Holiday gift baskets make idea Christmas presents for everyone on your holiday shopping list. Gift baskets can be personalized and made inexpensively. Giving gift baskets cuts costs but also subtracts from your workload. Here’s how: list every person who will get gift baskets and decide upon a theme for each, based upon favorite hobbies or interests. Streamline personalized Christmas gift baskets by including like items in each recipient’s gift basket. Here are six items to include in everyone’s gift basket, with variations personalized for each.
Inexpensive book, magazine, activity booklet, book and activity set. No holiday gift baskets go under the Christmas tree without at least one piece of reading material. Keep lists of gift recipients’ favorite magazines, authors, book series and literature genre. Note which books they already have. sniff out book bargains at Barnes & Noble, bargain bookstores, secondhand and thrift stores, eBay and Amazon ( which sells used as well as new books) Senior citizen gift baskets get a magnifying glass or large print books. Add crossword puzzle books, volumes of favorite cartoons or how-to books, cookbooks, etc.
Inexpensive, personalized article of clothing: In cold climes, thoughts turn to warm things for Christmas holiday gift baskets. Include toasty warm gloves, hat or handmade scarf, socks, sweatshirts or hoodies with favorite sports teams. You might add a cozy blanket. Walmart, Family Dollar and Meijer sell 50×60 polar fleece throw blankets for $2-$4 (watch sales).
Beverage holder. Christmas holiday gift baskets are about comfort and that means a bevvie to warm or cool. Check dollar stores, discount stores and even secondhand stores for a unique coffee mug, tea cup and saucer set, wine glass, beer mug, reusable water bottle or travel mug. Wash throughly and it will look good as new.
Personalized beverage: Tuck a pound of gourmet coffee beans, a box of specialty tea, packets of cocoa or even soup mix in your gift baskets. You might add a bottle of wine, package of Mojita mix, liqueur, liquor, fruit Schnapps, six pack of beer, if your gift recipients aren’t teetotalers.
Food or snack item: Keep track of loved ones’ favorite treats and place several goodies in their holiday gift basket. Add summer sausage, specialty cheese, protein bars, mixed nuts, dried fruit, smoked almonds, gourmet salsa, fruit, hot sauce, jam, jelly, crackers or popcorn. Get inexpensive novelty foods for gift baskets at Big Lots and Aldi.
Inexpensive, personalized activity supplies: Include at least one item that relates to the person’s interest or hobby. Shop Walmart, Family Dollar, Dollar General, TJ Maxx or Dollar Tree and get golf tees or golf balls, tennis balls, guitar strings or picks for the guitar player, craft supplies, knitting needles, yarn, crochet hooks, pet supplies, video games, DVDs anything related to the recipient’s hobby.
By shopping carefully, following sales and discounts and hunting through bargain bins and clearance aisles, you can make a nice gift baskets for friends and relatives for $10-$15 each. Happy Holidays!
