By Lora Heller

Not sure what to give your kids for the holidays (or their birthday) this year? Presents don’t always have to be traditional boxed toys and games with festive wrapping and loads of ribbons.

Sometimes the wrapped boxes are the best part, even if they’re empty! There are a lot of wonderful presents that don’t need unwrapping or can be presented in different ways if we just think outside the box. Don’t have much budget for gifts? While it’s often more exciting for gifts to be things we want rather than need, that’s not realistic for every family. How can you make sure some of the things we need can still be fun to get? There are also ways to make things or to do things together that won’t break the bank (and some that won’t cost anything) yet will still be exciting for the giver and receiver. 

If your kids are old enough, they can be involved in the gift ideas, prep and giving too. 

Maybe you’re celebrating Chanukah and want to continue your own childhood tradition of a small gift each night. Your family might be celebrating Christmas and looking for creative stocking stuffers. You could have birthdays in mind (as this all can apply throughout the year for any gift-giving special day). 

SO here are some ideas – maybe they’ll work for you or lead you to creating other ideas of your own.

1. If your kids need socks, consider including at least one pair (plain white or with designs) that is packaged with fabric markers so the kids can color them in. These can be perfect for a night of Chanukah or as a stocking stuffer.
2. Take a walk to the $1 store and let your kids fill a basket of small things they pick out – (maybe 8 or 12 to line up with the holidays or whatever age they are turning on their birthday), then put them all away until it’s time for the gift exchange. They’ll be excited to open something they had picked out and forgotten about. 
3. Create things together so your kids remember that gifts can be homemade and/or come from the heart. Like what?? Bake cookies together and wrap them in foil with colored ribbon for teachers, relatives, building staff. Take family polaroids – create a frame and hook out of popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners, and you have homemade ornaments to use or give out. Save glass or plastic water, ice tea, or juice bottles and decorate them with construction paper; fill them with rice or beans and tape or glue down the cap – voilà! – you have your own maracas. You could also make flowers out of tissue paper and pipe cleaners to put in them instead, and you have a homemade centerpiece for the dinner table at your own home or to give away. Write poems and decorate the paper – they can be mailed out or hung up in a homemade or store bought frame.
4. Starting at the beginning of the school year or the calendar year, empty any loose change from your pockets or purse into a designated container every day. Then at holiday or birthday time time, (wrap it up if you want) let your kid(s) take it to their favorite store to buy themselves something. They could also take it to the grocery store with the coinstar machine and ‘trade’ it in for bills with which to purchase something. Some of the machines also offer gift card options. Maybe it’s fun for them to see the numbers adding up and a surprise to find out how much is actually in the container.  
5. Find out when your local ice rink, movie theater, or museum has a discount or ‘pay as you wish’ night and have an activity night as a gift. Many places will have free admission at certain times too. If you purchase tickets in advance, you can wrap them up – you’ll know if your child will still do best with something exciting to open. 
6. Create a scavenger hunt where each clue leads to another part of a gift. It may be that each piece is needed to complete one gift, but it will feel like several and the time together finding them all can be really valuable. 
7. Ask friends and family members to write, draw, collage, or otherwise design something for/about your child. Have the projects/pages laminated or bound, or cover them in clear contact paper or even plastic wrap and tie together with ribbon to create a personal book. If your family likes technology, collect video clip messages from friends, put them together into a video collage for your child. 
8.  Surprise your children with a visit to a favorite family member who you’ve not seen in a long time. Time together can be the very best gift of all.