Inexpensive X-mas gift ideas. Presents or crafts?

Question

Money is super tight this holliday season and I would like to still be able to get nice gifts for my VERY LARGE family.
I'm fairly crafty, so if the idea is to make something, that's ok as long as it's not too expensive to buy the needed items or too complicated. I cook great, so it could be baked goods or pies or something. And I have some new photos from a portrait studio of my 2 kids (I just had a son in Sept.) so I thought about framed pics as a gift. Is that tacky?

Anyway...any ideas you have or websites you can give for info would be great. Also, I need tips on packaging the stuff to look pretty. I'm really bad at that.

To give you an idea of what kind of cash I'll be working with, I'll probably be able to come up with 200-300 bucks between now and Christmas and I'm shopping for 10-15 people.

Thank you in advance!

My family is religious and country, no one drinks at all. But that would be a good idea maybe for friends.

Answer 1

http://answers.yahoo.com/search/search_result;_ylt=At2qHPJ5qoUBEBxPFPV_jjnxxQt.;_ylv=3?p=inexpensive+gift

Answer 2

You could make personalized photo albums. If you buy the plain albums (you can find maybe two or three in a package), just get some nice fabrics and re-cover them, and add some nice embellishments to the front. Or you could make sets of blank handmade cards in sets of 10 or 12 and tie them together with a pretty ribbon, then package them with gift wrap tissue and put then in pretty gift bags.

The goodies gift baskets are neat ideas too because you can find the baskets really cheap and even spray paint them with holiday colors; then fill them with things you know the person likes.

If you're not up to making anything, there are some places online that sell handmade stuff and the prices aren't too bad.

Oh, I almost forgot, frames make nice gifts too, and if you find plain basic frames, they are easy to jazz up with paint and ribbons and glue on embellishments.

Answer 3

we were the same way last year and i made goody baskets, with homemade recipes, they were the in the jar recipes, they included hot choc, spice tea, a soup mixture, chili seasoning, and there might have been more. i gave one basket per couple for grandparents and sisters and i got the baskets at Dollar Tree, if you have those, i am from OK, i put the shredded paper in the bottom and then put a clear bag around them so they would look like a store bought gift baske. I think I made 7-8 maybe more and they only cost me a little over $10 per basket ( i might be off i can't remember exactly) If you need more specifics, write me and i can try to help. Good Luck, Jenna

Answer 4

I love food gifts, delicious and easily stored,(ahem) If you have kids to give to, make individual large cookies, decorated for them. family gifts and hostess gifts, homemade cookies make a great present. you can find and decorate cute cookie tins, you may have them around the house, otherwise christmas boxes from the dollar store, wax paper inside, and a little glitter paint with your from/to written directly on the box works well.
I also like interesting food kits, like a pancake breakfast kit, with a bottle of maple syrup, an exotic pancake mix, home made or store bought, and maybe a cute wooden spoon, all tied together with a bright ribbon. You can make your own mixes, put into a nice glass jar, spaghetti sauce jars work well, and hand write the recipe on a card and attach.
Have you considered making your own bath salts? you buy epsom salts, add your own oils to create scents, you can make lemon scented salts by zesting some lemons and adding the zest to the salts, add some lemon slices on top for display, seal tightly in a decorative jar, and add a pretty label of your own design. it is a good idea to color the salts. Only thing is that you should make those ahead of time as it takes time for the scent to permeate the salts.

Answer 5

I have started making personalized CDs for children. They are great for 2 - 4 year olds. You can check out my website at www.songsforyourkids.com. Another thing I am doing is covering photo albums with fabric and lace. They make a nice family gift. Another idea I have is to make a personalized family calendar. You can do this at Walgreens.com.
Ruth
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Answer 6

Framed baby pix would make great gifts for the grandparents, but others might not want them so much. I sugest you buy a case of inexpensive wine (you get a 10% ddiscount on cases), and give the bottles to adult family members.

Answer 7

tie blankets are easy and fun to make. Especially if you go to jo ann fabric the day after thanksgiving you can get fleece for extremely inexpensive. You can package them really nicely too with a really big bow...maybe have the gift tag also be an ornament for the tree as well?

Answer 8

Here are some things I do:

1.) Decorate lids of jars with Christmas fabric and coordinating ribbon. Mason jars are SUPER easy to make look cute, but you could even use old jelly jars (or any similar glass jar) if you have a glue gun and a little bit of polyfill in addition to the fabric and ribbon. (Oh, and if you're into a country Christmas, twine works great in place of ribbon.) Fill the jar with red and green stained glass candy in cinnamon and/or peppermint flavors. (VERY cheap to make and keeps for weeks. I can e-mail you a recipe if you need it.)

2.) Get the kids invloved and make salt dough ornaments for everyone.

3.) Another great one to get the kids involved in is cinnamon-applesauce ornaments. They smell AMAZING, and they are sticky great fun for the kids to make.

4.) If you make the jars of candy, you could even attach one of your homemade ornaments so your family will get two gifts instead of just one.

From my experience, people really appreciate the time you devote to handcrafting something especially for them. Grandparents especially appreciate the time you spend with your children creating gifts for them also! (My Mom once told me that was a beautiful gift all by itself, knowing that I created a fun memory with her grandchildren.)

I could go on and on about crafts you could make for Christmas, but those are my favorite and easiest to mass produce. Hope my answer was helpful to you!

Answer 9

here is a nice website with a few basic, but helpful reminders
http://christmasideas.blogsite.org

Personally, I like a gift to be personal, so I like some of it to evolve my own time. I make a number of things that people find useful. I also build computers over the course of a year from spare parts to make children's computers. You could try something of this nature. It has to be something your good at though.

Answer 10

I love baking for xmas and everyone in my family looks forward to it along with friends. I have a recipe for banana bread that is to die for never put nuts in bread incase of allergy's. I usually wrap in colorful saran wrap and place ribbon around. then I pick up baskets along with handtowels to line the basket can usually find them for about 3-$1 then pick up a new little xmas ornament usually a $1. Put your framed picture and maybe find some coffe cups cheap and packages of cocoa. gives them something to eat drink and keep even after the holidays

Answer 11

o.k. if you have a sewing machine then a fast easy gift to make is pillow cases. you buy fun fabric and make some cool/cute/stylish pillow cases. they are easy and inexpensive. everyone loves their pillows. when you don't feel good your pillow is your best friend- it's cold and flu season! you could even wrap a cheap cute dollar store mug with a packet of hot cocoa with it and make it a all out care gift~ just an idea.