Holidays are here.... (Almost!!!) Traditions, anyone?

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Happyoceangirl
Happyoceangirl Posts: 1,993 Member
in Chit-Chat
Hi everyone... I can hardly believe it's November already - but here we are - Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's are around the corner. This year, I have less $$ than normal for gift giving .

Instead of getting depressed about limited finances, I decided to be proactive and solicit suggestions and ideas about how to bring the focus back to loved ones, and off of commercialism this season....

Anyone have special traditions that are fun, creative and unique that you'd like to share? Any homemade or unique gift ideas that are simple and affordable?

All ideas are welcome.... thanks!

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  • ourgang
    ourgang Posts: 229
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    Make cookiee jars. The jars you can find at many dollar stores and then you layer the ingrediance for the cookiees, make nice labels and gifts are ready...
  • jam0525
    jam0525 Posts: 1,681 Member
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    If you have kids this might work for you. My husband's family did it and we did it too. It saved lots of money.

    Presents from Santa aren't wrapped. They are just put with the child's stocking so they will know which ones are theirs. We told our kids Santa's too busy delivering all those presents to wrap and put name stickers on and that he could fit more presents in the sleigh without all the ribbons and bows.

    This also keeps the kids from realizing that Santa and Mom and Dad used the same wrapping paper. lol

    JAM
  • Mina133842
    Mina133842 Posts: 1,573 Member
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    my sister always makes us something nice - she sews, so we get new jammie pants, pillow cases, table cloths, whatever. My brother and his wife have a good sweet-hot mustard recipe - and they make us mustard and home-made jam every year. I do Christmas cookies, and make those every year, and apricot rolls. Those are always a big hit, I love the home-made stuff.
  • AlannaPie
    AlannaPie Posts: 349 Member
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    I went to Waldbaums and bought mason jars (about a buck each). I filled them with a whole bunch of different thing. Try googling gifts in a jar. I made Toffee Coffee, vanilla sugar, cinamon sugar. Get ribbon from the dollar store and make a cute tag from paper. Super Cheap!!!
  • Serenifly
    Serenifly Posts: 669 Member
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    I put up over 2000 lights in my house this weekend. .. lights are my tradition.

    come from a very untraditional family... it's all about gifts, lol and eggs benny's!
  • JMAMA
    JMAMA Posts: 298 Member
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    We draw names for siblings, now that we all have our own families. The tradition I am most excited for is our advent calendar. We acknowlede each day of advent with scripture readings, or other little special somethings, whatever will fit in the doors! I love to bake, so we usually bake some sort of goodie, and put it in fun packaging/tins from the dollar store!
  • Redneckwoman
    Redneckwoman Posts: 668 Member
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    We don't buy for freinds and family. We go to the local newspaper office and find out ages and sex of the children that need toys. We get approx. 10 toys, games, or craft supplies for the 10 different kids. We feel that the kids in our area need to know that there is a Santa Claus and he cares.
  • Happyoceangirl
    Happyoceangirl Posts: 1,993 Member
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    Those are great ideas... and inspiring. Redneckwoman... I love what you do! Must put a lot of the joy and spirit of giving back into the season.

    Mina... is there any chance you could score the sweet hot mustard recipe? That sounds like a fun-ky :) tradition to start!

    I used to always make a homemade gift for family members (usually something to do with photos) but got away from it. I think I"ll revisit that thought this year and buy inexpensive frames for cool photos. I also have a DVD program on my mac and might be able to make some neat digital scrapbooks. And CD's... (I'm not good with playlists, but if anyone has any Christmas / Holiday playlists that they would like to share, that would be awesome!)

    And, as for food tradtions / rituals... I'm thinking about attempting to bake a Christmas Eve cheesecake (recipes anyone?) and maybe the "gifts in a jar" idea would be good for domestically challenged me. :)
  • ittybittybadonkadonk
    ittybittybadonkadonk Posts: 11,634 Member
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    I make photo albums .... with fabric and anything at Michael's ... i make wedding ones , baby ones just about any occassions .... fabric hot glue and lil decorations and people love them since its a photo album
  • BrendaLee
    BrendaLee Posts: 4,463 Member
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    One of my favorite parts of the holidays (that we haven't done for the past couple of years, but are hopefully resuming this year) is the "just for the girls" party the ladies in my family have. We exchange gifts ($10 limit), play games with prizes and have a pot luck...kind of like a Christmas baby shower. It's a lot of fun.
  • Kelly11
    Kelly11 Posts: 75 Member
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    My brother, sister, and I are all in our 20's now, but my parents still continue our favorite tradition. Tucked in our stocking every year are three recipes from 3 people who've been a part of our lives that year -- professors, buddies, older friends, co-workers, etc... After all these years, we each have a recipe box with our last name on it, full of recipes from people we've known... My sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and boyfriend also recieve recipes now, too! My mom sends out a letter, blank recipe cards, and a stamped return envelope, and those involved always love sending one.

    It's pretty nice to have a boxful of recipes from the amazing people who have been a part of my life!
  • Happyoceangirl
    Happyoceangirl Posts: 1,993 Member
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    My brother, sister, and I are all in our 20's now, but my parents still continue our favorite tradition. Tucked in our stocking every year are three recipes from 3 people who've been a part of our lives that year -- professors, buddies, older friends, co-workers, etc... After all these years, we each have a recipe box with our last name on it, full of recipes from people we've known... My sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and boyfriend also recieve recipes now, too! My mom sends out a letter, blank recipe cards, and a stamped return envelope, and those involved always love sending one.

    It's pretty nice to have a boxful of recipes from the amazing people who have been a part of my life!

    That's a great idea - unique too - never heard of anyone doing it...
  • BrendaLee
    BrendaLee Posts: 4,463 Member
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    My brother, sister, and I are all in our 20's now, but my parents still continue our favorite tradition. Tucked in our stocking every year are three recipes from 3 people who've been a part of our lives that year -- professors, buddies, older friends, co-workers, etc... After all these years, we each have a recipe box with our last name on it, full of recipes from people we've known... My sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and boyfriend also recieve recipes now, too! My mom sends out a letter, blank recipe cards, and a stamped return envelope, and those involved always love sending one.

    It's pretty nice to have a boxful of recipes from the amazing people who have been a part of my life!

    That is a really neat idea.
  • Happyoceangirl
    Happyoceangirl Posts: 1,993 Member
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    I came across something else neat... Memory Jar. I approached my siblings, parents, cousins, aunties and uncles to collaborate on a project for grandma this year.

    It's super simple and perfect for an older person who really needs or wants very little. Everyone will write down favorite family memories and get prints of family photos to put in one jar - then she'll have memories to pull from and re-visit.

    Super affordable and meaningful. I think the fact that we're all coming together on this one project will mean as much as the memories themselves. :)
  • weaklink109
    weaklink109 Posts: 2,831 Member
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    I came across something else neat... Memory Jar. I approached my siblings, parents, cousins, aunties and uncles to collaborate on a project for grandma this year.

    It's super simple and perfect for an older person who really needs or wants very little. Everyone will write down favorite family memories and get prints of family photos to put in one jar - then she'll have memories to pull from and re-visit.

    Super affordable and meaningful. I think the fact that we're all coming together on this one project will mean as much as the memories themselves. :)

    Great Idea, and a wonderful way to compile family memories for the future.

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