gift idea

[dverba]

This year the money just is not there to buy gifts so....my family will write a note to each other giving a blessing or prayer for that individual. We are going to have a gift wrapping party with boes and ribbon and wrap each blessing (gift) and have great fun doing it. The younger kids wont get it but the rest of us will love it. Any other ideas would be greatly appricated.:angel:

[marymove]

We are in the same boat this year. My sisters and I are giving each other our favorite recipes in a bound book with stories about why we like them. It should be fun reading my sister's take on cooking!

[ihurttoo]

How old are the younger ones? And how many of them are there?

Depending on the ages, this just might fit the bill! (I have done this in the past for my neices and nephews when they were little and money was tight).

I got big poster board, and bright colored markers, small, "snack size" candy bars and bags of candy in assorted bags and got out my hot glue gun and made each of them HUGE Christmas Cards with candy on them. I dont remember EXACTLY what I wrote....(It HAS been YEARS!) But, it was something like this, (but you can use your imagination, obviously and work with whatever candy you find on sale.)

For every word in bold, I hot glued that candy there.

On Christmas Eve, as Santa Claus, (I hot glued a small candy Santa there), and his reindeer are flying across the Milky Way (hot glue a "Milky Way bar there"...you get the idea!), past Mars (bar)over 5th Avenue (bar) in New York City, and then over Hershey's (bar), Penn. and around to all the other cities of the world until he gets to yours, I hope he brings you Skittles of toys! He and the elves will have lots of Snickers as they watch you try to wait up bleary eyed for them! But, you better go to bed! Because, they might get Butterfingers when they laugh and and accidently drop your toy at the wrong house! So you better Spree off to bed, because Santa will be coming soon!

Merry Christmas and to all a Good nite!
Love,
Aunt Deanna

Clemmons, I am obviously not! (The author of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" But, it is VERY inexpensive to make when you buy left-over Halloween candy in the mixed bags that dont have Halloween decorations on them! Plus, it is VERY CUTE! Also, obviously the story can be changed quite easily to suit whatever candy you find on sale! :) For example you can have Santa flying over the Tootsie Roll River, and the Lollipop Forest, or over the the village made of Bubble Gum! You can even have the 3 Musketeers try to steal the kids toys, but a chocolate Rudolph saves the day! Whatever you want to make up! I think I even threw in Santa stopping to drop off toys at a house where the people that owned the Pop Rocks factory lived! (B/c that was there fav candy and I didnt know how else to work in the Pop Rocks! But, I mainly used my leftover Halloween candy and stuff I got on sale really cheap, b/c I was so poor at the time! (So, if you like the idea and need help with this let me know!)

If you have kids that are too old for this, let me know, and I will let you know what I did for those too! :wink:

Hope this helps!

Hugs,
Amy

[kadi]

A few years ago, I wrote "Top Ten Lists" for my parents & grandparents.

For my parents, it was "Top Ten Memories" from our years 0-10; the next year it was "Top Ten Memories" from our ages 11-20. So "top ten" from each decade.

For my grandparents (who were actually neighbors we adopted as grandparents), I made a "Top Ten Ways You're Our Grandparents". My grandparents loved it so much they framed it:)