Tuesday's Tips and Tricks - Celebrating (not surviving) the Holiday Season - The Gifts

Here we are a week away from the end of October. See how fast time gets away?!?!?!

GOODNESS!

It's okay tho. We have made some serious progress in the whole Preparing for the Holiday Season Process!

We've made a plan - we know WHAT we want to do.

We've update the Christmas Card List

We've made a Gift List

Now, this week, I want you to take that Gift list out and make some decisions....

How are you going to split up your budget?

You can start with the people closest to you or farthest from you, but whether you work from the inside out or outside in, start and work your way from one to the other. 

I just realized that I cant really tell you how to split up your budget. 

Instead, I'll share some ideas on how my family and close friends have worked through gift-giving over the years.

As my cousins and siblings added a generation to our family, we realized that we needed to change the whole "gift giving" norm. 

For kids old enough, my favorite gift is a silly string war. All I do is go to the dollar store and buy as much silly string as I can. I may spend 30 bucks on 30 cans of silly string. I put all the cans in a box and, when the time is right, we take all the caps off the cans. The kids start with 2 cans each and replenish as they run out. They do this until all the string is gone. Bonus... the kids have a great time. The older kids gang up on the littles. The littles gang up on a specific older kid... and sometimes the unsuspecting adult. They are left with lots of "remember that time" memories.  Mission accomplished.

For the itty bitties who are too young to appreciate a good Silly String War, I get some little something... usually that lights up or otherwise mesmerizes them and keeps them from feeling left out.

Another great idea... Cookie decorating or Gingerbread house decorating. This can be a contest  if that's your thing. 

Moving on to others... my favorite gifts from coworkers have turned out to be Christmas ornaments. Who knew? These can be store bought or home made and range anywhere from $1 ro well... whatever. the point is, when I put up my tree each year I have wonderful memories attached to almost all my ornaments. 

Bonus... Izzy and I make an ornament most years ( I wish I could say "every year") and this doubles the joy for me. Not only do we gift ornaments that will remind people of our friendship over the years, it is a wonderful time for me to spend with my best most favorite girl. 

Finally, I have friends who give edible gifts. One friend makes amazing peanut (and pecan and almond) brittle and we ALL look forward to getting some each year.

Anyway, as you break down your gift giving list, remember that sometimes the best gift you can give is a memory. Over the years, I have started leaning more toward giving memories instead of  gifts. I have not regretted it even once. 

Big Hugs!

K