I hope everyone's having a happy advent season so far! Advent is probably my favorite season in the liturgical year. I love all of the Christmas music and the advent wreath and just preparing for Christmas celebrations in general.
I went Black Friday shopping for the first time this year. I went with my boyfriend's aunt around 4am Friday and with my mom around 8am. I figured since I'm 20 now, I am definitely old enough to go shopping with the grown-ups. I was amazed at the great deals! If anyone hasn't gone Black Friday shopping ever, I highly recommend it. The deals are definitely worth the crowds and getting up early! I wish I had prepared a list of what to buy so I could've gotten more of my Christmas shopping done while everything was on sale for such great prices! I am definitely going next year, but next time, I am going to be prepared and research stores and make my gift lists and everything beforehand and save up some more money, etc.
Since I probably will not be able to afford to get everyone super awesome expensive presents, I am currently working on ideas for super awesome inexpensive Christmas presents that everyone will love.
One of my favorite things to make is scrapbooks which can be as simple as buying a photo album and just sticking pictures in it or as tedious as making your book by tying pages together in a fancy way or stapling them together. You could also just take a binder and glue pictures either printed off at Walgreens or Wal-Mart (for about 10 cents a picture) or printed off from a regular printer to regular printer paper (or whatever you find lying around) and punching holes in them and then, decorating the binder as a scrapbook. There is obviously a lot of other creative ways to do this.
Similar to the scrapbook, you might also want to make a memory book or a letter book. For this, you could put whatever you want in a book: stories, jokes, quotes, pictures, reasons you love the person, favorite memories in general, etc. You could do a binder or photo album or make your own book. I highly recommend just buying a blank journal and filling the pages with pictures and memories and quotes. That's just how I prefer to do it, but definitely be as creative as you want and make it your own masterpiece!
Also, if you have a little bit of extra time, some really great hobbies to learn are knitting or crocheting or sewing. These are very useful when it comes to inexpensive, personalized, homemade presents, because the materials are fairly inexpensive and these activities don't need to take very long depending on how skilled you become and what you decide to make. I am going to try and re-learn knitting, so I can maybe make some scarves or something fun for my friends. Pillows are also very easy to make if you learn basic sewing techniques. My only experience with crocheting is from girl scouts and we made pot holders which were actually very easy once I got the hang of it.
If you like to paint or draw, you could also buy a small plain box or a 10 cent solid-colored notebook and paint it and give it as a gift to someone. You could also just frame a piece you paint and give that as a gift. Pottery and sculptures also make great creative gifts if that happens to be a talent or hobby of yours.
Mix CDs are always fun and easy as well if you just want to buy a pack of blank CDs for like ten bucks and make Mix CDs for all of your friends.
Christmas cards are obviously a great thing to make. Everyone knows how to make cards and they can be as basic as folding a piece of paper in half and writing "Merry Christmas" in it. I love to draw fun pictures and comics on mine and then, write personal messages. You can also always just get a box of Christmas cards and just fill them out and give them to all of your friends with a piece of candy or something small attached to them. Candy canes are really great for this.
Bath and Body Works also usually has a lot of small things that are between 1 and 5 dollars that you could give to friends as gifts for only a small cost. I like to buy a lot of smaller things in bulk like big bags of candy and Christmas cards as well as small items like cosmetics or shower gels or socks and make little gift bags for friends with one of everything. JoAnn Fabrics, the Dollar Store, Wal-Mart, and the Dollar Spot at Target are great places to find things to put in your gift bags.
Everyone loves sweets too, so you could always just bake your friends and family goodies and buy a big pack of Christmas-themed paper plates and arrange an assortment of treats on them and cover them with some plastic wrap and ribbon to make them look festive and professional, but still keep your spending within your budget.
If you're looking for something more simple, you could also just buy a picture frame for less than 5 dollars and give framed pictures as gifts, or even make your own picture frame using whatever you can find. I've made some out of cardboard and glue and colorful paper and markers. You could also get a cheap pack of plain wooden picture frames from Michael's or JoAnn Fabrics or maybe even Wal-Mart or Target and decorate them for loved ones on your list.
These are definitely only a few ideas. I am sure there are similar suggestions in magazines and on the internet if you look for them. It is so much fun to make presents for people though, so I highly recommend trying some of these out for any occasion- birthday, Christmas, Easter, or just because. The great thing about these is they are fun to make and people love to receive them and since they are so inexpensive, it's easy to give them as often as you'd like! Have fun and don't stress too much about gift-giving. It's always the thought that counts! :)
