Inexpensive Gift Giving

The gifts you give for the Holiday’s don’t always need to be something that is purchased. Stores can be nuts around this time of year and overwhelming, something that I personally try to avoid at all costs. The amount of anxiety around shopping is also enhanced by this thing called a Pandemic? I’m not sure if you’ve heard of it?

This is a list to help those that would like to give something maybe a little more personal, or if you’re strapped for cash, or even if you want to avoid the Holiday shoppers as much as you can.

Cookies and baking! These make great gifts, and it’s no surprise that this would be on this list. Even if you are not a baking wiz, you can make some very simple things usually with things that you probably already have in your pantry. Have sugar, butter, vanilla, cornstarch and flour? Great! Make some shortbread cookies, a Christmas classic! You don’t have to stop at JUST any ordinary shortbread - check out the list below for some ideas. Lemon bars, which I have in my other article here, are also super easy to make. Butter tarts, another Christmas and Holiday classic, are equally as simple and easy to make. Wrap these up in some beautiful boxes - which you can find at any dollar store - and you have some festive and personal gifts. There are also lots of inexpensive decorations, miniature ones, that can be found at dollar stores that can dress up any gifts you give.

Shortbread cookie ideas:

-Orange shortbread (with orange zest in the cookie batter) and half dipped in dark chocolate

-Candy cane shortbread (using crushed candy canes) and half dipped in white chocolate

-Rosemary shortbread (finely chopped rosemary added to the cookie batter)

-Skor toffee bits

Personalised gift boxes or gift jars are a great way to give something that can be fairly inexpensive too. You can usually find items for these on sale which can include: Tea, Coffee, Chocolates, warm and fuzzy Socks, Hand Cream, Soaps, Stickers and small puzzles (for kids), face masks, etc. Depending on what you’re putting together, you can easily find these things at any store and they can make a nice simple gift. Again, any dollar store can have a good selection of boxes, jars, and other items that you can jazz up your gift.

Ingredient jars are nice too - the dry ingredients to make your favorite cookies or cake with an instructions card can be a unique gift to give as well. Include the recipe so that the recipient can recreate your gift whenever they would like.

Gift tags and “coupon” books. So if you’re not a design expert, but want to make something that looks awesome, there are many programs available that are (mostly) free (mostly free since there are some features of some programs that you do need to pay for) but overall should be able to give you templates to create homemade tags and even create a coupon book for you to give away. You can come up with some fun and creative ideas AND make it look great with free design programs. Canva is one that is easy to use and has lots of free features.

Coupon ideas:

-Treat you to lunch

-Make you dinner

-Movie night

-Coffee date

-Clean your house

-Paint night

Paint, create art or craft! I’ve done this one when I have been strapped for cash. I made a personalised painting and found a nice frame for it and gave it as a gift. You don’t even need to have any skills to create a nice painting; there are lots of ideas out there that are very easy to make a nice picture. I would recommend getting some ideas from Pinterest for easy pictures/paintings, and then all you need is a nice frame. You can find relatively inexpensive frames, small to medium usually, at any craft or dollar store.

If you have skills like knitting you can create some awesome gifts - scarves, mittens, a blanket - just would depend on the skill level! I have knitted scarves with a minimal amount of expertise; YouTube is super helpful in finding skills for knitting! The only thing you would need is some time to make your gift, but it is also a very calming and relaxing thing to do.

Succulent or cacti terrarium. This one is fun, creative, and who doesn’t like a sweet little plant?! You can find large glass bowls or jars, rocks, and soil at any dollar store. Places like Wal-Mart (if you have a local place that has these items even better! Support small businesses where you can!) even have soil for about a dollar and usually small succulents and cacti for really reasonable prices. You can dress these up and make them interesting, fun, and personalised!

These ideas do not make for entirely free gift giving, BUT the costs should be considerably low and especially if you have some of these items already stored away in your home (baking ingredients, painting/art supplies, glass jars..) you can have some options to help with your gift giving.

Get creative and you can give away some special holiday gifts!