61 Ways to give the Spirit of Christmas all season long ... and beyond!

This is my very first blog post and I'm using it to help you organize your gift giving this season ... no matter what your budget looks like.

The ideas below are inspired by the book,  “101 Simple and Thoughtful Ways to Give this Christmas Away,” - by Matthew West.  

November:

1. Give someone a decorative box filled with index cards that you wrote your favorite memories of that you shared with that person.
2. Finish what you started.  Is there a project that has been needing done around the house?  Or has your mom been calling leaving hints that she needs help with something at HER house that she can’t finish herself?   Give the gift of finishing it.
3. Be extra nice to cashiers or other retail employees.  If they do a great job for you … take the time to find a manager and let them know.
4. Be a babysitter.  Do you know someone with little ones that needs time to get away to do THEIR shopping or to just get some things done around the house?  Offer to sit for them a day or two in order to take away the dread of overwhelm that may be starting upon them this season.
5. Make a “no-sew” blanket.  Who doesn’t love a good blankie? … http://thefrugalgirls.com/2011/12/no-sew-fleece-blanket.html
6. Give a husband and wife with kids a gift card to a night out WITH an offer to watch the kids while they are gone.
7. Got guys on your list or would you like to bless the mailman, barber, male teacher, etc.  I sometimes buy Sarris’ Holiday Chocolate Candy Bars and give them out to the guys on our list.  Here’s an idea to buy inexpensive candy bars when they are on sale and then make them look festive yourself … http://thefrugalgirls.com/2011/12/christmas-candy-bar-wrappers.html.  You could even put a $5 or $10 gas card in with the candy.
8. When was the last time you and your family had their picture taken together?  Give the gift of a family photo this year.  You could either schedule to have it done professionally, or just take one yourself and put it in a nice frame.  It could even be from a summer vacation.
9. Give the gift of a wonderful memory to your family this year.  Start a new tradition.  Go on an evening “road trip” just to look at all the holiday decorations in different neighborhoods.
10. Adopt a college kid or friend for the holiday.  Set an extra plate at the dinner table this upcoming holiday season.  Do you know someone who will be spending the holidays alone this year?  Why not invite them over for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner?  Do you have a college-age child who will be coming home for the holidays?  Do they have a dorm-mate or friend at school that has nowhere to go this season?  Invite them to spend the holiday with YOUR family.
11. Do you have a chic (or wanna-be chic) friend or family member who loves the beach?  Who doesn’t love the beach?  Buy a wooden letter that corresponds with the first letter of their last name from your craft store, paint it white and glue seashells on it  … http://www.pinterest.com/pin/326370304216512443/
12. Style a friend an inexpensive fabric cuff bracelet … http://www.flamingotoes.com/2012/09/crazy-easy-anthro-knockoff-bracelet/
13. Do you know someone who always complains of having cold feet … make them a rice bag foot warmer!  Rice bag warmers would also make a great guy gift.   http://www.vanessachristenson.com/2009/02/tutorialrice-bag-feet-warmer.html
14. Visit my Tin Can Alley board on Pinterest for some really cute ways to repurpose tins or cans of any shape or size into really cute storage solutions … I’d LOVE it if someone made ME anyone of these … http://www.pinterest.com/chicorganizer/tin-can-alley/
15. Avon’s Skin So Soft Wintersoft Hand Wash and Hand Lotion.  I have found this is THE only thing I can wash my hands with in the winter.  Place in a small inexpensive basket with a nail polish or manicure set from the dollar store.  Add a couple pieces of chocolate (Hershey’s kisses) and you have an instant, low-cost gift.  You could do the same for a guy, but instead of the nail polish, put hand warmers along with the soap and lotion … plus the chocolates too of course.
16. Do you have a lot of instagram photos that you would like to hold onto forever?  Here’s a cost effective way to display them that is absolutely FABulous!  http://www.pinterest.com/pin/326370304216640779/
17. Give the gift of communication.  Buy an inexpensive, small ceramic plate, decorate with vinyl stickers and place in a small plate holder with a dry erase marker attached, that you place in the main bathroom of your home.  You can leave each other love notes, reminders for the day ahead, etc.  … http://www.pinterest.com/pin/326370304217120720/
18. Buy a small shadow box at Wal-Mart or thrift store, fill with craft beads and such and place little trinkets that remind you of times together with that person.  See my pinterest page for picture … http://www.pinterest.com/pin/326370304217121010/
19. Give the coat or shirt off your back to someone in need.  I know of one person at our church who collects blankets this time of year and then goes around looking for homeless people to give them to for the winter.
20. Secretly adopt a family for a year.  Do you have family or friends that you know struggle financially?  Send them an anonymous gift card to a local grocery store or gas station.  You can even put it on your calendar to do this monthly for them and not just during the holiday.
21. Start offering at coffee shops to buy a “suspended coffee” for someone in need.  If you are a coffee shop owner, make it known to your customers that you offer this service … not just during the holidays .. but all year round as well.  http://thesuspendedcoffees.wordpress.com/
22. Pay it backward.  Is there someone in your life who has helped you out in a big way or even helped direct the path your life has taken?  A mentor?  Have you ever thanked them?  Send them a card of thanks letting them know how much they have impacted you and how much you appreciate all they did for you.
23. Be a dream maker.  At Thanksgiving dinner this year, tell your relatives that you are doing some “research” for a project a “friend” is doing and ask them to share ways that they would wish for someone to bless them this year.  This is really easy to do if you have high school or college-age kids because THEY could actually say it was for a school project they are working on.  You can either write down their ideas yourself or have them do it on slips of paper.  Then, give that person a home-made coupon booklet at Christmas time with all (or as many as you can) of their blessings on a different coupon.  Tell them they can redeem the coupons at any time with you during the next year … with a little notice, of course.  If you can’t do all of them … could you even do at least one?
24. Give the present of being PRESENT.  Visit the elderly woman down the street in your neighborhood a day or two a week to see if she is okay or to offer to take her shopping.  Visit your parents more often by making it a weekly/bi-weekly habit.
25. Help those who help others.  Find a way to help out or thank someone who has a thankless job or gives of themselves all year long.
26. Find a way to help or give back to first responders.  Could you bring them food?  Water?  Etc?
27. Leave an enormous (or as big as you can give) tip to your waiter or waitress.
28. Bless yourself this holiday by reconnecting with an old friend or friends.
29. Don’t have a lot of money to give to those on your list this year?  There’s still time to MAKE some nice inexpensive gifts.  For ideas, go to www.pinterest.com and type in gift ideas, low cost gifts, gifts for him, gifts for her, etc.
30. Give up your secret recipe.  Do you have a dish or treat that you make that your friends and family are always asking for you to bring to their get-togethers?  Make up a batch and give it to them … WITH the recipe (don’t leave anything out either)  

December:

1. Be an Angel of the night.  After a snow storm, go out at night and find someone’s house whose driveway and walkways have not been cleared.  Do it for them.  It could be the elderly couple across the street, or the wife whose husband is stationed overseas, or even someone in your own family that you know has a hard time being able to do it for themselves.
2. Bake an extra dozen cookies or so.  One to keep and one to give away to a new neighbor, an elderly person or just anyone you could think of that needs a little “lift” this holiday.
3. “On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me.”  Are you married or do you have a significant other?  Plan out 12 different ways you can bless them by surprising them every day during the 12 days leading up to Christmas with different “gifts” each day.  They could be monetary gifts or thoughtful gifts like a poem or a song you serenade them with.  Let your imagination run wild!
4. Spend some time with your family watching the Veggie Tales movie “Saint Nicolas.”  You’ll laugh, you’ll cry and learn why giving is important. (Quote from Matthew West – 101 Simple and Thoughtful Ways to Give this Christmas Away).
5. Do you have a coach, doctor, pro organizer ;) on your gift list this year?  Check these out … decorated clip boards to use all year round! … http://www.pinterest.com/pin/225250418834492201/
6. These are so cute … especially for grandparents or someone who is into retro looking things .  They are homemade magnets that look like polaroid pictures from back in the day.  Check out the easy directions here … http://www.ambrosiagirl.com/blog/tiny-polaroid-magnets/
7. An UNBELIEVABLE easy craft to make that uses crocheted doilies to make your own decorative plates or bowls.  http://strictlysimplestyle.blogspot.com/2011/05/create-your-own-lace-pottery.html
8. Have a Starbucks lover on your gift list.  Give them a gift card in a DIY fabricated Starbucks gift cup … easy peasy! … http://www.pinterest.com/pin/326370304217304190/
9. Do you have a dog lover on your list who is always putting photos off their cute pooch online?  Buy a nice frame (can be funny, decorated, etc) and put the pic of her dog in it.  You could even tie a dog treat to the outside of the gift.  Or, the next time you are visiting them, take a pic of them with their dog and do the same as above.  They will probably be pleasantly surprised!  http://www.pinterest.com/pin/326370304217122116/
10. Got a new boyfriend or girlfriend?  Give each other an inexpensive jar filled with fun date night ideas for the coming year.  Here’s an example to get you started that will end the, “What do you want to do tonight?  I don’t know, what do YOU want to do tonight” dilemma.  It could be things you’ve always wanted to do but were afraid to ask and you didn’t want to do them alone.  http://www.pinterest.com/pin/326370304217304188/
11. Yesterday’s gift idea doesn’t have to just be for couples … you can do a spin on this for entire families.  Have the kids write on popsicle sticks things they would like to do in the coming year for AT HOME family date nights.  http://www.pinterest.com/pin/326370304217304371/
12. Glue inexpensive rope to well cleaned out cans to use as chic organizing solutions for a bathroom, desk, teachers gift, etc. … http://www.pinterest.com/pin/326370304216457453/
13. Here’s a good guy gift or a gift for the grouch that’s hard to buy for.  Buy an inexpensive umbrella from the dollar store and attach dangled dollar bills to the inside so when they open it, it will be raining money!  … http://www.pinterest.com/pin/268597565249137125/
14. Is there a friend, boyfriend, or family member overseas?  Make up an “Open When” basket and send them a bunch of envelopes that say “Open when …” and fill in the blank with the rest for different emotions … http://www.pinterest.com/pin/475129829408960886/
15. For a teacher, entrepreneur, work at home, or office worker … DIY framed fabric colored cork board … http://www.howdoesshe.com/fabric-covered-cork-board-frame/
16. Do you know someone who has been struggling lately?  Either financially or emotionally?  Pray for them and make up a list of Bible verses that will lift them up and enrich them.  Include a small Bible with it if you know they don’t have one.
17. Start a gal-pal walking club and give each of your girl friends an invitation to join in the coming year.  Start out in the winter at the mall and then at the park in the warmer weather.  You’ll be blessing yourself AND them with the gift of health … and some great gab fests!
18. Is there a guy in your life that is possessive about “his” snacks?  Here’s a cute idea to give him his favorite treat in a decorated jar or box that says John’s Stache with  a moustache on the front. … http://www.pinterest.com/pin/231020655858257658/
19. Make a framed ring holder that coordinates with the receiver’s kitchen or bathroom. …. http://www.pinterest.com/pin/326370304217311078/
20. Do you know a foodie, who is also a techie?  Make this inexpensive cute, ipad/tablet holder for when they are cooking from their favorite online recipes.  http://www.pinterest.com/pin/326370304216602732/
21. It’s payback time.  Do you owe someone an outstanding debt that you have been putting off?  Has it gone on so long that it has now affected your relationship with that person?  Pay the debt back … whatever it may be.  Did you borrow an item and never returned it?  Do it now.  Do you owe a friend or relative money?  Pay it back (or start making installments) with a note of apology included.
22. Do you belong to a really great church that just lifts you up every time you go?  Why not invite a friend, family member or neighbor to come with you?
23. It’s too late for this one this year but starting now through Christmas next year, have yourself and your spouse put all your loose change at the end of a day into a glass vase or jar.  At the end of the year, take that money and either split it for your Christmas gift(s) to each other OR put it together and plan something to do together … see pinterest page on this … http://www.pinterest.com/pin/326370304217120736/
24. Pick your absolute FAVORITE idea off of this list and do it again.
25. Take care of you.  Especially if you are a stay-at-home mom or the care giver of an older family member … schedule time purposefully every day in the coming year to give yourself some “alone” time.  Whether you have to get up early or stay up a bit later.  Pour yourself your favorite drink, listen to some relaxing music, read your Bible or pray and be silent as you listen for God’s Word to come to you.
26. Give your good stuff to Goodwill.  Now that you have gotten some new stuff.
27. Volunteer at a homeless shelter AFTER Christmas.  Most homeless shelters, food banks, and other places like them usually have plenty of volunteer help during the holidays when everyone is in that warm, fuzzy, giving mood.  Get in contact with one of these places and ask about donating your time throughout the year … and then STICK TO IT!
28. Think of yourself as a vacuum when you are out and clean up any trash you see laying around.  If YOU usually leave trash laying around, break the habit and start cleaning up after yourself.  If you take something out somewhere, put it back or throw it away. Clean up after yourself so someone else won’t have to do it FOR you.
29. Is there a charity that is close to your heart?  Something that you see everyday that just breaks your heart to see it?  Start a savings account that you find ways to raise money for throughout the year and then give big to that charity next Christmas.  Start a FB page for your efforts to keep those informed of how the giving is coming throughout the year and then also allow them to be a part of the actual giving moment next year.  This way, they will KNOW you weren’t just taking their money and running with it.
30. This one’s an oldie but a goodie … pick up the tab for someone or some family when you are out to dinner.  Get the family involved in picking out who you would like to bless … who looks like they could use a lift in life.  This is another good one to do throughout the year … not just at Christmas time.
31. Make a New Year’s Resolution to have daily/weekly family dinners at your house with your ENTIRE family.  If the kids don’t like what is on the menu, have them make their own, but they HAVE to eat it at the table with the entire family at dinner time.