Making Christmas Gifts

Gift Baskets make good gifts. Now in the summer yard sales are inundated with baskets for sale and even for free. You can pick one up and fill it with good stuff for gift giving at Christmas. In December a few nice bars of chocolate and a box of celmentines beautifully arranged in a basket makes a nice gift. Decorate with a vintage ornament and some paper. Another nice gift is a bottle of wine and two glasses, place in a basket add cheese, crackers and decoration for show and for under $30 you have a great gift. Or create a spa gift basket: buy a scented candle (for a dollar at a yard sale), get some nice bath salts mix in a bigger jar with some plain Epsom Salts, buy a nice bar of soap and small towel or luffa sponge. Add a good book. Put it all together for a spa basket.
For family, I sometimes make family photobooks. It's so easy to print these out now. Wait for the sale at Rite Aid to print digital photos. I consider a good digital camera a money saving tool these days because you don't have to print every picture. Another nice gift can be made by taking a child's artwork and framing it in a nice frame for Grandma. This doesn't cost much when the frames are bought now at yard sales for a dollar. Also think about picking up stuff at yard sales for Christmas. I often come across stuff still in the original packaging. Watches are good too. They usually go for a dollar and just need a new battery. People get rid of them when the battery dies consequently they don't have much wear. Sometimes I even find them still in the box. My husband has become the Master of watch repair. He finds and fixes watches and we give them away as gifts. Get your batteries online. We used to get our batteries at Radio Shack, but if you know exactly what you need, it's always cheaper online. This is true of almost everything. I was going to Claire's to buy earring stoppers to secure my vintage brooches. They cost me five bucks for ten. Ouch. I still thought it was a bargain because nowadays the pin cost too much to replace. But once I knew the right name. I started buying them on line for a fraction of what they cost me at Claire's.