Start a new holiday tradition in your family... no gifts gifts unless you sew it, grow it, make it, bake it, draw it, saw it, or write it! See how creative everyone can be, while at the same time, trimming everyone's budget! They'll thank you for it, and the gifts will have more meaning.
I would rather you spend 5 minutes making me something than pulling out a credit card. My grandson (4 yrs old) had made a pinecone spider web for a school project - he asked me if I wanted it cause his mom was going to throw it away - it has a front row seat in my china cabinet. This year he made me a key ring - the green animal on it looks like a turtle but it's really a frog (my Girl Scout camp name name is Treefrog). That key ring is always with me and the pride he feels when he sees me with it is immense.
I have been making embroidered pillowcases since Feburary for this year's Christmas. They are about $10.00 a pair & then the thread (floss) is very inexpensive.
We have adopted the rule Mz. Hussar speaks of above. The only thing we added was that you could get a gift at a yard sale or Goodwill or someplace - but you had to have paid CONSIDERABLY less than it would have been from the regular store. (Part of our plan was to help save enough money for a family ski weekend we will remember longer than most gifts)
Surprisingly, everyone liked the idea! My husband and son already started it by making me a fountain for Mothers Day.
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