Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Christmas Prep: gifts to give

(One of last years aprons)

The one thing that stresses me out about Christmas is figuring out the gifts to give friends, neighbors, parents, teachers, etc. The last few years I have decided on ONE THING for each category of people and gotten to work early. Very early!

I actually do this for birthday gifts too. Last year I made each of my sisters, sister-in-laws, and Mom's an apron. When birthday time came, I already knew what I was giving and sometimes I had an apron ready to go. Choosing fabric colors was so much easier than choosing a new gift each time!

So take some time now to mock up a list. Will neighbors get hot fudge sauce (mine are!)? What will you give to the teachers? And then spend a little bit of time the next few months creating or purchasing the items so when Jingle Bells is playing on the radio you can enjoy it with your kids instead of rushing around making or buying those gifts!

Do you know what you are giving yet to those important non-family (or even family!) people in your life? Please share!

4 comments:

lrbodine said...

Last year I got cookbooks printed of all my favorite recipes and gave those away to my close friends and family. I was able to put it all together in November and although it took lots of time - it was so nice to not worry about it in December! You could probably dress it up with cooking utensils or something but I just gave the cookbook since we were on a budget and I managed to get them printed for under $10 each and they were a big hit.

Lizzy @ The Tip Spot said...

cook books are an awesome idea! i especially love when a whole family collaborates on one

Kelly said...

First of all, I love this apron idea with some kind of food gift to go with it! I think I will do this!! If you like to make cards, a stationary set is a good idea too. I also like to make jewelry, so all the girls in my family get necklaces. I search websites like anthropologie or nordstrom for ideas to copy and make them for way cheap! For grandparents, calendars with your kids pictures are fun to make too! You can either scrapbook them, or have them made through companies like kinkos.

christy said...

last year we chose several of all the kids drawings and precious school writing, and had it bound into a book with a giant picture of all them on the front. then we sent them to grandparents. i just looked at it again @ my in-laws, and i almost cried remembering all of that stuff! totally doing that one again!