I found Oprah's show about How to Have the Thriftiest Holiday Ever to be FULL of practical and good frugal Christmas gift giving ideas that anyone can do.
Not only were the gift ideas for things that people would enjoy receiving, but they truly are easy on the budget.
Oprah's top tip?
This is the year to bring meaning back to the holidays.
My tip?
Every year is the year to bring meaning back to the holidays. This is a good year to get a good start!
Here is a list of some of the things that were included on the show to help us to be thrifty but to give some truly special gifts this Christmas.
HOT CHOCOLATE MIX IN A DECORATIVE BAG
Hot chocolate mix in cone gift bag – put in hot chocolate mix, marshmallows and chocolate chips. Tie it up. This can be done with a variety of jars, ribbons or bags, your imagination is your only limit.
SWAP PARTY
Everyone brings something and leaves with something. I wasn't clear, but I think it was used items because the lady said it cost nothing? Either way, it's a great idea that could work in a number of scenarios.
TOGETHERNESS FOR COUPLES – 12 DAYS OF FRUGAL CHRISTMAS DATES
Instead of gifts spend time together – go on 12 fun and inexpensive dates like bowling and an evening home baking cookies together.
WORDS FROM YOUR HEART MEAN ORE THAN ANYTHING MONEY CAN BUY – Oprah Winfrey
Oprah had numerous variations of creating notes for our loved ones or people we know or work with.
To make a great hostess gift, pass around note cards or papers to all of the guests, get them to write something nice about the hostess and then package them nicely in a box or gift bag and give them to her.
Use the same concept at your Christmas dinner. Pass around cards for each of your guests, a card to everyone for each guest. Get them to write something nice, then swap them all up to the righful owners and all the guests get to go home with a box full of nice things to keep.
MAKE A BEAUTIFUL BOX FOR GIVING AND KEEPING
They had some really pretty boxes decorated with a glue gun and wide ribbon or wrap and topped on the lid with things like pine combs and dried cranberries, one even had fresh roses. Any kind of box was used, shoe boxes were quite nice.
Oprah has templates that you can print out on card stock on her site.
Get all the information you need to make your gratitude boxes on Oprah's site.
A SLIGHT VARIATION ON THE NOTE THEME
I took a course for some volunteer work on a local help line. At the end, we all received a pretty notebook. We went through magazines and cut out pictures of what ever we wanted to put in our books. And then we passed the books around and everyone wrote something nice about the person who's notebook it was and returned it.
So in the end we had a really nice little notebook with nice things written about us by a group of truly inspirational and loving women. I still have it. It's a keeper, and so would a gift like this be from you to your loved ones.
GIVE A LETTER TO YOUR CHILDREN, NIECES AND NEPHEWS
Last year I had a last minute brainwave to write each of my kids a letter as well as 2 nieces and 3 nephews – my sister's kids who are all teenagers and early twenties now.
When my son saw what his cousin had he said, did you get a dorky letter. (Kid's, gotta love them). Ethan said, yeah and kind of laughed but I could tell that he liked it.
I am going to be doing it again this year and every year after.
What a great gift it would be to receive. I'm going to make a copy every year and put it int their treasure chest. You can read more about that fantastic idea below.
A TREASURE CHEST OF MEMORIES
This is a long awaited answer to the age old question – what to do with all of those kid's treasures?
Make them a treasure chest and give it to them for Christmas.
This is a gift of love that could, and should be started when your kids are young.
I sure do wish that I had been so imaginative from the beginning.
I've got quite a bit of stuff, but there are a lot of items that I wish I had now to create my own children's treasure chests with.
A box that actually looked like a small wooden treasure chest was used. It was just the right size to hold coloured office files, decorated with stickers and fancy lettering. A new twist on scrapbooking, which of course is another excellent personal gift.
The boxes make a nice piece of furniture that kids can keep forever on a shelf or on display anywhere.
Special treasures can be put in plastic sleeve or laminate.
A great tip on the show was to watch for boxes on sale and get when the getting's good – and cheap!
FOR MEN LOOKING FOR THE PERFECT GIFT – THAT DOESN'T COST MUCH EITHER
It's simple, get or make a nice box, write down the top 10 reasons you love her. Put them in the box.
It will be the best gift she receives this Christmas.
JUST ADD CHRISTMAS MUSIC
This is a great gift that you can give if you are really stuck for cash this Christmas but really would like to give something that will be appreciated and used for Christmas.
Oprah has a free Christmas Holiday music download for 48 hours – Holiday Hits 2008 with a label and cd cover printable.
It's available for 48 hours so be sure to get it right away.
All in all, Oprah had a show packed with great thrifty holiday tips that really can be used to save money over the holidays and have a great holiday.
I AM TOTALLY INTO DOING CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR
My favourite tool to keep me on track? My Big Christmas List.
I made it one morning when I couldn't sleep because I was stressing over what I had to do before the big day.
I thought that you might get some use out of it too, so I made it a printable and added a few more Christmas resources that I had handy for you to download.
No strings.
All you need to do is sign up so that I can send you some more ideas and resources that help me to stay organized and on top of things for Christmas as they pop up. You can see some of them on The Big Christmas List page.
I truly hope that you find it to be of use this Christmas.
Which is coming soon.
Real soon.
I'm not panicking. Really. At least not yet.
I'm just rehearsing :0)
Click here to get The Big Christmas List.
