If someone on your gift list has a love for novelties, science, or just plain unique gifts, you’ll love this video. It features several fun gifts that you’ve probably never seen before, and a couple of them even have a scientific or educational theme.
Make your gifts truly personal this year without breaking the bank by giving a personalized gift, customized with engraving or a hand-written message. Just putting the recipient’s name on a photo album or Christmas ornament makes it that much more thoughtful, because it’s uniquely “theirs.” You can also use personalized gifts to remember special events that happened that year. SantasMall.com is featuring several great personalized gift ideas this week, if you’re thinking of giving some personalized gifts this year.
Teen girls can be fun to buy stocking stuffers for, because so many of the things they want and need are small and inexpensive. Makeup, nail polish, lip gloss, and perfume all make great stocking stuffers, and are relatively inexpensive.
You can also be creative and find gifts that your teenager would love to pamper herself with but might not have the extra spending money for. Fun socks are easy to find at stores like Kohl’s or Wal-mart, and fit easily into a stocking. A pretty, matching bra and panty set also makes a good stocking stuffer (if she wouldn’t be embarrassed to find it in her stocking).
Gift cards are another perfect stocking stuffer gift because they’re small. Coffee shop gift cards will let her get a nice gourmet drink while she hangs out with friends. Fast food gift cards can buy a meal at the mall or after school. Movie theater gift cards let her have a night out with the girls or a fun date night. The possibilities are endless–just think of places where you’d typically spend $10 or less.
Candy is a given when it comes to stocking stuffer ideas. One fun candy idea is a cute Pez dispenser and some refills. Pay attention to what her favorite candies are and put a bag or two in her stocking. A bag of candy takes up quite a bit of space but doesn’t cost a lot of money.
In today’s age of technology, batteries should be a standard stocking stuffer gift, especially if you are giving them gifts that use batteries. Even if you aren’t, AA batteries are always useful.
If you’d love to make a Christmas gift for everyone on your list this year, but are coming up empty when it comes to ideas, this list of 101 Gifts to Make for Christmas is sure to help you out. Making your own Christmas gifts is a great way to save money and time, because you don’t have to spend hours driving around from store to store, looking for the “perfect gift.”
People who are into gadgets can be some of the most difficult people to buy for because technology is always changing, and it can seem like they already have everything imaginable. This video features 5 unique ideas for the “gadget guru” on your Christmas list.
If you do a lot of your shopping on Black Friday, you’re not alone. Many Americans fill the malls and shopping centers of their hometowns on that day, marked as the official start of the Christmas shopping season. Many also assume that it is the #1 shopping day of the year-the day when people spend the most money. Our friends at the Christmas Myths blog are taking on this rarely questioned myth this week.
You can save money on your gift giving and still give thoughtful gifts to everyone on your list by taking the time to make something they’re sure to love. A great gift for many people is a “gift in a jar” — it could be a baking mix, a soup mix, a drink mix, or even bath salts. Check out Unique Gifts Online’s featured article on Jarred Gift Mixes last week for recipes.
Toys R Us is poised for a retail fight with superstores like Walmart this Christmas season, as it works to ready 80 temporary stores that will be open from October through January. The Christmas Toys Blog has outlined the reasons why Toys R Us is opening more stores to compete for your toy-buying dollar.
If you’re still paying for last Christmas’s credit card purchases, the Consumer Credit Counseling Service has a few pieces of advice on controlling this year’s Christmas spending. Three points they stress are pre-planning by shopping early, making a list before you even start shopping, and shopping online early for highly sought-after items.
Their fourth suggestion is to get a part-time job or sell your own possessions to make money to buy gifts during the holidays, and I’m afraid I find myself taking issue with this one. If you honestly cannot find room in your budget to buy Christmas gifts, perhaps you should reconsider your Christmas gift list before you make the move to get a part time job or hold a yard sale.
Sure, it’s important that Santa remembers your own children when it comes to Christmas gifts, but the majority of adult family and friends will probably understand if you just can’t afford to buy them a gift this year. After all, we all have plenty of “stuff.” Instead of making the first priority getting enough money to buy more gifts, you’ll be making the first priority trimming your budget down to what you can actually spend-a much smarter move, in my opinion. It surprises me that an organization like CCCS would be making recommendations that continue to encourage overspending instead of pushing people to re-examine their budget and spending habits.
Buying a Christmas gift online is a real time-saver, but can be overwhelming if you don’t know where to start or what to get. This video offers some great suggestions for gifts you can buy online for anyone, and helps you save money at the same time.