Many shoppers eager to get the holiday shopping experience over with often buy gifts without thinking about the appropriateness of the gift just to have something for the recipient to unwrap at Christmas. Don't do this! The unluck recipient may get stuck with the gift. Many stores will not accept a return without a reciept. If the store does offer a store credit it will be for the current selling price (the item is probably on clearance by now) instead of the full price that was paid for it. A good shopping strategy will help to avoid this and other gift giving mistakes.
The best palce to get direction for what to buy for a gift comes from the person recieving it. If you need inspiration try making casual small talk, asking the person you are buying for about their interests. For example, you can mention that you are having people over for the holidays and ask them if they have any great cooking and entertaining ideas. If they say they don't cook, shift the conversation to hobbies, good books to read, favorite movies or favorite ways to relax etc.
Do not go into a store and ask what 10 year old boys are asking for this year. Adult or child, different people have different interests. If you are asking a parent a parent of a child for gifts ideas for that child, ask for more than one gift idea. The video game the parent suggests may be twice as much as you were thinking of paying, or it might have a parental warning label on it for content. It's always good to have a backup.
Know what you are buying. If the item comes in a box, take it out of the box to be sure it has all the parts and is not damaged. Does the gift come with everything it needs or will it need batteries or some sort of accessories? Look at the care label of the item. Not everyone is willing to pay for dry cleaning. Some pieces of clothing can't be cleaned at all!
Start shopping now! If you are ordering an item from a web site or catlalog, the earlier you order the item the better your chances of getting it on time. If the item is going to be delayed you can usually find out far enough ahead of time to make other arrangements. Save your reciepts in an envelope. If the item goes on sale before you give it to the recipient, call the store to find out if you take the item and the reciept to the store if they will give you a credit or cash for the difference.
No one likes to think of their gift being returned, but just in case a big fluffy pink pastel sweater with white elephants parading across the bust is not what the recipient wanted (yes I actually did recieve this fashion abomination as a gift once) it's a good idea to get a gift reciept from the cashier when paying for the item. A gift reciept has the bar code for the item printed on it, but not the price of the item. Leave all tags and labels on the item. You can cross out the price, but leave the barcode intact. If the recipient tries to return the item to the store without a barcode attached to it and the store has sold out of the item, the recipient probably won't be able to return it.
Spend money like a Scrooge and you can give gifts like you were Santa. One of the cheapest ways to give small gifts is to turn yourself into a one woman assembly line and create multiples of the same item. Gather and organize all of your supplies and see how fast you can crank out those hand made ornaments. A personalized CD can be created by downloading songs off the internet. For the technically illiterate, this is where having kids finally pays off. Ask your offspring to download a list of songs you select to several CD's. You can copy the songs over and over again and you only pay for the songs once.
Buy gifts far enough in advance so that you can choose the cheapest shipping method. Many gifts can be sent in a standard letter envelope with the only shipping cost being a regular stamp. Gifts that fit inside an envelope include tickets to a local sport or entertainment event, gift certificates for movies theatres, restaurants, local spas, magazine subscriptions, phone cards and online gift certificates for web sites such as Amazon.com. A gift cetificate for a family portrait, a jewelry making class a local bead store, a cooking class or a class of their choice at the local community college, or a gift certificate toward services such as house cleaning or professional organizing are fun and unexpected gift ideas.
Try to spend as little as possible on giftwrap so you can focus more of your money on the gift itself. Gift bags of various sizes can be found at the dollar store for $1.00 a over the piece! Maybe that's why they call it a dollar store. While you're at the dollar store keep and eye open for coordinating tissue paper to fill all those bargian bags.
Skip the gift bag altogther and make the packaging part of the gift. Stuff a pillowcase with whimsical pajamas, slippers, relaxing aromatherapy products, a blank journal or dream interpretation book, and a teddy bear. A fabric wine serves as an attractive and resuable bag for candlesticks, a bottle of luxurious body lotion, or anything else that would fit inside of it. Tie the open side of the filled pillowcase off with a elastic hair scrunchie. A tote bag can be filled with great travel items like a travel alarm, a raincoat that folds into a pouch, empty travel bottle, enery bars, a makeup case, travel size toiletries, a disposable camera and of course an English to another language translation book/dictionary. Theme baskets are a fun and creative way to personalize a gift. A blanket, gourmet hot cocoa mix, marshmallows, a mug and good book to curl up with is ultimately a gift of comfort. One of my favorite gifts to give is a cookie tin filled with cookie scented votive candles. The Yankee candle company have a great selection of food scented candles around the winter holidays.
For a truly personalized gift, create a calendar with family photos using your computer or have it done at the local copy center. To personalize it even more, mark the calender with stickers indicating birthdays and anniversaries within the family.
For the person who has everything, maybe what they really need is a way to organize their stuff. Plastic bins especially designed to hld holiday ornaments or an upright container designed to hold wrapping paper and wrapping supplies are useful and appropriate holiday gifts.
One easy way to handle a gift giving situation is to skip the gift exchange altogether with select friends and family and spend money on a shared experience instead. Attend a theatrical production, share a meal at a favorite restaurant, or do a day spa together to relax and recover from the holidays.
Bath & Body Works Dancing oil Warmer for $10.00 with it's snowflake design fills a room with the scent of your choice and there are plenty of different scents to choose from. As much as I like the look of this oil warmer, the fact that I can fill a room with scent using only 15 drops of scented oil and have it last hours longer that a typical scented candle warms my penny pinching heart even more than the cute design. Read the rest of this article.
