1 of 1

The only thing worse than trying to find a mall parking space in December is trying to figure out how to pay for all the purchases you make there this time of year. To help ease your cash-flow woes, check out these reader-inspired Christmas gift ideas that bear your best wishes without breaking the bank.

To save money when I shop for our large family, I buy gifts from the ABC Distributing catalog (www.abcdistributing.com). When you buy three or more of the same item, you save money on shipping. Often I'll buy all the women or children in our family the same gift, just in different colors.

—Cynthia Murray, Florida

My 95-year-old grandmother lives alone. For Christmas a few years ago, I gave her a month's worth of homemade frozen meals. Starting after Thanksgiving, I packaged one-serving portions of each meal I made for my family into inexpensive plastic containers. I labeled each one with gourmet-sounding descriptions written in fancy lettering, such as "crispy oven-fried chicken with fluffy garlic mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli." Then I froze them. My grandmother said she felt like a queen sitting down to a home-cooked meal every night.

—Heather Hiner, Minnesota

I like to buy friends and loved ones an inexpensive holiday book. Most large bookstores carry holiday classics such as Clement Moore's A Visit from St. Nick, Dickens' A Christmas Carol, or Henry Van Dyke's The Story of the Other Wise Man. I write a message inside the cover telling the recipient how she's touched my life. I got this idea when a coworker gave me a Christmas book. It meant even more the following year when she was diagnosed with cancer and passed away. Now each Christmas she still shares our holiday when we read the book she gave me.

—Ellen Symonds, Alabama

Last year I bought inexpensive mini-albums for my daughter and daughters-in-law. I hunted through magazines to find recipes, decorating ideas, and wise sayings that fit their lifestyle. For my son's wife, Denise, I found a recipe titled Denise's Brown Bean Soup. For the daughter-in-law who loves chocolate, I found chocolate dessert recipes. My daughter married a man who loves spinach, so I looked far and wide for spinach recipes. Shortly after the holidays, we were at my son's house for dinner and my daughter-in-law had prepared the whole meal from the "family book" I'd made them for Christmas!

—Sharron McDonald, Arkansas

When I was a single mom, I didn't have much money, but my girls and I always wanted to do something special for the people who helped us. So we started baking gifts-pear relish, fudge, cinnamon rolls, and zucchini bread-and including them in homemade gift baskets. I bought the nonperishable items we needed when they were on sale. I also loved the extra quality time with my girls all this baking required.

—Evelyn Meadows, South Carolina

Copyright © 2004 by the author or Christianity Today International/Today's Christian Woman magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Today's Christian Woman.

 1 of 1

November/December 2004, Vol. 26, No. 6, Page 8

E-mail this page   Print this article   Post a comment