November has begun and suddenly CHRISTMAS is staring you in the face in great, big scary numbers! But, it doesn’t have to be that way!
Don’t be taken off guard! Begin by looking at the list of gift ideas and items you have on hand so that your tokens of esteem don’t become a budget buster.
Remember: Gifts don’t need to cost a of money to be attractive or meaningful.
My grown son was recently invited to a housewarming party for a work colleague. When he asked for my help, I sprung to his aid (and in the process got to spend time with him, which I don’t get to do very often any more)!
We began by heading to one of my favorite places, Dollar Tree.
They had a great assortment of movie sized boxed candy and both microwave and traditional popcorn. They also had amazing, realistic, plastic popcorn themed containers, both large and small. We threw one of the large popcorn buckets in the shopping cart and four of the mini-containers, designed to look like the sacks they use to serve you popcorn in at the theater.
NOTE: I had some shredded packing material on hand at home, but if you don’t, head over to the gift wrap wall at Dollar Tree and grab a package or two of coordinating, colored, shredded filler paper.
Dollar Tree total:
| Popcorn | 1 bag | $1.00 |
| Movie Theater Candy | 3 boxes | $3.00 |
| Large Popcorn Bucket | 1 | $1.00 |
| Small Popcorn “Bags” (2 pack) | 2 | $2.00 |
| TOTAL | $7.00 plus tax |
Although we did peruse the DVDs at Dollar Tree, but they didn’t have any in stock which were appropriate for my son’s friend. So, we headed a mile up the street to Walmart for some inexpensive, family-friendly DVDs to round out the gift.
Walmart always has a nice selection of super low-priced DVDs in center racks near the home entertainment department of the store. We quickly found two, which had been high-quality, first run movies. If this is a Christmas gift, you can often find holiday movie favorites for under $5 at Walmart!
For us, it was Veggie Tales and a Crocodile Dundee double feature for the win!
Walmart Total:
2 movies – $3.89 each – Total: $$7.78 plus tax.
I used the small popcorn containers as the anchor of the display, placing it into the larger bucket first. Then, I arranged the other items around these, filling in bare spots with the shredded filler paper.
The end result was very pleasing to the eye and the new homeowners loved it!
Total cost: $15.62
MORE basket add-in ideas:
- Small bottles of soda or flavored water
- Peanuts
- Mugs
- Hot cocoa
- A pair of matching sock slippers for each member of the family (Yes! Dollar Tree has these!)
