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Gift giving should be a pleasure, it certainly should not promote stress and debt. Modern children expect modern, expensive gifts and the majority of the Christmas budget is saved in order to achieve the dream.

We all love to give Christmas presents, but worry about saying we can no longer afford to do so. Ways to help take the strain of additional festive expenditure is to make gifts for friends and family. Those who you know would appreciate the effort, meaning and reason behind the gift.

Search your home for all the items you put away in case they came in handy. The pretty ribbon, paper and card.

Make your own gift vouchers, make them to suit the person receiving it. Fold a piece of card and decorate it.

Print GIFT VOUCHER on the front and on the inside add THIS VOUCHER ENTITLES THE BEARER TO:

Then add what ever the voucher is for, (see ideas below). To make an envelope this site has free templates for you to follow. Cheap paper and card can be found in many stationers, choose festive bright colours to make them look a little more special. Paper glue and glitter are also cheap to buy, let your creative side shine.

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A Babysitting Gift Voucher:

Offer one sitting free per so many months, weeks etc. What parents wouldn’t want a free sitting service knowing their child is in good hands?

A DIFY Gift Voucher : For Male or Female 

Do It For You…Make a gift voucher offering a service, one you know they need and you can do for them. Painting a room, offering the paint and time as the gift. Digging over a garden, clearing it or replanting it. A packet of seeds inside the card would also make the gift a little more special. There are many things that could be offered on a DIFY Gift Voucher, just think of who would like to receive one.

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A FBIPMFAY Gift Voucher: A Free Baked Item Per Month For A Year.

This voucher entitles the holder to one baked item per month for a year. Who wouldn’t be delighted to receive a baked goody, a delectable delight, a scrumptious surprise, every month? Food is a great way to show you care.

A SJOJ Voucher: A Six Jars of Jam/Jelly Voucher.

Whatever fruit is in season, make jam/jelly and give it in a jar with a pretty fabric top. The gift will be well received as the surprise is in the jar. What flavour have you sent this month?

These are just a few ideas to get you started. Use your imagination, make up your own codes for vouchers, get creative and enjoy the gift of giving without breaking your budget.

When you do your Christmas shopping without prior planning you’ll spend most of your time ‘humming’ and ‘hurring’. Take a notebook and pen, list out the people you intend to buy a gift for, a rough idea of what to get them and the kind of shops you should look in.

Use the list you plan your trip, get the single pieces first and drop them at home or in the car. You don’t want to be carrying too much through the crowds.

2) Aim for the larger stores

The smaller shops can be just as busy but less staffed than larger department stores. This means longers waiting in lines. You can also find more room to move in larger stores.
Larger stores also carry a wider variety of products so you can get more in one go and find more of a choice while you’re at it.

3)Don’t be afraid to use gift cards!

Younger people tend to be very specific in their desires but with older people, if you can’t think of what to get them, get them a gift card!

Most shops these days offer gift cards. From as little as £5 you can preload a card with credit for that particular store and give them an option of selecting the gift themselves.

You can also get specialist gift cards offering things from grow your own grapes to skydiving, these gifts can vary widely in price but there are some pretty interesting gift ideas.
4) Enlist a friend

Christmas shopping does not have to be done alone. By bringing a friend you not only make it a social experience, but you’ll have someone to help carry the bags and give their opinion on gift ideas.

The only downside here is, if you want to get that friend a gift you’ll have to go separately or distract them.

5) Get delivery Enlist a friend

Most of the larger stores offer a delivery service. A lot of this time this is free if your purchase is above a certain value. You can get an item delivered to your house to save on carrying or you can get it delivered directly to the recipient.

Be warned, however, that the postage services are likely to be very busy around the holiday period. I would only use postage delivery if you get your shopping early enough.

6) Have some extra gifts

We are only human. We’ve all been in the situation where we’ve either forgotten someone, or someone has got you a gift and you haven’t got them anything.

Don’t rely on the ‘it’s in the mail’ excuse, we all know it’s fake. Have a few extra generic gifts wrapped but unnamed. If you need them, use them. If you don’t then keep them for next year or even give them as additional gifts.

7) Use the internet

We use the internet for everything these days, why should Christmas shopping be any different? You can get gift ideas, research products, compare prices and even do the actual shopping online.

Remember!

Just remember the festive period is meant to be fun. Don’t get too overly stressed, stop for a coffee and try and enjoy it.

Sometimes people friends and family seem to have everything. Or maybe you don’t know enough about someone to form a good idea of what they want. Don’t worry. You can still get a great generic gift, which appeals to everyone, for a low price.

How to chose a Christmas gift

When you’re deciding what to get for someone, don’t focus on what you dont know about them. Focus on what you do know. How old are they? How mature are they? Are they a night in or a night out person? An indoors or outdoors person? When you’re staying generic basic details like these are all you need.

The problem with generic gifts

There is one problem with generic Christmas gifts. You want to stay generic without being boring. Don’t commit too much to something you’re not sure they’ll like, but you don’t want to buy them book ends. Book ends never make good gifts, if people want them they already have them.

The benefit of generic gifts

If you find an interesting but generic gift, you can’t go wrong. It doesn’t say ‘I know you well’ but it won’t say ‘I know nothing about you’ either. Getting someone a generic Christmas gift is a safe bet if you’re not sure what to get them.

Finding a cheap generic christmas gift

Finding the gift is really not that hard. When you have the basic idea of the person then go with what you know. The internet is a huge help here.

If, for example, they’re an outdoors person. A quick Google of ‘outdoors person gifts’ will throw you a whole range of ideas. The same idea will work with pretty much any type of person. You’d be surprised what you can find by being vague with a search engine.

Another idea is the ‘gadget shops’, There are a whole range of these now and it’s likely there is one in your area. These shops usually have a range of smaller items for around $10. They’re novelty items but they make great generic gifts for the young or the young at heart.

The best generic Christmas gifts

If you don’t have a specific idea, the best thing to go for is a book or DVD. With the book aim for something humorous like a parody or a comic strip. I don’t mean Superman or anything, Something which can be appreciated by everyone like ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ or ‘Dilbert’ to a lesser extent.

With the DVD, if you don’t know a specific genre stick with a classic. You’re better getting them a classic they already have but like, than a genre they hate and would never watch. If you’re at a complete loss, phone and ask if they have that DVD so you could borrow it.

In the end remember, it’s the thought that counts. Don’t stress out over getting the perfect gift. A gift is a gift and they’ll appreciate it either way.

For the gamer in your life, it’s pretty obvious. Give them a PLAYSTATION 3 game console (unless they already have it). It’s not the cheapest present in the world – setting you back $300. With the new option to download Netflix movies, Playstation 3 is bound to be on a lot of people’s wish lists.

For the college student on your list, the item they just shouldn’t live without is the LIVESCRIBE PEN. Now don’t think I’m suggesting a simple, little pen…oh, no. This is a pen that’s right out of the Jetson’s future universe. Let’s say you’ve taken notes during a lecture. The pen will record your audio, and when you place your pen over a section of the notes you took, the pen will play the audio that was recorded at that exact moment you wrote down those notes! Pretty awesome, right? The LiveScribe pen can be found at Amazon or Target for $170.

For children, the hot gift is the PLEO DINOSAUR. On sale now for $250 at Amazon. How can a dinosaur cost that much? Well, this dinosaur is actually a robot that reacts to its environment and can express emotions. It’s being marketed as a Ugobe life form. Freaky, but pretty damn cool. It starts out as a 1 week-old newborn and grows over time. So, you’ll want to make sure the recipient of this gift has the patience to put up with the sleepy and somewhat inactive new “pet” for a bit of time before it “grows up”.

 I prefer to get creative with wrapping, then simply using paper and bags. I have listed some suggestions that I have used.

 Fabric

 You can wrap a gift in fabric that can be reused, such as a towel or even a t-shirt that will be worn by the individual opening it.

 A Shoebox

 If you have an old shoe box in the house, you can place the gift into the shoebox, and then decorate it environmentally. If you have children, ask them to color on the box.

 Tin Cans

 Last year I made cookies for my neighbor, and placed them inside a reused coffee tin, the large ones. I then proceeded to wrap it in fabric and tied a ribbon around it. I also added a candy cane to the ribbon. My neighbors loved it; they ate the cookies and can reuse the tin. I had leftover white fun fur which I had purchased long before I had become green with organic type of fabrics, so I used the white fun fur to make it look like snow.

 Baskets

 Baskets can be used over and over again and make a great container to place the gifts inside of. Then you can use a towel to wrap it so they can not see what is contained inside the basket.

 This year do your best to recycle objects you have at home to limit waste of paper being thrown out from gift wrapping. These are only a few suggestions, I am sure many can come up with others. Another wonderful idea is placing gifts inside of another gift. Does someone in your life need pots? You can place socks and other objects within the pots as a way of containing and wrapping them. Then you tie a ribbon around the pot to hold it together.

 Check out your local Salvation Army and Good Will stores for other creative containers. I have been pleasantly surprised to find boxes and other objects to use for gift wrapping when visiting second hand stores and yard sales.

If you want your gift to look classy, don’t overdo it. Stick to two complementary colours. You can easily buy paper, bows and ribbons in red, green, gold and silver so pick two colours from these. A properly wrapped present should be done with paper, ribbon and a bow. The third item should contrast with the other two.

If you want to look really impressive and set off a present, use a gift bag. These flattened card bags are easily be available in the shops and they don’t cost much really. The great thing about them is that when you receive them you can use them again, so put them away for next year – just don’t forget and send them back to the person who gave you it in the first place!

If you want to give somebody a bottle of wine, you could use a gift bag or follow these simple steps to a perfectly wrapped bottle. You need three large square sheets of sugar paper, a rubber band and a length of ribbon. Add a bow if you like to make it look even better. Place the three sheets of paper in a pile and place the bottle upright in the middle. Pull the sheets up round the bottle and scrunch it up round the neck. Fasten the rubber band around the neck of the bottle to hold the paper in place and tie the ribbon around the neck to hide the rubber band and finish off with your bow stuck to the front.

So a little effort and very little expense will have your presents looking perfect and the person who receives it will know you really care.

The best way to plan to make birthday gift baskets is to gather all the supplies ahead of time.  If you are lucky enough to have an area in your home that you can devote to making gift baskets, then you can keep your supplies organized.  Even if you do not have a spot that you can use as a permanent workstation, you can keep your supplies and gifts neatly stored by using large plastic bins.

Whenever you go to the store, look for bargains for your birthday gift baskets.  When you get the items home, group them by category.  You can have a box for items sorted by color, category, or logo.  For example, if you have plenty of items in the color pink, you will be prepared when you need a present for a teen-aged girl.

For a teenaged girl, a birthday gift basket might include a pink journal, pink pen, pink pencils, pink bubble bath, a pink nightgown, and pink slippers.  For a man, you might have blue pajamas, a blue hat, blue coffee mug, and blue socks.

You can plan birthday gift baskets by theme.  Collect items slowly over time whenever you see something on clearance.  You can give a Superman themed basket, Barbie themed basket, or baskets featuring Winnie the Pooh, Bratz, Tinkerbell, or Hello Kitty.

In addition to making birthday gift baskets, you can make them for other occasions.  You can stock up on baby items like bottles, pacifiers, bibs, bath sets, and rubber duckies.  When you hear that someone at the office is having a baby, you will easily be able to put together a gift basket in no time flat.

It does make it much simpler when you already have supplies on hand at home.  Keep a plastic tub with all the necessary items to make birthday gift baskets.  Include the following: extra baskets, tape, cellophane, ribbons, bows, and gift cards. 

You will be able to make gift giving easy and stress-free when you make birthday gift baskets.  The best part is that the recipients will be so happy and excited to receive such thoughtful and personal gifts.  They will never know how easy it really was!

We know that wrapping gifts with alternatives to the pricey gift wrap is inexpensive but people don’t realize that it does not, by any means, have to come across as cheap! Instead you could be the artistic one who’s skill and craftiness everyone admires.

The ways to gift wrap presents without spending cash and killing any more trees are endless. You can reuse the wrapping material you already have or create wrap from non conventional methods.

Using pages from the magazines to wrap gifts is a great way to go. Everyone has random magazines and tons of papers lying around the house that are most likely collecting dust. Look through them and you’ll find that they have cool looking pages, it doesn’t matter if it’s an advert or a photo shoot. Test try wrapping a book up in one of them, it comes out quite nice. Make sure the wrap is appropriate for a recipient, you don’t want to wrap your guys video game with something that has pretty butterflies on it, or that little girls hair set wrapped up with a cool biker dude on it.

Here are a few quick samples:

• This One was actually filled with chocolates as a small Valentines day gift. It was made with a square of scrap booking paper found amongst other crafts stuff, piece of old rope, lip sticker from few Valentines ago, scrap heart bead and a random tag I found and painted.
• This is a page from a photo shoot I believe, the golden part is pants and the rest might be a couch! Add some ribbon if you can find and voila!
• The IT LIST is great, especially if the gift is beauty or fashion oriented.
• Another very cute one.

All of these were made by using the pages of just one magazine, instead of gift wrap. News paper could look really cool as gift wrap but it is better to stick to magazines as their ink wont smudge and smear all over the place. Another great idea is getting printer paper (this works for bigger gifts too as you can tape the pieces together) and painting it yourself. Paper bags and plain manila rope also do well. Wrap the gift up into the paper bag, use the string to tie it instead of the bow and stick an interesting looking branch or flower under it on the top.

Something as simple as just a cardboard box with a ribbon can look very classy.

There are a lot of cool shaped candy boxes out there, you can have them emptied and cleaned then painted and they come out amazing as gift boxes. If you are more crafty or if you know how to sew and have some fabric (be it store bought meant for crafts or a top that you don’t wear anymore) you can also sow gift wrap. This works especially good with bottled gifts, or smaller ones for which you can sow gift baggies.

However you decide to wrap your gift without using any gift wrap make sure that it compliments either the present or the recipient of it in some way. The point is to make use of what you already have lying around, and be creative with it, rather than going out and buying more stuff and creating more waste.

As I brainstormed, I thought of a few ideas that almost anybody could use. For under twenty dollars, I bought a nice gift bag for my friend that she enjoyed very much and that also had a personal touch.

1. Homemade gifts

• Homemade gifts are the most personal gifts as well as the easiest gifts for anybody! With google, you can look up just about any recipe and bake a cake, cookies, pie or any other dish that you desire. Everybody enjoys food!
• Cards. For many people, especially family, homemade cards are better than a store bought card! Spend time making a beautiful card and write something meaningful inside. The phrase “it’s the thought that counts” is true!
• IOU coupons. Make tiny coupons for that says things like “I owe you one free babysitting night!” or “I owe you one complain free dish washing day!”. Twenty or so of these are clever and fun, especially for somebody like your mother who already has a lot to do!
• If you are close to the person (like a best friend or you mother) make a photo frame, print out a photo of the two of you and give it to them! It is very personal and thoughtful.

2. Candy and flowers

• Nobody can turn down candy! A nice box of chocolates is a simple gift that anybody can enjoy! It is also very inexpensive.
• Flowers can cost more but are another thing that everybody enjoys. You can choose flowers as simple as diasies or you can opt to buy a dozen roses if the person is very special to you.

3. Gift cards

• If you have money but simply do not know what to buy a person, buy a gift card! Gift cards give people the freedom to buy whatever they want. Choose a store you know the person visits regularly (Walmart, Target etc etc). A majority of people put twenty dollars on a gift card and put it inside a card.

4. Other gifts

• If you know somebody personally, these are some other gifts that you can buy for them if you are still stuck:

• iTunes music card
• Cds
• Clothing
• Shoes
• Cute purse
• Makeup!

Anything that you know they’re interested in (art supplies, books, sports balls etc)

I hope that you’ve gained a few ideas from the article!

Unlike moms who are happy to receive a card, a bouquet of flowers, a box of candy or a simple phone call on Mother’s Day, dads are not that easy.

Some of dads have not bought any new clothes since The Backstreet Boys were hot and how many times have you bought your dad a gift for Father’s Day, only to see it at the bottom of his closet or worse yet, placed in a bag for Goodwill!?!

Below are some cheap, but effective Father’s Day gift ideas, so that your dad will receive something that he will enjoy and you do not have to spend a lot of money on a gift that mysteriously found its way to the garage:

• Try something he likes–You might not like fishing, going to the golf range or watching NASCAR, but it doesn’t hurt try something your dad likes on Father’s Day. A week or so before the big day, find out what your dad’s favorite activity is and make plans. If he loves the Daytona 500, find out which sports bar or restaurant will be showing the race and make an afternoon or evening of it, (if he has some buddies who like the same thing, invite them too). Even if you don’t know who Kyle Busch is, at least you can eat a good meal and spend some quality time with your dad.

• Buy a gift with big type—Most dads are too vain to admit that their eyes are going bad. If this is the case, buy your dad a gift with big type. If he squints when dialing the home phone phone, buy a new phone with bigger numbers. If he holds his watch 20 feet away from his eyes, buy one with big numbers. If he has been having trouble reading his favorite book like “The Bible”, buy him a version with larger print. Your dad might not embrace your big type present right away, but don’t be surprised a few months after Father’s Day, he will be telling you the time without holding his watch two inches from his face.

• Create a DVD box set–Did your dad become a fan of HBO’s “The Wire” during its last season or maybe he is secretly a fan of Army Wives, but doesn’t want you to tell your mom, well this is a great way to buy something that he will enjoy. Go to Amazon.com or a local store that trades DVDs and pick up a box set of your dad’s favorite show(s) for a cheap price. Better yet, buy single go to the same store and build a 3-4 DVD box set of your dad’s favorite films or actors. Build a few sets, so you can give him “Clint Eastwood -The Dirty Harry Years” on Father’s Day, “Clint Eastwood-The Western Years Part 1” on his birthday and “Clint Eastwood The Oscar Years”on Christmas.

• Set up his DVR-Although setting up Tivo or a DVR seems pretty simple, for some dads it is more confusing than programing the VCR! On Father’s Day, find out what your father’s favorite shows are and set up his Tivo/DVR to record them each week. By doing this, your dad not get see his favorite shows whenever he wants, but you don’t have to drive 100 mph to his house each week to record C.S.I before The Who starts playing.

• Give him a tie…box– Although the title of this article is “Don’t buy your dad another tie for Father’s Day”, this is not say that you can’t buy him one. On Father’s Day, give your dad a nicely wrapped tie box, which will include a gift certificate to his favorite clothing store. Tell him to choose a day and both of you will go tie shopping. By doing this, you will not only get a chance to bond with your father, (and find out what he looks for in clothing), but he will finally receive a tie on Father’s Day that he will actually wear

There is no guarantee that your dad will like any of these gifts, but odds are that he will at least appreciate the effort and that alone could make this year’s Father’s Day special.