My kids are now all adults though they are students. Any money they spend is really our money. So we are not encouraging any lavish gifts. Our son has said before, the fact that he will not graduate in debt is the biggest gift he could ask for. Plus, it can be a lot of pressure to find a "perfect" gift: I remember that particular stress from Christmas gifts exchanged in my small office. Our boss would always get us something amazing (not expensive, just "perfect"): it set the bar too high for us peons. I loved everyone there but IÂm glad I donÂt have to deal with that anymore. I accumulate an Amazon wish list over the year: and keep adding to it. Any family member can just check that list and know they are getting me a book or CD I really want. Sometimes I make it even easier on them and order it myself! Since I have maybe 20 items on there I have no idea ahead of time what they might pick: keeps the surprise element. My husband had always been the hardest person to buy for. But he wore out 2 pairs of shoes this fallÂgreat timing! He is starting a new job with a long walk from the commuter rail station: hat and gloves! My digital camera just bit the dustÂgreat timing again (no, I did NOT drop it on purpose). Our son wants an "interview" suit. He needs it anyway, but chose to ask for this for Christmas. He has always worn his DadÂs: but they are not the same size, itÂs time he had his own. So we will make a day of it and all go as a family to choose it together. Our daughter is still at an age where she wants a lot, but doesnÂt trust us to select it. She send an e-mail with specificsÂthings she thought we couldnÂt mess up! Both "kids" will get various fun, inexpensive surprises in their stockings. Colorful notepads, decks of cards, makeup for daughter.

Hello all, I'm new to your forum. I have previously spent most of my time at the vegetable garden forum but winter is coming... time to get caught up on months of mending! I love to sew for holiday gifts. A lot of my inspirations come from things I see in the store or catalogs that I'd love to buy but I find myself muttering "I could make it so much cheaper!" For the little girl in the family - a barbie doll organizer. take clear vinyl and sew in over a fashion fabic forming little pockets to keep dolls in clothes in. (Think of a shoe storage device that you would hang on the back of your closet door) I saw one in a catalog for $30 and made mine for only $4. I inserted a 'placet' at the top to insert a plastic hanger. Big hit with my daughter. How about decorating plain towels? Add lace, trims, beads, monograms, to accent a bathroom. Know those towels that cost $20 each in the stores? Lingerie pouches, scented potpourri pouches, robes, and aprons are all nice items that don't have to be sized like fashion garments do. Gift bags for wine or office gifts, or even family, are a nice use for scrap velvet and satin. Little kids in the family? Make a how-to-dress-myself book. Use squares of felt (inexpensive and colorful) to make practice pages for buttons, zippers, buckles, snaps, tying shoes, etc. Great for boys who don't want a doll to practice on. Bean bags are a huge hit, especialy when made from fun fabrics. I made some before a hurricane several years ago and they are still playing with them. (Well, that is until the dogs figured out there were beans inside and ate them a month ago.) Well, I've spewed out enough ideas for one post. But if you need more, just spend an hour strolling through the mall or Target and you'll get plenty of ideas to replicate. I actually keep a book of clippings and ideas that I see so that I have an inspirational spot to revert back to when i'm out of ideas. Have fun!

I only made one mistake this year. I gave all the kids a digital frame. I bought a 2 gig memory stick for each frame. I have all their pictures and their kids pictures on the computer so for each frame I put all the pictures of them as kids for each one and a few group pictures of their kids and their cousins. I also put all the pictures that I have of just their own kids. I labeled each memory stick so I could keep them straight. After I wrapped each gift I put the appropriate stick in the box and put a tag on each gift as it was being wrapped. When I wrapped the last box I took the stick to put in the box and saw it had Robert and Shannon's name on it. Well, that could't be, because I already wrapped their gift. I didn't want to unwrap the gifts I had already wrapped so I put that stick in the gift and put the name tag on it that I thought it was supposed to go to. They all opened their gifts last Saturday anyway while they were together, so it was an easy mistake to fix. They have all called since getting the gifts to let us know how much they like the digital frames with all those family memories in them. That's quite a compliment. They have never thanked us twice for anything previously. Linda

I used to bake when we were super poor and had no money. I found baking really inexpensive. I baked all the time for my children so the supplies were almost always on hand. I would bake cookies and bread, and one year I made chocolate covered cherries (I don't recommend it: they take FOREEEVVVER!) I even made Turtles, but over cooked the caramel so they were a little rock hard. hahahaha I even made little sled ornaments out of popcicle sticks. I keep meaning to make them again, they're so cute everyone loved them. But now? I don't have the time, nor the energy to make home made gifts. Besides, todays generation does not appreciate the home made things as much as we used to. I grew up with almost everything home made: my mom cooked from scratch (hardly 0 processed foods growing up), she baked everything (we never ate cookies from Christie), and mom is a seamstress so the vast majority of my clothes were made by mom. She also knitted so I had a lot of home made knit sweaters. I honestly don't know anyone who would appreciate them anymore.