Tons of inexpensive gift ideas

I was looking at some of the gift basket options at many of these sites. Gosh, they
are so expensive! Who can spend a fortune on Christmas presents? And even if you
have plenty of money to spend – wouldn’t you like to give a gift that says, “hey, I
really thought about what you would like.”

In this world of fast everything, it seems everything is so plastic, prepackaged and
cold. I don’t know many people who wouldn’t appreciate something homemade –
especially if it’s food!

So, here’s some ideas for creating your own custom Christmas gift baskets…

Get inexpensive baskets at your local dollar store, or Factory Card Outlet. While you’re at it, get one ornament to go in each basket.

You’ll want lots of pretty tissues paper to fill in the baskets and colored plastic wrap
to wrap the baskets, especially if you’re including food.

Homemade cookies, treats and truffles are always appreciated. You can put together
any combination of things like the popular people chow, covered popcorns, cookies,
truffles… You can find hundreds of Chocolate Recipes here >>>

Seasonal kitchen towels are always a good fill in. They get worn after a while. Almost
everyone could use some new ones.

Candles are always a good fill in item too. Especially if you are doing a chocolate gift
basket, you can get so many yummy smelling candles. Just don’t buy really cheap
candles. They don’t burn well, and their contents are questionable.

Here are a number of different themed baskets you can put together – 

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Christmas Décor Basket

Put together a couple of pretty ornaments, some kitchen towels, pot holders, maybe a serving plate, and a couple of Christmas scented candles. You could pick up one of those bags of scented pine cones and put a couple in each basket. You could spray or flock pine cones as an extra touch.

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Coffee Lovers Basket

Everyone is a coffee lover these days it seems. Make a gift basket with a couple of coffee mugs, some Starbucks, or another quality coffee, and maybe some chocolate dipped spoons, or some homemade cookies. Coffee lovers always need a good travel mug, and maybe a thermos, or thermal pot.

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Breakfast Lovers Basket

How about a breakfast gift basket? Include pancake mix, good quality maple syrup, other syrup flavors, precooked bacon, maybe even a griddle. You can include coffees or teas too, depending on how big you want to make it. Banana bread or pumpkin bread would be nice too.

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Hair Fanatics Basket

Hair care basket- If you know a young woman who doesn’t have a flat iron yet – put together a flat iron, heat protectant, and maybe nice shampoos like the Pantene Expressions Shampoo and Conditioner for their hair color. You can also add scrunchies and/or a good blow dry brush.

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Pampered Fingernails Basket

A quality manicure set, base coat, a couple nail polishes, top coat, cuticle cream, good hand lotion, and some emery boards. If you have a kiosk in your mall selling those nail care blocks, those are a great thing. I’ve had mine for years – and it was a gift.

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Pedicure Gift Basket

A pumice stone or one of those pedi egg things, some great smelling exfoliating cream, foot cream, cuticle cream, polishes.

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Body Luxury Gift Basket

A great smelling moisturizing body wash, a couple of those bath puff things, a good moisturizing lotion for the cold winter weather, like Jergens Ultra Healing, and maybe
a candle. Yes, you can buy ready made sets, but the stuff is usually low quality, and really – how many people really take baths?

Bath and Body Works is great for great smelling body washes, lotions, and body sprays.

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Holiday Chocolate Basket

Get 2 inexpensive mugs, some assorted flavored hot chocolates or coffees, some mint chocolate candy canes, and some holiday candies, cookies, or truffles that you made yourself.

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Cookie Towers

Have you seen the price of the cookie gift towers? If you are a cookie baker, put
together your own creations!

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Wine and Cheese Basket

Wine, cheese, crackers, truffles, and a couple of wine glasses would make a classy
basket.

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Lunch Basket

Know someone who always takes their lunch to work? How about a small cooler instead of a basket? And maybe some plastic containers filled with goodies that they can reuse?

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Cookie Bakers Basket

How about a cookie making kit? A cookie shooter or cookie cutters, flour, baking soda, baking powder, food coloring, chocolate chips, and sprinkles. Good quality cinnamon, vanilla and other spices or extracts. And who can’t use new cookie sheets? I got my cookie shooter for Christmas over 30 years ago, and I still use it.

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Golfers Basket

Golf balls, tees, new clean hand towels, and maybe a bottle of St. John’s Wart? How about some trick balls?

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Fisherman’s Gift Basket

Hooks and lures. Extra fishing line always comes in handy too. Most fishermen can use a new knife.

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Gardener’s Gift Basket

Seeds, gloves, kneeling pads or a stool, and new tools

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Car Fanatics Gift Basket

Wax, tire cleaner, and those special micro-fiber drying cloths.

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New Driver Gift Basket

Battery cables, tire gauge, flashlight, an extra set of wiper blades, that emergency tire filler stuff, gloves, a blanket, and a first aid kit. I’ve heard that Twinkies never go bad. Maybe throw in a box for laughs.

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Movie Lovers Gift Basket

A couple of movies, some popcorn, and movie candy like Milk Duds and Raisenettes.
Or you could do pizza and a movie.  Get a gift certificate from their favorite pizza
place.

Or tuck in a NetFlix subscription. Or even Amazon Prime.

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Readers Gift Basket

A couple of books, a reading light, a special bookmark, and maybe some cookies.

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Teens –

Teenagers love CDs and black lights. Yes, they still love that stuff. Colored light bulbs, strobe lights, lava lamps. If you don’t know exactly what CDs they want, just tuck in a gift card. The girls still love those glow necklaces too. And they all love chocolate! People chow is a great hit. The guys still like Jerky. I found this Cowboy Bison Jerky or Buffalo Bob’s Sampler Pack

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Green Clean Basket

Going green is all the rage these days. Unfortunately, a lot of natural cleaners really don’t work very well. I like the Method cleaners. They smell great, and they actually work pretty well. I especially like the wood cleaner, the granite cleaner, and the ylang-ylang daily shower spray smells heavenly. You can also get some of them at Target, and I think I saw them at Bed, Bath and Beyond. Even Jewel is starting to carry some of the Method products. Amazon has the biggest selection of Method cleaners. ( If you’re really, really nice, you can get her a copy of SecretConfessions of a Clean Freak.)

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Personalize Ready Made Gift Baskets

Gift sets are nice, but sort of  blah. How much thought did that take? Take the gift set out of the box and put it in a pretty basket. Add some candles, a good book or movie that they can relax with, or a warm cozy sweater or bathrobe, or even a pretty scarf and glove set.

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Cold Fighting Basket

Lets see, hat, scarf, gloves, vitamin C, vitamin D3, green tea,Echinacea, throat lozenges, and chicken soup.

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Ornament Exchanges

Instead of everyone trying to buys gifts for everyone, especially in a large family –an ornament exchange is a great idea. It’s a lot of fun. But even a single ornament can be made more special with just a little pretty basket, and maybe some homemade cookies or candy. You can make anything a little more special.

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Hot Kid Trend of the Year Baskets

Kids seem to love themes. You can find a DVD, coloring books, PJs, and a stuffed animal in the theme that they are into this year. You can find soaps and shampoos in character themes too.

Don’t forget, kids love to dress up any time of year. Costumes don’t have to be reserved for Halloween.

My daughter was always into dogs. So any package that had dogs, or dog related items was a hit. Most girls are into princess type things. Boys are usually into Ninja Turtles (yes, still), Super Heroes, Dinosaurs and Hot Wheels. Just ask their mother what character is their favorite this year and take it from there.

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Budding Artist Gift Basket

Art supplies are always a big hit for kids. Papers, sketchpads, colored pencils, markers, crayons, coloring books. We had gotten a few of those prepackaged artist sets over the years that sat and never got used. Get the stuff that they really will use, and you might be rewarded with some pictures for your refrigerator! If you ever want their mother to speak to you again, I would stay away from glues and glitters.

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An older child might like a T-shirt making kit. Avery makes some iron on sheets that they can print up on their printer and iron on to a t-shirt. You can even include plain t-shirts in assorted colors. Craft stores have all sorts of paints and options.

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Teachers

I’m sorry to tell you, but teachers get enough apple stuff to last them a life time. Candy too. If you really like the apple theme, how about a couple of real apples, some port wine cheese, and some wheat thins? You could add some green tea, or some relaxation candles. There’s not a teacher that I know of that wouldn’t like these thoughtful gifts.
They would also love hot chocolate and some wonderful homemade truffles.

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Stuffed Stocking

Pick up small hand lotions, shower gels, lip balms… Eyeliner, eye shadows, mascara, makeup brushes, gas cards, lottery tickets, chocolates, candy canes…

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You can add restaurant gift certificates, gas cards, any gift cards, and any homemade goodies to any baskets. I’ve given gift subscriptions to magazines – and people loved them for a long time to come. Some I just kept renewing for years because people loved
it.

Hopefully this will get your creative juices flowing!
And if you need extra help getting that house in order – use the schedules, tips and
checklists in Secret Confessions of a Clean Freak for the easiest ways to get your
house clean – and keep it that way – even through the holidays – with hardly any effort!

Download the words to all of your favorite Christmas songs >>> (right click on link,
and save target as…)

 

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