BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Coffee Any inexpensive holiday gift ideas?

Here's mine.

Really think about the person you are buying for. What do they like? Example: for a coffee lover--coffee candies and sample gourmet coffee packs, inexpensive mug. Wrap in colored cellophane and nice ribbon--you can even add a candy cane to make it look festive. Great office gift.

What's yours?

Don't know if anyone else lives near a World Market store but they have a gift basket section with sample sizes of coffees, coffee flavors, all kinds of neat little foods and items for a unique gift basket.

The Dollar store or something similar to that is a great place to get containers to use as baskets, You can get lots of holiday type plastic plates and bowls that work great. Also cute tea towels or pot holders to put in your basket.

I also shop on sale for future gift baskets.

One can always make cookies or make homemade soup or Pasta Sauce for gifts. Gifts in a jar. If you sew make place settings.
It is not how much the gift is but the thought behind the gift. Today everyone one goes over board and our children understand the value of a dollar. Plastic cards will kill you with the interst rates unless you pay that card off completely before 30 days of use. Is not the true meaning of Christmas going to the way side of all the gifts that one must think they must buy? This isn't true for all. But think about it. Our dollar doesn't go far and price of food gasoline will continue to rise while people are loosing their homes.

I totally agree Hjm. I'd rather get a homemade present and my kids always make present for their grandparents.

Another thing we do in our family is, when it's someone's birthday, we cook a special dinner of something we don't usually eat, like shrimp or steak. Everyone brings some special dish to the dinner and we spend time together to celebrate.

I love to give coffee as a gift. I'll usually make up a gift bag with a fresh ground bag of coffee and add chocolates, cookies, biscotti or even a mini book.

I like to give homemade CDs, hot chocolate mixes, or baked goods. You don't even have to make homemade cookies, just go to the bakery or store and buy what you like. Put them in a nice box and you're done. Go to thinkgarnish.com . They have lots of nice boxes and bags at great prices. I just bought the mini gable boxes. I plan to put chocolate truffles in them for the teachers and bus drivers. I also bought their CD cases, I'll be giving my nieces and nephews homemade CDs in them.

I am loving these ideas! They are all great. I will be making CDs this year. I usually make at least 25 carrot cakes but I'm bored with that. It's a lot of work and I've been doing it a long time.

Green1, we too have a longstanding tradition of celebrating birthdays with a special dinner (the birthday person's request). In a family of seven it was a way to make that person feel really special. After dinner we sing happy birthday with the cake but before we eat it we go to the living room and the birthday person sits in the special birthday chair and receives gifts. In the early years the gifts were homemade, recycled and sometimes really funny.

Now my children are grown with their own families but they always come home for their birthday.

Gayle, it's so important to give your kids family traditions. I'm trying to do that with my own kids.

One thing I did one year for my parents was to start in January and take photos at all the family events. Then the next January, for their anniversary, I had the photos made into a book for them at someplace like Office Depot. They will print up a nice little spiral bound book for about $15 I think. My parents loved it.

You could probably do something similar on the computer yourself these days.

You can also make a calendar out of a year's worth of photos. I bought an inexpensive program for my daughter last year, she is a photo fanatic. She has made several photo cd's with music in the background. They are a great gift, and she is getting pretty good at it. I will probably hire her to make me a few dvd's this year. Love having teenagers!

If you have a writer or creative in the family - a personalized poem or short story that is family or holiday related is always great.

The poem can be printed on special paper and framed as a keepsake. I still have the one my som did for me when he was four years old.

A one page short story can include a special photo or drawing and also be framed. If the story relates to memories of an activity the writer and recipient did together (vacation, special activity) that's even better.

Have a great holiday!

~Sharon

Sharon, I like your idea to write a poem or story. I think this this would be a great idea for a grandparent gift.

Kind of along the poem line you could also do the coupons for a free car wash, perhaps for a co-worker you could offer to pick up their lunch tab one day, watch their pet for a weekend, etc.

A bag of chocolate covered espresso beans tied with a bow could be cute in a mug also.

I love those Bioletti espresso makers for the stovetop. I think they're $19 or $20. That's a little more pricey, but still a fairly reasonable gift price.

You could give someone a collection of the mini flavored coffee syrups. If you bought the small bottles you could probably put three together for not too much. They even make suger free incase someone is diabetic.

I always give DVD's for inexpensive options. I think that since my 16-year old is obsessed with India I'll give her a sweet movie called "Outsourced", has anyone else seen it? I saw a few reviews that were positive so I rented it, it reminded me a little of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" meets "Bend it Like Beckham"... only I felt the story was deeper and richer than both of these. It's selling for $20 so that is just at the top end of what I'd consider "inexpensive".

Hey, I have great ideas for inexpensive gifts. Last year my son wanted to make Marshmallow Shooters for his friends. I had no idea what I was doing, but eventually we came up with an inexpensive plan. The shooters were a huge hit and I had mothers calling me asking for more. I also gave the shooters as gifts for my neighbors and families. I made custom gift baskets complete with ammo (mini marshmallows) and in some of the baskets I included ingredients for hot chocolate and smores (they all kinda relate to the marshmallow). I wrote a quirky little poem to go with the basket and my neighbors loved it! It was fun to give something unique and memorable and still stay on a strict budget.

We are now making shooters and selling them like crazy. If you want more info, please let me know.

Happy Holidays!