Tag Archives: Christmas

Last Minute Gift Ideas

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So it’s just before Christmas and you’re hoping to avoid the insanity at the mall. So far you’ve done pretty good, you ordered presents on Etsy and books from Amazon. You bought your friends gifts from bloggers’ websites. But now, there’s an unexpected person showing to a party, a Yankee swap you didn’t know about etc. etc.

What do you do?

You get creative. You use your mind. You re-gift something beautiful.

Here are some other quick suggestions:

* Holiday scratch tickets. Gift the give of surprise, suspense and possibly a lot of money!
* Cookies, bread etc. etc. in a jar. Make your own with suggestions here and here.
* Tea, coffee, with cookies and chocolate, made into a beautiful basket.
* An orange in the bottom of an old fashioned stocking, someone’s bound to appreciate the old tradition.
* Give a book that really meant something to you


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* Or how about an IOU for a shared experience? Fondue and a movie? Ice skating over cranberry bogs? A train ride to see millions of lights?

* After Christmas every year my mom spends a small amount of money to buy TONS of left over Christmas stuff. It’s usually at least 75% off and she gets candles, decorations, holiday soaps, plates, whatever it is that she really likes. In our basement it’s like we have a mini gift shop with stacks of cards, recycled bags and last year’s (or the year before that, or before that) goodies.  This makes it easy the next year to make beautiful baskets or leave something special for our mail person (although, to be honest, our mail person is terrible this year, so she probably isn’t getting any festive candles or anything else).


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What are your favorite last minute gifts?

Dear Santa,

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Dear Santa, here are some Christmas cookies. I didn’t make them but I imagine you’ll like them just the same.

I’m leaving you some carrots, too. (Can you imagine liking carrots so much you tattooed them to your leg?)

Please share them with the reindeer.

I left you my wish list yesterday, but don’t sweat about it. I hope you have a great Christmas!

<3.Melanie.Kristy

Reaching Out This Holiday Season

Posted in faith, festive, volunteer by
If you do one thing for someone this Christmas, buy one present or spend your time doing anything festive, I suggest that you take the time/ few dollars/ thoughts to do something for someone else. I suggest you spend a half of a day volunteering at a homeless shelter, buying Tom’s Shoes  for yourself and all of your friends or dropping off some  home made goodies at your local soup kitchen. I’ve spent a lot of time already the past few weeks trying to think of what I can and what I should do for someone this holiday.
 

Last week I was reading Notes From The Frugal Trenches  in my Google Reader and came upon this  post. The post is about an organization called China Kidz  that helps “provide specialist children’s palliative care services for abandoned children and a community care service to families, aiming to support them and avoid the pressure to abandon their sick baby/child.” You can post a comment on the blog posts if you’re interested in helping out. Frugal Trenches will send out an email later this week to anyone interest in participating and Frugal Trenches will pair you with a child. Each child is in deperate need of sweaters and leggings to keep him or her warm and also maybe a toy or two.

I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity for me to start off this season. Sure it may feel a little too early for Christmas, but it’ll be here quicker than you can imagine!

Please let me know if you are going to help out! 

This is not the last time you’ve heard from me about doing something for someone else. But it’s definitely one of the first times that I feel like I’m starting to really be active in doing something. Sure, I own TOMS, I took THE WALK  with Hanson a few times and I spent a week volunteering in Washington, DC during my freshman year of college. But of all the time I spend at my house, all the money I spend on things I do not need I know that I can do more for someone else.

<3.Melanie.Kristy