My MSE Christmas gift ideas

roxiegriff

i really like the idea of the cheque book for your litle sister

Always_after_a_bargin

sarah*a wrote: »

Love your ideas

Wicker baskets can be hideously expensive - what about a large cardboard box and you can glam it up with some sparkly wrapping paper?

Poundland do lots of crafty bits too - save you shelling out £££ at Hobbycraft.

I picked my baskets up from home bargins if you have a store near you, They are lined with burgundy material and all look really festive. The meduim ones were about 3 quid and were a bargin. I picked up quite a few for friends and two for my kids for christmas eve so i can make up their christmas eve baskets.

dom300186

last year for the ladies of our family me and my son made sugar body scrubs, my family are still using them and said they felt like a goddess after a soak in the bath.

all it is ...........
normal sugar or you can have any grain its upto you, for body i used normal sugar face i used brown sugar.
Honey
olive oil
and a fragrance make sure it can be used on skin so i used aromotherpy oils such as lavender, sweet orange etc
mix together, then put in a jar............i put mine in kilner jars 80p in ikea and decorated with a xmasy ribbon. xxxx

p.s to colour it use food colouring xxx hope this idea helps as i had hardly any money last year..... a jar of this could cost you about £10 i made it for about £1.50 each lol

mary-op

I'm being very mse this year...........most of what I'm giving is something I've had and passing on.
Just had new kitchen and the decorative glass storage jars I'd got OH just hates and they won't be seen in cupboards so they're getting filled with shortbread/biscuits and chocolates.......found aprons I've never used and not likely to, a thing to measure spaghetti (why did I buy it?), and doing a 'kitchen kebab'..........skewer with various scourers on it, and some recipe booklets I've had as freebies.
Also got 'kitchen' style wall plaques there's no room for now.

Also done 'christmas in a box' for son and little grandson............sons has fabric hearts and trees and xmas puddings and gingerbread people in (one for his girlfriend) and a 'soft tree'............grandsons has felt decorations........snowman,tree,reindeer,puddings,
gingerbread man, santa and I've bought a 'grow your own xmas tree in a can' and 'snow in a can' to put with it.

I've got some wicker baskets let over from last year and couple of hat boxes that'll do for the kitchen stuff and covered shoe boxes for the 'xmas in a box' pressies.

Made quite a few wrist warmers (disability limits what I can do)

Had some freebies from the 'freebie board' -perfume, bath stuff etc. that I've put in a couple of twiglet tubs I covered with red paper for a 'xmas pamper pots'

Coffee/cream coloured mugs MIL gave us we never use will get filled with chocs and some choc.lip balm (avon special offer) for neighbour and her daughters

Thats about it I think. Quite pleased with myself and its given me a chance to de-clutter at the same time (much needed).............:)

slig

katerinasol wrote: »

Mum and MIL:
Hampers - buy wicker baskets from Ebay/somewhere cheap, line them with hay from pet shops, fill them up with books from charity shops, DVDs from charity shops or independent film shops, maybe a CD, cookies (bake them ourselves) and some smellies from Wilko.

I love this idea. Have a look on Amazon Marketplace for DVDs and books as well, I just bought a few Chrismas DVDs from there. P&P is £1.26 per DVD, and sometimes the actual price of the DVD is 1p, and often less than a pound for mainstream titles that are a couple of years old or more. So it can work out less than £2.50 per DVD, and you have a wider choice than in a charity shop, so you can pick films you know they will love. It cost me about £7 for the three DVDs I wanted.

One gift I would like to do someday is a huge stack of secondhand novels for someone, all carefully selected to be books they would enjoy. Wouldn't have to cost too much, especially if I started looking well in advance so could keep an eye out for bargains.

katerinasol

dom300186 wrote: »

last year for the ladies of our family me and my son made sugar body scrubs, my family are still using them and said they felt like a goddess after a soak in the bath.

all it is ...........
normal sugar or you can have any grain its upto you, for body i used normal sugar face i used brown sugar.
Honey
olive oil
and a fragrance make sure it can be used on skin so i used aromotherpy oils such as lavender, sweet orange etc
mix together, then put in a jar............i put mine in kilner jars 80p in ikea and decorated with a xmasy ribbon. xxxx

p.s to colour it use food colouring xxx hope this idea helps as i had hardly any money last year..... a jar of this could cost you about £10 i made it for about £1.50 each lol

This is an amazing idea! What quantities do you use?

CarmenSan

Hi I have a good idea for a Christmas present.
My mother in Law is an old lady (from Ireland, Cork County). I've been struggling in the past to find nice Christmas presents for her. I always find it hard to buy presents for elderly. I used to buy her presents like flowers, plants and other sort of house decorations. This year I wanted to get her something different so I started thinking about her hobbies. I think I found a nice present for her. She loves Irish lotto and lotteries so I though of getting her a Spanish Christmas lottery ticket (being Spaniard myself I know it very well) .

Ticket are pricey so I might get her one or two max.

What do you think? She is also religious so she might love the drawing too

Katiehound

It wouldn't be my choice of present to give or to receive come to that! I would far rather be given a goat or a malaria net- think Oxfam & Bohar & Christian Aid. I mean you could have a share of snails for E10 !!or olive tree saplings or a share in a farm for £5/£6. Sometimes people who have pretty much everything like to do something for a charity.
What hobbies does MIL have?
Failing that can't you get lottery scratch cards or instant win tickets in the Irish lottery?

skogar

Some lovely ideas for gifts. Do you cook? If so some simple sweets e.g. fudge, cinder toffee might be nice with your tea and biscuits and are cheap to make.

If you have some coloured paper you could put that through the shredder to make coloured shredded paper for your packing.

Probably a bit late for this year but you can make bath bombs very easily plenty of recipes on line, and much cheaper than buying them. I was quite surprised how well they turned out on my first attempt at making them. They look just like the ones you can buy in Lush. Nice to include in a pamper hamper.

I did a hamper for my Mum. I picked a theme lavender as she loves lavender and chose things to match the theme. It had a lavender cookbook, the DVD ladies in lavender, homemade lavender bath bombs and bath salts, a candle, lavender shortbread etc. I know you are short of time now but you could use some theme / interest to link the books and DVDs you choose to make your hampers more personal.

springdreams

Well I would prefer the Spanish Christmas lottery ticket or an Irish lottery ticket myself.

I give and do enough for charity without anyone else also doing so on my behalf.

I feel that if people want to do something for charity, they should do it on their own behalf, and not as a cop out gift for someone else when they can't think of anything else to give.

Also, when someone chooses a charity gift, it tends to be for a charity they feel an affinity towards, rather than a charity the receiver may want to support.

If you are going to give someone a gift, let the gift be for and about that person.