Holiday Gift Giving: 12 Days of Christmas
As the song says “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” It took me a little more time to get in gear for the Christmas Holidays this year, but the girls Holiday spirit along with the countless Christmas songs is quite contagious! Once again the excitement is building in our house and we are counting down the final days. One of the ways we try to spread out the Holiday Cheer in our house is by doing the 12 Days of Christmas. I used bigger boxes this year so it is actually pretty tall (it’s taller than me….not that I am a giant, ha), but it made it more difficult to get a great picture.
The 12 Days of Christmas allows the girls can open one gift a day for 12 days prior to Christmas. By doing it this way they have the time to enjoy each gift because they get one gift every day versus everything packed into one day! Starting December 13th the girls will be able to open one gift a day with the last one being opened on Christmas Eve. Plus, doing the 12 Days of Christmas motivates me to wrap some gifts early so I am not up late the day before Christmas trying to get all the wrapping completed, instead I can relax and go to bed at a decent time!
Some years I keep the cost to under $20 total, including boxes and wrapping paper, while other years we add their main gifts to this stack. Most of the gifts were bought on clearance, using coupons, or at discount over the past year. We did a joint stack for both of our girls again this year, although you can choose to do a stack for each person. You can chose to do whatever works best for your family.
In the past I have shared the items that I put into their 12 Days of Christmas packages, however, it is not possible to do that this year. Mainly because the girls are fluent readers AND they are frequent readers of my blog (wink…wink)! So in order to keep their gifts a secret I will not be able to spill-the-beans on the contents of the packages. I would be happy to share the list of the items I put into their boxes if you send me a message and promise not to tell my kids (shhhh….it’ll be our secret). I just cannot post publicly what is in each box. I have compiled a list of ideas on items that work well in the 12 Days of Christmas packages to get you started!
Ideas for 12 Days of Christmas:
- CDs
- Hair Accessories
- Make Up
- Socks or Tights
- Chapstick
- Socks
- Gloves or Scarf
- Card Game
- Construction Paper
- Markers or Crayons
- Matchbox cars
- Small Toys
- Baby Doll Clothes
- Christmas Underwear
- Shoes
- Slippers
- Books
- Clothes
- Pajamas
- Popcorn Tin
- Mix Nuts
- Sweet Treats
- Christmas Ornaments
- Crafts
- Games
- Gift Cards
- The ideas are endless! 🙂
I wrapped the items in the original boxes or found boxes around the house to put the items into. The Christmas paper was purchased on clearance and I used a coupon. Many of the items we purchased on clearance throughout the year and / or used CVS – ECBs and Walgreens – Register Rewards, Swagbucks Gift Cards or Coupons. I cannot remember the price for all the items but with the rewards it very reasonable price for 12 gifts and some days had multiple items in them.
We did a joint stack for our girls to save money, however, the items we picked match their individual interests. The kids recently discovered the 12 Days of Christmas presents wrapped and ready by our tree! I love seeing their faces and hearing their comments when they first see the stack.
If you need some more ideas you can check out our previous 12 Days of Christmas posts for our family over the past few years:
Love It – Orion 10 x 42 Waterproof Monocular
We got the girls an Orion 10×42 Waterproof Monoculars last year for Christmas. The monculars have been amazing! If you travel with your kids this is a great way for them to see a lot of neat things and are they light, waterproof, easy to carry, and simple to use too. We used some of our Swagbucks when buying these on Amazon!
Gift Giving: Kids Two Liter Surprise Gifts
Kids Two Liter Surprise Gifts
Are you looking for a unique birthday or fun gift for someone? These gifts were a big hit with our family! I had a blast brainstorming and coming up with these fun gifts for my nieces and nephews. I wanted something fun, unique, and easy to send in the mail. I recycled 2 liter bottles, stuffed them with all kinds of fun items as well as colorful shredded paper and mailed them! The kids absolutely LOVED them! 🙂
I was super excited to hear that my nieces and nephews overjoyed at getting these in the mail! I sent one 2 liter surprise gift to each family, so these four bottles were actually for 12 kids in all. This is a great way to get something special for a group of kids because they all have fun opening and discovering all the goodies in the bottle. Every bottle had a variety of items that all the kids would enjoy from candy to markers, erasers, glue sticks, paper clips, colored pencils, bouncy balls, stickers, and so much more!
View of the back of the bottles, you can see a lot of the fun items inside the bottles
I originally did these gifts for my nieces and nephews as their Christmas presents but since I have been asked by several people to duplicate these gifts I thought I would share them with you too. If you need to send a gift for an upcoming birthday, graduation, Christmas, congratulations, baby, wedding or for any occasion these would be fun to put together and bring a smile to the person receiving it! One lady in the post office wanted to know if I could put together one for each of her grandkids! 🙂 As you can see from the pictures above I did four at one time but it would be very easy to do one at a time too. The gift is unique, memorable, fun, and very affordable!
After cleaning out the 2 liter bottle I filled it with colorful shredded paper and all kinds of fun items then stuck bows to the lid, taped the address on the outside, and mailed them. They cost less postage then a box, were super fun to put together plus I got raving reviews from both those that seen them in transport and on the receiving end. I even had a postal worker from another office contact me to comment on the awesome gifts!
Once you get started and your creative juices get going the possibilities are endless with this two liter surprise gift. Here’s how I did it:
Empty and clean 2 liter bottle (I used clear and tinted bottles both worked well)
Everything you put into the bottle must got through the top opening where the cap screws onto the 2 liter. Put a little bit of colorful shredded paper in first to get some color and padding in the bottom of the 2 liter.
Gather a bunch of items that you think will fit through the 2 liter opening at the top. I like to have a lot of variety in my Two Liter Surprise Gift so here are some of the items that I put into mine. I used what I had in my stockpile from shopping sales, clearance racks, and using coupons so the entire gift was very affordable. Here are some of the items I used to get you started:
- Twist Lollipops
- Markers
- Glue Sticks
- Color Pencils
- Erasers
- Paper Clips
- Post-it Notes
- Crayons
- Highlighters
- Paint Brushes
- Mechanical Pencils
- Tattoos
- Pencils
- Stickers
- Magnets
- Balloons
- Ink Pens
- Binder Clips
- Bouncy Balls
- Small Toys
- Small Notebooks
- Decorative Bags
- And MORE!
Twist Lollipops were the surprise in the middle of the 2 liter bottle with all the other items and shredded paper packed in around them to protect them. I was glad to hear they did really well in shipping!
Filling the two liter bottle with surprises! The lollipops are wrapped inside the blue (with candy canes) tissue paper and put in the middle of the two liter for extra protection.
Packing the bottle full of goodies (another example). You can “stuff” a lot of fun items into a 2 liter bottle
I added the ribbon to the bottle and put a couple pieces of wrapping tape on it to help secure it to the lid. This bottle is a green Mountain Dew bottle with blue shredded paper in it.
Last step is to put on a label with your address and the recipents address and take it to the post office to mail out. (The addresses in the photo have been distorted on purpose for the protection of the kids to whom the gifts were sent to).
Every kid (who I am kidding every person, young & old) loves to get a special surprise in the mailbox. You will put a smile on the face of a family member or friend even though miles may separate you with this great, fun, and affordable gift!
