crafts from HP you can find or even a photo memo board. You can even make it a project for your kids so it can be an extra special gift for grandparents.

We also are doing a special gift for my parents this year. The local shop class made Adirondack wooden chairs and ottomans, sold them at a special price for teachers. We are going to stain them for my parent's lake house. This is cheaper than purchasing them already stained and we will make them a little special with some personal touches.

And as Vicki stated so well, it is not about the gifts or the money, but the celebration of Jesus' birth. "For to us a child is born, for to us a child is given..." In these tough economic times, do not worry about the gifts you give, but be more concern with the love you share.

The First Santa Letter

Today my son wrote his first letter to Santa, all by himself. It is so cute! He wants the entire collection of Toy Story toys, plus a TV and a clicker. And don't forget the candy cane (which he drew a picture of!). He said not to mail it because Santa comes here anyway, so there is not point in sending it to him. I wish I had all of this recorded!