Christmas in July Day 4

[Gingerbug]

Creative gift basket ideas?

Watch for end of summer clearance and buy some really big sand pails...they can make fun and creative gift baskets....

for....

Beach toys, bubbles, and chalk

Art buckets with crayons, colorbooks, etc

Candy

Tons of hot wheels cars

Headbands, barretts and other hari stuff

Popcorn and a movie for movie night....maybe ocean related...Finding Nemo or Sharks

etc

Share some of your fun gift basket ideas!

 

[Pam Spaur]

Buy extra 'school' supplies to put in them, too. For a child, a coloring book, crayons, colored pencils, drawing paper, construction paper, etc. would be great. If not a bucket, a plastic shoe box would be great. Then the child has his/her own craft box. I have done this for Samuel and DGD#3. Put all kinds of craft stuff in it. They will ahve a ball!

 

[Ahorsesoul]

For adults only:
Bottle of 45th Parallel Vodka, a few whole lemons, a lemon zester, a few shot glasses and some pretty glasses. I live within walking distance of where this vodka is made so I go over and get the makers to sign the bottle. I do dark blue filler for the basket to set off the bottle and glasses. Tied up with silver ribbons.

 

[sunshine]

I spend all spring/summer/fall making "weird" jams and jellies for gift baskets. . . add a loaf of homemade bread and the specialty jams in a yard saled basket and it's a great gift (even get requests now)

 

[jinglemom]

Great idea for the sand buckets Ginger. They would be great Easter baskets as well. You can also fill them with trucks and toys for the sand box or park too.

I bought a flower shaped chalkboard (about 10 inches) in the Target dollar spot and some ice cream cone shaped chalk for my neice. I was thinking the craft stores might have other shapes of unfinished wood, or something you can paint over with chalkboard paint to make small shaped chalkboards, maybe even little shapes to use as tags/labels. I know I have a large flat unfinished gingerbread man. I think I am going to turn him into a chalkboard.

Ahorsesoul, someone gave my husband some candy cane vodka last year and he LOVED it. I noticed dollar tree sold different flavored candy canes (strawberries and cream, cinnamon gingerbread, chocolate mint, blueberry) but I've seen it made with lemon heads and other hard candies as well. I am definitely making some for dh this year.

I just bought a wilton cookie bowl pan (makes a scalloped shaped cookie bowl for ice cream) It was on sale at kmart for 7.99 plus I had a $5.00 free bee gift card. I'm going to add sprinkles and whatever else I find for a gift basket.

Last Christmas I bought a cute large gingerbread man cookie tray with a lid on clearance for 2.50. I'm going to put little craft kits in each of the sections for my niece. So maybe a cute container meant for other uses can make good containers for putting together a gift basket (jewelry making, art supplies etc.)

 

[Lana]

Can put soxs (look for soxs for all the different seasons thru out the year), kitchen towels, recipe cards and gadgets for a cook, garden gloves and little garden stones and such for a gardener. Golf balls and items for a golfer, fishing stuff, car stuff for cleaning in a bucket.
A pot with a stainer and the items for spaghetti supper and wine with glasses. Or a stock pot with soup bowls and the makings for soup.

 

[orangesforadam]

Love y'all's ideas! My favorite container that I received was a paint bucket full of craft supplies. You could fill one with painting supplies for someone working on their home. Also, I've thought about a gift for someone getting their own place for the first time...you could get a kitchen trash can and fill it with cleaning supplies, trash bags, broom and dust pan, etc. It would be a big gift, but so often young women will think about decorating, young men think about electronics and the last thing on their mind is cleaning! LOL

 

[Ahorsesoul]

Homemade bread and jam sounds nice.

 

[Pam Spaur]

For a little boy, you could get a 'kind of large' dump truck. In the 'dump' part of the truck (I know; I am not making much sense), you could put the stocking stuffers. For a little girl, maybe a doll cradle or stroller or some such thing. Or a jewelry box filled with all kinds of things. You are only limited by your imagination.

 

[AuntJamelle]

Love gift baskets!!!

Here is a cute idea for a "Just Add Ice Cream" gift basket:

http://homemade.tipjunkie.com/diy-ice-cream-sundae-gift-box/

If you know a family that loves ice cream year round, this could be a really nice gift for them. If you have access to Aldi and/or a $ Store, the cones and some of the "fixings" can be gathered at low cost.

Make your own fudge or caramel sauces or buy on sale/with coupon - or once again use a store like Aldi to get a better price. Make your own cute labels, etc. as shown to make it special!

This blog has tons of great ideas for gift baskets! Love to look around here from time to time for inspiration! Not really Christmas themed baskets, but definitely some good ideas you could add touches of Christmas to if desired.

http://darlingdoodles.blogspot.com/search/label/gift ideas

 

[AuntJamelle]

What about of gift basket with a bundle of herbal fire starters and a tube of long matches?

This is something I may do next Christmas, allowing me to plan to grow certain herbs for drying in my garden next year to make this lower cost...

Pinecones and dried herbs such as rosemary, sage leaves, and cinnamon sticks make fragrant kindling for a winter fire -- and, unlike composite firelogs and lighter fluid, don't rely on chemicals to ignite the flame. 1. Bundle dried herbs and small pinecones in a sheet of newspaper and secure the ends with raffia or cotton twine. 2. As you pile up logs for your fire, nestle the herb bundle underneath, with paper ends sticking out. 3. To start the fire, light the newspaper ends. As the paper burns up, the herbs inside will ignite and incinerate, giving the logs a chance to catch fire. Cost: less than $10

 

[LetItSnow]

My eight year old loves writing letters, so he's getting a basket full of stationery, post cards, stamps, pens, and an address book.

He also is really into rocks and fossils, so I'm going to fill a little Rubbermaid container with rocks to break open, a hammer to break them open with, and some fossils and minerals to display in his display case.

This doesn't *exactly* count as a gift basket, but it's somewhat similar, so I'll throw it out there. I'm also planning to make a hollow book and fill it with a homemade spy kit (codes, an invisible ink pen, a fingerprint kit, etc).

 

[luludou]

AJ thanks for the links.
Letitsnow - love the ideas you have for your boy - I'm sure he will love it!

 

[missjane]

These are some great ideas. I like the homemade jams with bread...that is something I would be likely to do.