Christmas Gift Ideas and Traditions

Cost cutting stocking stuffers

Shop the Walmart after-Christmas sale for bath products, small toys, and Christmas-themed items. Save for following Christmas.

Target $1 or the Dollar Store are also good, but be aware of small pieces, lead paint, and choking hazards. Dollar Store has good selection of tiny puzzles — great for stockings.

I place the following items in the stocking: M&M filled train or candy dispenser, Pez, small notebook/book/pencils, puzzle, small game. I make sure each child has exactly the same number of items. I don’t wrap gifts in the stocking. The stockings are always lying on the coffee table as our stocking holders are not sturdy and would fall off the mantle shelf if I hung the filled stockings. Note: My younger kids don’t read my blog, so will think stocking comes from Santa!

Less expensive toys

Purchase amazon.com Prime shipping. Before purchasing any toy, I check amazon Prime items, then purchase. I save alot of $$ by shopping amazon Prime. Free shipping!!

I purchase gifts throughout the year for my kids who are 10-and-under. Once the preteen/teen years hit, my children do not decide on what they wante until late November. Younger kids like themed items. I stockpiled Thomas engines from Toys R Us sales, Diego items, Barbies, American Girl accessories purchased on clearance from AG, and Bob the Builder.

Books, books, and more books — Our schools have a fall Book Fair. I let the children chose 2-4 books. I save one for Christmas. Sometimes not cheap, but proceeds go back to school. This year my son chose a book/play set called Lego Brickmasters Castle. Puzzle books are also good. Coloring books for little kids with crayons or markers.

Craft kids — Target, Walmart, Toys R Us always have a range of craft kits for $10 or less.

Sets of animals or action figures — Toys R Us have sets of safari, jungle, dinosaurs. My son got a construction vehicle set one year — it was $9 and contained 5 vehicles and accessories.

And of course, the absolute cheapest toy out there is the toy/CD/DVD/game won in a giveaway from a blog! I won a Nintendo DS, which I gave to my son for his birthday. I also won a Flip video camera — not sure which kid is getting it.

Decorations for your home

Nativity scenes — I have 3 children so having three nativity sets helps — we have a Lladro set, which was a wedding present, a Little People set, and a Hallmark set. Each child sets up their own scene. We place Baby Jesus in the manger when we come home on Christmas Eve.

Christmas tree — We use a fake tree. Lights, tinsel, decorations with a Christmas train around the base of the tree.

Christmas village — Years ago, my mother purchased items for the It’s A Wonderful Life village. We set it out each year always on top of a white fabric. I sprinkle fake snow on top of the fabric.

Foods to prepare for your Christmas dinner — I’m English so I “bring to the table” Christmas crackers, sausages wrapped in bacon, bread sauce, Christmas pudding with white sauce, Christmas cake. My husband is American so he brings green bean casserole, stuffing biscuits, sweet potatoe casserole, and pumpkin pie.

Holiday Gift Guide Preview

Stumped for what to give the kid, preteen, or teen in your life. Check out — Yoursphere.com

Yoursphere.com is the social network for kids and teens that puts safety first and provides a positive and age appropriate alternative to Facebook, Myspace, and other sites created by adults for adults. Yoursphere was founded by a mom of 5 who was concerned about her children’s safety on the internet. Yoursphere is a social network for kids and teens, which unlike other sites offers: 

·       Identity verification, predator check, and requires verifiable parental consent

·       Limits participation to kids and teens through age 18. (Kids can be members until they turn 19.)

·       All content is created by kids and teens for kids and teens. No worries about adult content.

·       There are no ads on Yoursphere. The membership fee – a dime a day – is used to support Yoursphere’s safety measures + to provide activities, prizes, and rewards for each and every member.

·       Offers scholarships and supports youth-selected philanthropies: 3% of each membership fee is pooled into a scholarship program.

Use promo code: YSMD-BERR to get discount on membership. 

Teens such as those from RadicalParenting (parenting from the kids perspective), who reviewed Yoursphere: The Best Virtual World For Your Kids believe your kids and your readers will love a Yoursphere membership because:

· kids and teens enjoy at Yoursphere:  privacy, building friendships, creating and uploading content, joining groups or creating their own, writing stories, uploading pictures, entering contests, showcasing their creativity, earning rewards…even scholarships, plus members get to support the causes they care about! In addition, the credits members earn just for participating on the site can be redeemed for rewards like a shopping spree, ipod, movie tickets, iphone, their favorite DVD’s, games like Guitar Hero and more!

·   Yoursphere is a totally different story than any other social network site our teens have reviewed.  As soon as you log on, whether you are a parent or kid you will see that this site has amazing graphics, videos and safety–an essential combination for kids online.  We loved it because it takes the best activities, videos and games and puts them in one place where you do not have to worry about spam, creepsters or uncool entertainment. Awesome.

I was given a free Yoursphere membership for my daughters.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 11:18 am and is filed under Children, Computers, Cooking/Eating, English Memories, Entertainment, Family, Kids, Preteens, family fun, holiday, holidays, preteen, shopping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.