Holiday Favorites...Gift Edition!

I thought I would share some things that I loved about the Christmas gifts that we gave.  You could incorporate these ideas into any gift giving occasion, not just Christmas!
1. Make your gift tags personal!

So personal in fact that you trace your child's hand onto a piece of paper, scan the image into your computer, and then use Photoshop Elements to come up with a cute design!  Always a crowd pleaser these gift tags were a huge hit! Everyone loved having one of Charlotte's hand prints! I actually saw people making sure to take the tag off of the bow before it was thrown away so they could save it!

2. Go personalized

These adorable melamine trays from PaperDoll Designs are super cute and practical (can you say dishwasher safe?!?).  They are so durable and yet pretty enough that you would be proud to take cookies on this tray to a group get together!

3. Make something that someone would love but doesn't have time to make themselves

If you missed my post about Blurb books and my intense love for them you can check it out here.  I knew that Kelly doesn't have tons of free time what with an energetic toddler and working as a pharmacist so I thought I'd put together a book of her blog posts.  I know I treasure my blog book and I'm pretty sure she was just as excited to receive hers!

4. Make it easy on yourself, make a system to group presents!

This year I found this adorable red and white houndstooth paper at Hobby Lobby.  I chose to wrap all of the presents (that I could find appropriately sized boxes for) in this paper so that I wasn't switching out rolls all the time.  Then I used a different colored raffia ribbon on presents for each family unit.  That way it was simply a matter of grabbing everything with the same ribbon color in order to get all the presents that we needed to take to a certain gathering! Make sure you make a key of your colors though otherwise you'll be running back and forth to the three to remember what color goes with which family! :)

On a sidenote, I bought two rolls of the houndstooth paper from Hobby Lobby.  I wrapped ALL of our extended family packages in that paper (there were a lot of presents!).  I still have paper left on the first roll! Their rolls are so long that it seems like they're never going to run out! So if you're in my family, be expecting houndstooth wrapped packages for years to come!

5. Start a collection

Jason is hard to shop for.  The things that he would like are usually things that I know nothing about (golf clubs) and so have a hard time shopping for.  I gave him a watch for his wedding present and he has always talked about how he would love to have a different watch to wear every day.  So this year I started his watch collection.  I shopped online sites like Gilt and Rue La La to find designer watches at discount prices!  And I was able to give him a new watch and a watch case for Christmas! Now, whenever I'm stuck on what to give him I can always find a new watch!

6. Start shopping early and shop discounts!

I'm not a big coupon person.  I'll clip ones for diapers or things that I always buy but I'm not one of those people that will do anything I can to save on groceries.  But I LOVE saving on presents.  Christmas can be so expensive and I don't like to scrimp on presents for others so I start shopping early.  This helps spread the cost out over many months but also helps me be on the lookout for deals on items that I know I want to get.  I've found that I end up spending more the closer to Christmas it gets because I'm more desperate to find a present and get the name checked off of my list!

This does take some organization because you have to be on the lookout for gifts a long time before Christmas but I've found that I can find more meaningful gifts that way.  I have also found online discount sites and how much they can save you!  Gilt, Rue La La, The Mini Social, and One Kings Lane are invitation only websites that sell designer items (think Kate Spade, Vera Wang, Melissa and Doug toys...) at hugely discounted rates.  If you are interested in an invitation to one of these places email me and I'll send you an invite because some of the sales are truly fantastic!

7. Pictures of your kids are always appreciated!

With the prices of prints from photographers reaching new heights every year prints of your kids are always a good bet.  Some photographers (the best kind!) sell a cd of all of the prints that you can buy and reprint from.  This allows you to reprint up to the allowed size and frame those prints for your family for presents.  Hobby Lobby has their frames (which are a pretty great quality with a good selection of frame type) half off almost every week.  You can reprint pictures at your local drugstore but I've found a site called MPix that prints professional quality photos and it's just as simple as uploading to one of the other online photo sites.  Your pictures will look much better printed from MPix than from elsewhere.  The prints are about 10 cents more than those printed elsewhere but MPix has a staff that color corrects your photo's and the higher quality photo paper is (to me) well worth the 10 cents.  Unless you were ordering hundreds of prints you're only talking about a dollar or two difference.  And the pictures get mailed right to your house in just a few days!