Wednesday, November 26, 2008

i wanna know - how is your christmas shopping coming?

The state of my bank account has forced me to become creative in my Christmas shopping this year. I've really been thinking outside the box for low or no cost gift giving ideas. It's not as easy as one would think. Gone are the days of being able to make a macaroni necklace for Mom that leaves a trail of glitter behind it. It's cute when you're five, but not so much when you're thirty-five.

I love to Christmas shop and pride myself on picking great gifts. It's easy for me to walk into a store or surf the world wide web and spend spend spend on the ones I love. It just doesn't make sense to do that this year. Not with so much economic uncertainty. Not when our business had such a horrendously bad year.

It's been interesting and fun brainstorming gift ideas.... with myself, because 98% of all Christmas related decisions are up to me. Plus when I first mentioned this idea to Michael his response was, "that just screams we're poor." So there was no help there, in the beginning anyway. After thinking about it for a day or two he came to see it for the true gift it could be. No less thought has gone into my "free gifts" as has in the past to my purchased gifts. It's just using a different skill set. It's making the gift much more personal because, bottom line, it's a gift of myself in some way. Using one of my "talents" or offering my time.

I know I'm being rather vague and this actually began in my head as a potpourri type post, but somehow this no cost gift giving idea kind of took over. I'd love to tell you the ideas I've come up with, but my family reads this.... hi Mom..... hi Grandma Linda...... so I gotta keep the actual gifts on the DL. I can tell you that I am very excited about what I've come up with.

Now I know it hasn't been that long since we did an I Wanna Know, but I'm interested.

I wanna know.......

What, if any, changes are you making to your Christmas shopping this year?

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5 comments:

Given that we too are strapped for cash, I've bought almost all of the kids gifts from consignment shops or from "used" shops online like usedottawa.com I've found some great stuff for super cheap! I got a tool table with all the tools for Hope for $12. For Emily, I got her the fridge phonics thing by Leapfrog for $5. Can't beat that. And they look brand new minus the original boxes. The kids won't know a thing and the bank account will be a bit plumper.
I'm doing the same thign as K. I think buying used toys is totally the way to go. I also bought our Chritsmas tree of usedottawa.com (we can't get a real one because we are gone for most of the holiday and have two cats). Marty and I do stockings, so it's not too much. And Thanksmas is all about the made gift. Not free, but as cheap as it comes. It's been fun looking for deals. I think this is the way we will continue to do Christmas. Both Marty and I want Max to know CHristmas as a family time and giving time rather than a receiving time.
What christmas shopping?? We are in about the same boat as everyone else, trying to manage day to day, no idea how we are doing christmas this year, but God willing it will happen. And no matter how slim, it will be wonderful because all our family will be together. :)
Dave and I tend to think that Christmas is for the kids so we really only ever ~want~ to buy gifts for our kids and their cousins. We were doing some of my family and some of his family (the ones we see) previously, but this year we are _only)_ doing our Moms ("from the girls"). I mean, I really ~wish~ we had the money to buy great, generous, gifts for everyone but we just don't and, to be honest, I guess we just hate credit card debt more than we hate looking cheap.

I'm also thinking of hosting an open house but this will be a *real* test for me. We tend to spend, literlly, hundreds of dollars on food and drinks for these type of things...plus I spend the whole time in the kitchen trying to be Martha. This year, if I do it, I VOW to only spot clean, put out chips and dip (and a few other NON extravagent things...), and actually ATTEND the party.

But, can I do it...?
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the look of your blog. I MUST be told how it was done. I LOVE it!! I'm so incredibly jealous - and I don't get jealous often as I'm the one who is happy when they hear their friends have something fab that I don't.

Okay - We are only giving our kids 3 gifts this year. Jesus got 3 gifts and well, WWJG (What Would Jesus Get?)? 3 gifts, that's what.

Glad to hear you are all on the mend. Sorry I haven't visited in awhile. It's been crazy over here. I've missed ya! Lurve ya, Girlfriend!!

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