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joann10
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| Posted: Dec 02 2009 at 6:09pm | IP Logged
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for Christmas presents for 10 kids this year.
What would you do?
I need help figuring this out folks!
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Dec 02 2009 at 6:19pm | IP Logged
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hmmm.. I think I would start by making a list of the things they especially would like.. and one of cheaper ideas.. and then with the idea of spending about $15 each.. start hunting.. look for used items, clearanced items, things you could make, things that got tucked away at some point and can be regifted (like toys that were put up until the littles were bigger).. and basically try and stretch that out as far as I could. And not feel obligated to spend the same amount on each child but more give gifts that are approximately equal in worth to that child (make every child feel like the gift they got was a "big" gift whether it costs $5 or $50 type of thing)
This is a good time to gift items of yours to the older ones as well.. perhaps a necklace that you intend to give to a daughter at some point.. now could be a good point to do that.
Things to make don't necessarily mean sew.. anyone able to sand blocks of wood from scraps into blocks kids can play with? or.. homemade playdough.. or a collection of odds and ends of wood and nails and screws for a "kit" for one of the middle childhood age kids.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Dec 02 2009 at 6:26pm | IP Logged
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and thinking about it.. I would make sure to have the special foods.. in some ways I think getting the treats is a more integral part of the holiday than the gifts.. not getting the holiday treats would really stand out to me.
And I would enlist the older kids in helping to make things for each other, making a list so that no one person was getting the majority of the gifts.. and making those funds available somewhat for everyone to use within reason.. that might let a sibling get $5 worth of components to make something fun.
Say.. on the making things.. ever done marshmellow guns? 
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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Donna Marie
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| Posted: Dec 02 2009 at 6:43pm | IP Logged
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Low budget christmas this year here too!
My twins have been helping make this adventure fun!
I am making:
~~~felt food (found a lovely tin at the thrift store for nearly free)
~~~Costumes including capes (also thrift store finds redone) will store in an old chest that has a mirror we are gluing to it and are painting in medieval design.
~~~Play silks dyed with kool aid(if I get around to it)
My dds are making quillows for the younger ones (quilt that folds into a pillow shape)
and everyone gets a new pillow! (wrapped in a large ribbon and a new pillow case!)It is lovely to see these all lined up under the tree...and they need them
and for the stockings:
socks
underwear
Christmas stickers and pencils
and a few trinkets
and I have a few nice things for the older ones that I can't post now as they are looking over my shoulder...LOL
keep going to the thrift stores...I was able to find some brand new science kits and many other wonderful finds...I just rebagged them and they look wonderful!
How about giving a budding young man the materials to craft his own marble run with a nice bag of marbles?
...a tackle box full of components for some kind of science experiments?
a recovered box for a girl to put her treasures in? Hair bows and a new brush?
how about a recovered notebook/journal with ribbon using a marble composition book and a little inspiration?..can get you a link on that one...
do you sew? ck out some of the crafting blogs for ideas!! Ck out freecycle and the thrift stores for the materials to get crafty with! or...you can assign some of the work to an older child as your very own "Santa's helper"!
I am making my nephew a barn (made with felt, material, batting and plastic canvas) and felted animals. I could get you the barn pattern if you want!...easy peasy!
hmm...maybe I'll add to this list later...life calls!
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God love you!
Donna Marie from NJ
hs momma to 9dc!!
Finding Elegant Simplicity
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JodieLyn
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or you could take that and get a family gift of some sort.. you could probably find something for the 7 and up and the two littles should be easy to find a few little things to wrap for them.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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MaryM
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I was thinking a joint gift (family type) options as well. Donna Marie, your ideas are lovely, too.
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Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
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Donna Marie
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JodieLyn wrote:
| or you could take that and get a family gift of some sort.. you could probably find something for the 7 and up and the two littles should be easy to find a few little things to wrap for them. |
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We did a themed Christmas 3 years ago...we got a nice castle and played with ideas that surrounded a castle idea and books that included chivalry and honor themes. So one main gift and some little gifts that went with it.
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Donna Marie from NJ
hs momma to 9dc!!
Finding Elegant Simplicity
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ekbell
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I personally find that the 'cheap' gifts my children have enjoyed best have been art and craft type gifts ( Micheals gives some really good deals for registering at their website). The nicest thing about it is that art and craft supplies can be 'the gift that keeps giving'.
On this note my oldest is making paint with water books for her younger siblings using the watercolor pencil crayons and watercolor paper that I gave her on a previous occasion.
She's been drawing simple pictures (such as a trains for the three year old) and then crosshatching or outlining with the water color paints. I'm adding some cheap waterbrushes (the sort with water in the barrel) for a nice gift.
Felt, paints, brushes, art paper, pipe cleaners, feathers, all this can be used to make gifts or BE gifts.
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guitarnan
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These are all such wonderful ideas!
I have been known to order newsprint by the ream (from DickBlick.com) for my children's drawing pleasure. Way cheaper than buying newsprint sketch pads.
Fun socks and makeup/chapstick/nail polish for the girls...or "hope chest" items like cooking spoons, if your girls are so inclined. My dd (11) loves getting her own cooking utensils! Pretty aprons are nice too.
My son (17) loves thumb drives, SanDisks, etc. for his computer - they aren't too expensive (I saw a SanDisk for about $10 today).
Calendars are a nice gift, too.
Don't forget printables (Jan Brett's website comes to mind) for your younger children...free, except for paper and ink cartridges.
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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mimmyof5
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I don't know how this would work with your age spread, but one Christmas when we were unemployed, we bought a family gift - a pinball machine. Mine ranged from 15 to 4 at the time. We all had a blast with it.
Janet
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joann10
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You all have such wonderful ideas!!
This is just great for my artistic 15 year old to make for my littles,
ekbell wrote:
On this note my oldest is making paint with water books for her younger siblings using the watercolor pencil crayons and watercolor paper that I gave her on a previous occasion.
She's been drawing simple pictures (such as a trains for the three year old) and then crosshatching or outlining with the water color paints. I'm adding some cheap waterbrushes (the sort with water in the barrel) for a nice gift.
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I love the felt food ideas for the toy kitchen and the littles would love capes and playsilks.
We 20 miles away from the nearest thrift store,  or I would heading there.
My big kids are very understanding and know things are tough, but this momma's heart hurts thinking about the conversations they will have to endure with the very well off cousins who go on and on about their "stuff"-  but that is probably my own feeling being hurt.
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JodieLyn
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Joann, give your kids something to talk about other than "stuff".. what about gift certificates for a day off from chores.. or to go alone with mom or dad somewhere.. or to make cookies with mom etc.
Then when a cousin says I got the latest super electro-magismic gadget, your children can reply.. oh that's nice, those look really cool but *I* get to do this or that with mom or dad. Or our family spent the day doing __________ and ___________.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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joann10
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I am on a search for homemade and look at this cute Veggie Tale toy! Bob the Tomato
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joann10
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JodieLyn wrote:
Joann, give your kids something to talk about other than "stuff".. what about gift certificates for a day off from chores.. or to go alone with mom or dad somewhere.. or to make cookies with mom etc.
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I was thinking maybe(for the olders) a homemade gift certificate for an ice cream sundae out alone with mom or dad---- that would mean the child and parent would both benefit
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Mackfam
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guitarnan wrote:
| My son (17) loves thumb drives, SanDisks, etc. for his computer - they aren't too expensive (I saw a SanDisk for about $10 today). |
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I just wanted to say what a great idea for an older child this would be! My brother gave me one of these for my birthday last year and it was such a thoughtful gift. He filled it with little programs (freeware/shareware) he found online for me - calendar programs, organizer programs, graphics programs, fonts, lesson planner samplers and so many more. I'm not a games fan, but I'm sure you could find some. Then he loaded several really great pictures he had in his archives - pics of my kids, mom and dad, the family, our farm, etc. Obviously, you could tweak this for an older child to include pics of their friends, etc. But, it could be a great gift! There would still be room for them to have a little "digital space of their own".
If you have a thrift store nearby, Joann, I think this could really be your lifesaver! Linens, sheets, old tablecloths, curtains can easily be turned into an entire dress up set of clothes. You and the older children could make a whole trunk of capes, and armor, etc. A little tie dye or kool aid dye could turn funky colors out!
Other thrift store ideas might be to...
** personalize some wooden shelves for a child with acrylic paints
** inexpensive basket (thrift store) filled with hair fixin' supplies for a young lady that enjoys her hair
** cut off the arms of a really cheap leather jacket and you have 2 quivers for a set of arrows that can be made from thrift store/backyard finds (molly gave me this idea!)
** create some baby doll quilts from fabric scraps around the house - you could make a doll pillow, doll sling, doll diaper bag. Sometimes you can find a pretty flat sheet that would serve well for all these projects and then they coordinate!
** I've seen some very gaudy table linens and placemats at the thrift store and flea market, and while I would NEVER want to see those colors in my kitchen, you could creatively turn them into a race track for a few matchbox cars...maybe a roll up car track for the road...or a nice big one to stretch out on the floor and then roll up and tuck away when not in use.
I've seen how creative you can get, Joann! I know you're up to this!!! 
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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JodieLyn
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One of the purchased gifts might be a game that would be fun for the whole family?
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
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lapazfarm
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I don't know how you feel about this, but a puppy or a kitten from the pound, sitting under the tree with a big red ribbon, would make any child happy I think.
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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Paula in MN
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lapazfarm wrote:
| I don't know how you feel about this, but a puppy or a kitten from the pound, sitting under the tree with a big red ribbon, would make any child happy I think. |
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Oh, I agree!
Although my dd10 would rather if the puppy or dog were several feet taller, with a long tail and mane, and more apt to neigh versus bark or meow! 
Seriously, these are all great ideas. What about family memberships? Many years my mom gives us a membership to the Science Museum or the MN Historical Society. We really enjoy going to them. Magazine subscriptions? She also gives the kids their own subscription to Ranger Rick and My Big Backyard. They love getting mail every month.
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Paula
A Catholic Harvest
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Angel
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lapazfarm wrote:
| I don't know how you feel about this, but a puppy or a kitten from the pound, sitting under the tree with a big red ribbon, would make any child happy I think. |
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My kids *wish* we were having this Christmas.
Joann, what about making some homemade beauty products for your older girls -- things like lip salves, body scrubs, facial creams, etc?
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Angela
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Three Plus Two
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joann10
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lapazfarm wrote:
| I don't know how you feel about this, but a puppy or a kitten from the pound, sitting under the tree with a big red ribbon, would make any child happy I think. |
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We got a puppy in August  so we are covered in the pet area.
There are wonderful ideas here--I just need to get busy in my spare time
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