Gift-giving stress - the cost, the time it takes to search for perfect gifts, the pressures of having to buy more and more gifts as families expand. We asked you how you keep family gift-giving fun and affordable. Here are the best of your replies.
• I make up professional-looking gift certificates for meals or evenings at my place. Not only is this a gift of a meal but also a gift of my time and company, which makes the gift one-of-a-kind. I've given out the following gift certificates:
- Watch a movie and eat munchies at my apartment (cheaper than going to the movie theatre).
- Have coffee and homemade dessert (cheaper than going to a café).
- Have a home-cooked meal (can't be purchased at a restaurant).
-Susan Chung, Toronto
• One thing we do that's a lot of fun is play a little game. Everyone has to buy a small gift (under $10), wrap it up and bring it along. Then everyone gets three name tags (we usually use words like tree, christmas, etc.) Matching tags go into a bowl. As your first tag is pulled, you have the option of taking a gift from those not selected or taking one away from someone (if you already have a gift you exchange yours with them). This goes on, around and around, until there are no tags left and everyone ends up with a gift.
As you can imagine, half the fun is decorating your gift up to look like it's something really fantastic! Last year my father wrapped up a BIG empty box (he had slipped some lottery tickets into the cardboard top). Well, everyone wanted it. My daughter finally ended up with it. You can imagine her face when she opened it and couldn't find anything.
He insisted there was a present - she just had to look! After virtually taking the box apart, she found the lottery tickets, scratched them and ended up winning $25! So it really did end up being the best gift after all!
-Lori Pennell, via Internet
Page 1 of 6 -- Bake a gingerbread house, or donate to a local toy drive this year. Find more gift-giving ideas on page 2
