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Inexpensive Christmas Gift Ideas

Veggie Cookbook

I'm not a vegetarian though I flirt with it (I eat meatless several days a week); my sister, on the other hand, is a vegetarian and a good cook to boot. Two years ago she gave me a little cookbook that she had made herself. She collected her favorite veggie recipes, put them into categories, and wrote them all out by hand in this little brown notebook. Then she illustrated them with her own little drawings and added some notes about what she serves with them (always the bane of my existence--a recipe sounds good but can't think what to serve with it). It's seen a lot of use and in fact, we are going to "borrow " the idea for a friend of ours this Christmas.
-- Colleen

Special Ornaments

Buy clear glass ornaments at discount craft stores. Then buy your favorite colors of acrylic paint on sale (of course!). Keep the containers the ornaments come in for later.

Decide on the color schemes for each ornament, generally no more than 2 or 3 colors per globe as the paints tend to blend too much and look muddy.

Remove the gold tops from the ornaments. Shake up the paint and using the lightest color first, squirt a small amount into the inside of the ornament. Tilt it so the paint swirls around the inside, don't cover the entire interior with one color though, let the excess drip out ( I just set it over a small paper cup and pour the excess back into the paint bottle later). Then squirt in your second color and swirl. The colors will blend and combine into new pretty combinations!

Continue adding paint until the entire inside is painted. Let excess drip out, some bare spots may appear, just add a little paint to cover. Let dry, this may take a few days (leave tops off ornaments), I put them in the containers I bought them in and turn them every few hours or so to help them evenly dry.

When ready, attach top back on and tie a piece of scrap ribbon around the top! Everyone from my 10 year-old niece to my picky uncle loved these!

Favorite color combinations any color with gold paint, blue and pink, green and yellow, red and white. Unfortunately, green and red doesn't look too good, the colors do not mix well! I don't think I spent more than $1.00 on each one!
-- Gail

Family Cookbook

The best inexpensive gift I've received was a family cookbook from my mother. The supplies to make it are simple, an inexpensive 2" binder, inexpensive paper protectors, paper, and the family! She collected the favorite recipes from every family member. She organized them, typed them and printed them. She then placed them in the binder. What makes this binder so special is that she included photocopied recipes from my deceased grandmother, whom I've never had the chance to meet. Her handwriting was preserved, an extra piece of history. The very last section contains pictures and information about each of our families. It contains info such as birth dates, wedding dates, etc. It is a wonderful gift that has been used many times. We continue to share our favorite recipes and my mother prints them out and sends us all copies to add to the binder.
-- MG

Dress-Up Chest for Kids

Last year for Christmas, my mom put together a dress-up chest for my kids. She bought an inexpensive, reusable box with a lid and decorated it with fabric paints, writing my kids' names on it. Then she went to yard sales and Goodwill and found excellent condition dress-up clothes - a wedding dress and veil, tu-tu's, a firefighter outfit, and a home-made dinosaur costume among many other things. (Anything that was way too big she cut down and hemmed) She also found wild hats and shoes and jewelry. It is one thing they play with literally every day, and when they have friends over everyone gets to dress up.
-- Laura

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