10/13/2011

Christmas Draws

I have a guest post over on Krystal's blog today, Give Me Back My Five Bucks, if you've come my way from there - welcome!  If you haven't seen my post there yet, I hope you check it out.


It is that time of year where quite a few of us will start thinking about Christmas (if we haven't already). With Jordan and I buying a house, and getting out of consumer debt for the second time - I'm more aware than normal about our upcoming Christmas budget.

We have already pared our list down from the usual 20 or so people to about a dozen and are trying to come up with creative, thoughtful gifts that are budget friendy.

There is one gift giving opportunity in my family that is really non negotiable as far as I am concerned and that is the gift draw that my cousins and I participate in every year. We all grew up very close and Christmas reinforces our relationships - when we can reflect and spend time together. There are ten of us and quite a few of us are in long term relationships and our partners have started going in on the draw as well - so Jordan and I now buy two cousin gifts each year.

Well, this year, instead osf purchasing gifts I through up an idea on Facebook and tagged all of my cousins in it - I asked if they might want to put a hand made only rule on our draw.

I was so so surprised, everybody is excited for it and said yes!

So out Christmas cousin budget just dropped from about $150 to very economical.

Now....does anyone have any homemade gift ideas?

7 comments:

  1. That's great! And I'm looking to make homemade gifts for some people also. But the only ideas I can find are bath scrubs and food items.

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  2. @ Michelle - what are bath scrubs??

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  3. I would sew an apron. They have fantastic ones on Anthropologie's website.

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  4. @banclothing - that's a fantastic idea!

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  5. I meant to say bath soap and lotions. My friend makes them for her and her family and it always turns out great.

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  6. I did a post about a month ago with some gift ideas. Check it out.
    http://eboolifejourney.blogspot.com/2011/09/some-great-christmas-gift-ideas.html

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  7. I'm giving handmade soaps, bath bombs and sugar scrubs to all my family and friends this year. Since I handmake them as a side business I'm good to go.

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