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Erin
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Christmas this year will be on a very tight budget for us due to the purchase of our new property  I thought there may be others in similar situations and we could share some ideas here.
I am thinking about what could we make. I have been thinking about downloading and burning audio books from some free sites. I have found Librivox I don't know if there are any sites.
Dh is considering making the older dc a billy cart and swings for the littlies. We are having trouble thinking of anything else. Obviously we have lost the art of making presents. Does anyone make presents?
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Erin
Faith Filled Days
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momwise
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I saw something in the hobby store yesterday that I think would be easy to make and I'm going to talk to dh about it. There are kits with enough wood to make several projects in woodworking and/or woodburning. I imagine patterns could be printed right off the internet and pieces of wood cut for the project. There were bookends, a clock (clockworks would have to be added for this), a birdhouse and bird feeder--you get the idea. If the girls don't want to do woodworking, kits could be made from fabric scraps for quilting or pillows, etc. or cooking.
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Gwen...wife for 30 years, mom of 7, grandma of 3.....
"If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life." JPII
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MichelleW
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Gwen! That is a great idea! For my daughter (7) I could make her a little apron, and a cookie mix in a jar that she could make by herself. Fabulous!
For stocking stuffers, I am doing homemade food gifts. I am baking pumpkin bread in glass jelly jars and sealing; making White Chocolate Peppermint bark, and chocolate covered pretzels.
For my toddler nephews I am making felt Nativity finger puppets and a felt Jonah and the whale (the whale will be the bag for the toys--drawstring mouth). I'm thinking these could be used as quiet toys in church if need be.
I am knitting hats, scarves and leg warmers for most in the family out of leftover yarn. (Hats and scarves for the men, leg warmers for the hip girls)
I am beading three necklaces and trading one with a friend. She is making these cute hand sewn purses this year, so she is trading me a purse for a necklace.
I've been toying with the idea of making a puppet theater for my kids for years. It seems like it would be easy. A tension rod is cheap and the theater could just hang between two doors. I need to figure out if the puppets would be too hard or too expensive for this year.
A couple of years ago, dh made the boys a workbench. It stands next to his in the workshop. Very sturdy and they use it all the time. They feel very grown up working on their projects beside him working on his.
A friend of mine suggested making journals. Last year she bought a leather skirt at Goodwill for almost nothing and cut it up and covered composition books. Inexpensive notebooks notebooks--Voila! Nature notebooks!
FIL is getting strawberry jam this year. His favorite.
That's all I've got so far...
Michelle
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momwise
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Thanks Michelle! I also love your idea about the Puppet theatre. That brought to mind that my boys would love to have a real lemondade stand. It could serve for a pretend stand in the winter and used for real in the summer.
I saw something neat at our cemetery field trip last week. One of the boys had "chunky" crayons that he was using for rubbings and they were multi-color. They were those crayons that you melt in muffin tins. You stick in several colors of broken pieces without the papers and melt them then cool and pop out of the tins. The colors come out a lot prettier on paper than I imagined.
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Gwen...wife for 30 years, mom of 7, grandma of 3.....
"If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life." JPII
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momwise
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MichelleW wrote:
| covered composition books. Inexpensive notebooks notebooks--Voila! Nature notebooks!Michelle |
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I also saw something in one of my library books about book making...you can get clear plastic slide holders for 3-ring binders. If you could figure out a way to get them into your journals they are great for holding little collections.
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Gwen...wife for 30 years, mom of 7, grandma of 3.....
"If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life." JPII
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Erin
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| Posted: Nov 06 2006 at 4:42am | IP Logged
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I just found a great site  written by none other than Mary Ellenwith ideas for Christmas on a Budget. I really love her calendar idea and the stocking fillers.
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Erin
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Dawn
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I have not been to this thread yet, but it occured to me you all are talking about the Loveliness of Homemade Gifts right here!
Erin, Gwen, Michelle - your ideas are wonderful.  Would you consider entering them in the Fair? 
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Mary G
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momwise wrote:
Thanks Michelle! I also love your idea about the Puppet theatre. That brought to mind that my boys would love to have a real lemondade stand. It could serve for a pretend stand in the winter and used for real in the summer.
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Gwen,
Little Colorado has this play stand that could be used as a lemonade stand. I know there are plans on the web to make these if you wanted to go that route; remember, Little Colorado has a seconds store off Pecos and I70 where you can save up to 75%!
Just a thought
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my website that combines my schooling, hand-knits work, writing and everything else in one spot!
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teachingmom
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MichelleW wrote:
| I've been toying with the idea of making a puppet theater for my kids for years. It seems like it would be easy. A tension rod is cheap and the theater could just hang between two doors. I need to figure out if the puppets would be too hard or too expensive for this year. |
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In case you decide to make the puppet theater and want to purchase the puppets, I have a suggestion. Costco has some really cute hand puppets sets for $11 or $12. There were four puppets per set. I bought the fairy set (which is adorable!) for my 3yodd for Christmas. They also have a career set, which includes a doctor, a firefighter, a police officer, and a construction worker.
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shartlesville
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You could also gather supplies so the kids could make their own sock puppets. Every house has socks that are missing a mate and you could decorate them with buttons and other "scrap" items.
I found some great hand puppets last year in Seattle but I cannot remember where I bought them! I think it was at Costco, it was a set of 4 really nice ones for about $10. They were bugs - a caterpillar, a beetle, a bumblebee, and something else.
I will have to figure out a way to set up a theater here, I am sure the kids would love it. Thanks for the idea!
Blessings,
Krisann
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momwise
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shartlesville wrote:
| I think it was at Costco, it was a set of 4 really nice ones for about $10. They were bugs - a caterpillar, a beetle, a bumblebee, and something else. |
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Yes, I think it was Costco--they had several different sets and we bought dd kitties and puppies for her 1st birthday.
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Gwen...wife for 30 years, mom of 7, grandma of 3.....
"If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life." JPII
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Erin
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Dawn wrote:
I have not been to this thread yet, but it occured to me you all are talking about the Loveliness of Homemade Gifts right here!
Erin, Gwen, Michelle - your ideas are wonderful. Would you consider entering them in the Fair? |
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Dawn,
Misssed this fair, I have one lovely gift that dd made last Christmas that I could post about.
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Erin
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humanaevitae
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Check out the origami album post in the real learning section. The ladies found some great directions on how to make them.
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Nicole-Zane 10, Elizabeth 7, Xavier 4, and John Patrick 2
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MichelleW
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Oh, I remembered something else! A few years ago I made notecards for grandparents. I took pictures of the kids and then stuck them on folded cardstock. We did the pictures in three sessions:1) black and white pictures taken indoors of little feet, hands and backs. I had everyone barefoot and we played around with cramming everyone's feet into the frame, lining them up, daughter's feet on Daddy's, etc. They had so much fun with this! We did closeups of hands holding hands, etc. and then I took a few shots of baby crawling away, kids piled onto Daddy in a kiss attack, etc.
2) the next day I did sepia outside while we were raking leaves, jumping into leaf piles and covered with hay and leaves.
3) the third session was in color, outside. We live in rainy Oregon, and that year we all happened to have yellow rain slickers. During a drizzley day we went outside and played in the rain while I took pictures. They all looked like little rubber duckies.
If you don't have a digital camara (which I didn't) use C41 film. It can be easily (and cheaply) developed by any 1 hour photo place. Just tell them when you drop it off that this is C41 and you would like your pictures to be black and white (or sepia or color). The people have always been so nice and willing to alter the shading if I feel the pictures are too red or too yellow when I am doing sepia.
Michelle
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ALmom
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One year I made doll beds for the girls - pattern for wrapping a whicker basket sized for a doll they had or were getting. I used pink gingham fabric and though I don't sew, I managed this and the girls thought they were really lovely.
My oldest dd, made canopy beds for American girl sized dolls. Used wood, coat hangers (drilled into the top of the wood posts and angled to make the canopy top) and fabric. Only sewing skills needed - straight stitching, some hand sewing and how to do the corners with the ruffles.
Dad and the boys helped in the wood cutting dept. and the girls and I did the sewing. Her cousins were flabbergasted - and it didn't cost much at all if you have scrap wood, and buy fabric at the $1 per yard table. We made curtains all around, had the rectangular fabric top with ruffles hanging down over our stitching on the curtains (had to hide our uneven hand stitches  ) and bedding with throw pillows. They were really elegant looking. Our dd even made matching dresses with leftovers.
Janet
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: Christmas on a Budget
