Nothing says that you care more than personalized gifts, and they are so easy to make.
For the less creative among us, many kits exist in stores to help us out. There are kits for painting plastic ornaments, making photo mugs, having your child’s art work laminated into a placemat, etc. You can also order a photo mat for your computer mouse. Another very popular item is a 12 month photo calendar. You simply supply the photos and the calendar is mailed to you. Smiles abound every month of the year as a new page is flipped open.
If you want to spend less money and watch your children have a fun, creative time, there are many other options as well. My children always enjoyed making Christmas Tree ornaments (to keep for themselves or give to others). The round metal tops to frozen orange juice cans make an excellent backing for a child’s photo. Simply cut the photo out to fit the circular metal top, glue it on, and add sprinkles if you like.
Another photo ornament can be easily constructed using popsicle sticks. Take 4 sticks and glue them together in a square shape. Place the sticks over a photo so that they become a frame for the picture.
Nature is a great resource for creating your own ornaments. One of my favorites that my son made was created by taking a pine cone, brushing on glue and sprinkling with glitter. Then some yarn was added to hang it from the tree.
My 22 and 25 yr. olds still hang their special ornaments, which they created when they were age 3-10, on the tree each year. It is a reminder of Christmases past, and makes trimming the tree a very memorable experience.
It is so easy to show you care by making your gifts, whether it be baking bread or pies, creating ornaments or calendars, etc. There is no limit to what you can do and have fun doing it!