Gift Ideas

Like many people, we are trying to control our spending on Christmas gifts. Of course, we still want the people we are gifting to know that we love and care about them. So here are a few ideas that we came up with for this year.

I have written before about how much I love the "Feel Your Boobies" campaign for early detection of breast cancer through self-examination. They offer some of their products in bulk - which is a great way to spread the message, show your friends you care, benefit a great cause AND save some cash.

I also love the charitable aspect of TOMs Shoes. For every item purchased from TOMs, they give a pair of shoes to a child who would otherwise not have any. There is a gift certificate option, some very cute t-shirts and things, and of course, the shoes themselves. I personally ordered the Navy Glitter...in keeping with the "one for them, one for me" philosophy I used to be able to follow back in the days before kids and mortgages. Is that wrong?

For the kids, we have decided to provide some delayed gratification...or long-term gratification, depending on how you look at it. They will get a somewhat edited pile of presents, and then coupons that can be traded in each month for a $25 gift card for a new toy (or some other item of their choice). This gives us the chance to spread the spending out over the year, and also the chance to say "Yes" to toys and things all through the year instead of buying a big heap of stuff now that they don't really want. I ordered gift certificates on VistaPrint to wrap up - but if I had been smarter, I would have just made them on the computer. Lesson learned for next year!

If you have any great ideas for gifts, feel free to comment and share!