Holiday! Celebrate! Being Creative for the Holiday Season
Yippee! The holidays are coming up! It is my favorite time of the year, from Thanksgiving to Christmas and New Year’s. It’s the time when I play my favorite holiday songs and make homemade cookies, and share my holiday cheer. Ah I know it sounds a bit corny, I do, but I can’t help it. I love the feeling of being around good family and friends over good meals, and giving gifts that puts a smile on their faces. It is also the best time of the year to be incredibly creative. One thing that I know and felt like many others, the holidays can also do a bit of damage in your pockets. So sometimes if you not always financially stable you had to get creative in giving presents. One good example I can bring forth is my years in college. That is defiantly a time where we all agree that the pockets being fairly light (ramen noodle diet and all).
One of my favorite things to do is cook and bake. So during the holidays after finals when it came to giving away presents, I would make chocolate chip cookies and brownies, and package them as gifts. In addition include a holiday card wishing them well for the holidays. I would normally give away about 12 gifts or so and I would be able to achieve all of that for under $15.00!
How’s that for holiday budgeting? Therefore for this holiday season I challenge you, to create of budget of no more the $20.00 to create presents to give away to 10+ or so people. Now mind you, you don’t have to bake, if that’s not your thing. However seek out ideas from some of these amazing websites like: Pinterest, Uncommon Goods, and Craftsy. Or get ideas from blog sites like A Beautiful Mess, and Brit & Co just to name a few. My biggest advice would be to create your gifting list early so you can set some time to come up with some creative gifting ideas.
One might argue that these holidays are all for commercial purposes. I would disagree, its only that way if you make it that way. The purpose of giving alone isn’t about monetary value, it’s about your love, respect, and honor of the person you’re giving it to. There are many types of gifts, handmade one’s are just a one of a kind treat. Here is my impromptu idea for the week: Take the challenge I have presented to you above, using only $20.00, find a way to create gifts for 10+ people. Start off with a list and check it twice.
“It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”
― Mother Teresa