Gift Guide for the Poor!

I love how every magazine/blog/newspaper/radio program etc. now features ways to tighten your belt this holiday season and how many of these ideas are either (1). still too expensive (Oprah magazine, for instance, has a list of gifts under $100 that offers suggestions like $90 stationery, $89 bath oils and $99 chocolates made by dwarves). (2). kind of weird or (3). d.i.y. projects that would require you to quit your job to even have a chance to finish them before next Christmas.

Here are a few of my ideas for super saver gift-giving this year:

1. A bag of cat fur. Save up all the cat fur that is shed over the next few weeks (in my case, about 2-3 pounds). Bag it in fun holiday bags and add festive index cards with suggested uses for it (pillows and/or cushions, could also add it to a regular sweater you're knitting and pretend it's angora).

2. If you are a woman, save all of your tampon applicators, decorate them with markers or paints, and give to children to use as telescopes or kazoos, or a new kind of Lincoln Log.

3. Fashion puppets out of all of your single socks. Just add googly eyes found at any craft store and yarn for hair. Suitable for both children and adults. Don't forget to wash the socks first so that your recipients don't get athlete's foot of the hand.

4. Print up a bunch of color pictures off the Internet Christmas scenes (or whatever you like) and frame them with those cheap plastic frames from the dollar store. Or create your own frames out of cardboard shoe boxes. Which reminds me that you can also make:




5. Dioramas! Remember how in elementary school you would have to make these little scenes for class illustrating that you understood evolution or creationism, depending on your school? I always fell back on the shoebox approach when I realized that I had a science fair project due the next day. For family, you can make an emotionally powerful diorama by recreating a vivid memory in your family's history like your vacation to Detroit or your mother's graduation from the community college when you were ten or your grandpa's funeral.

See? Easy!

Comments

Mental P Mama said…
Well this is sheer genius. And as it happens, I have every ingredient listed;) Thanks!
Pamela said…
I am seriously considering your diorama idea.
It has endless possibilities...
:)
Aimee said…
Hey, thanks, Mental Mama. I'm glad I could help with your list.
Anonymous said…
Dioramas! Why don't we do more of these? Is it the internet that has rotted our brain so much tht we can't even think making these wonderful creations is a good idea?
I am teaching fifth graders for the first time EVER and I think I have a project for them.
Holiday Dioramas. Such a great idea. Let's see how the kids can destroy it.

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