HO! HO! HO! IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!
It sure is! I know it sounds cliche, but I genuinely DO get more happiness out of giving a well-thoughtout, heartfelt gift rather than getting presents. To be honest, part of that is probably because gone are the days of mile-long, color-coded lists which would magically make their way to the North Pole and then be artfully placed under my tree on Christmas morning. Now, my husband and I prefer to get each other something special for our apartment i.e. a new rug or coffee- woo hoo! I always try to take the time to consider each person on my "nice list" and find a little something special for them. Now, we all are teachers here so I am not looking to break the bank. I try to keep all my gifts under $20. Here is the rundown this year.
For my colleagues dear friends this year, I got them monogrammed clipboards or mugs from Personalization Mall. Typically the clipboards run close to $40 but I snagged them during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales and with shipping each clipboard came to about $20. SCORE! The mugs were a steal at around $12 a piece. I mixed and matched colors depending on what I thought each lady would like.
Next up was my parent volunteers. I picked up some ever-handy mason jars at Michaels Crafts and filled them with Candy Cane Hershey Kisses. Throw a cute little gift tag on there and you're ready to go!
For the kiddos... a no-brainer! Snowman soup! I used all store-brand items to cut down on costs. Individual hot cocoa mix, a handful of marshmallows, mini candy cane, and some hershey kisses to seal the deal.
And, of course, for the students' families... such a beautiful, sweet gift- paperwhites. We got ours at a local gardening store but you can order some here. Have the littles bring in a mason jar or a pickle jar and fill the bottom with rocks for a beautiful aesthetic, or just dirt to keep it simple. The pictures below are after 7 days of growth. I hot glue-gunned a silk white ribbon around the jar and printed this sweet little poem for the students to decorate.
For a class gift... HO HO HANGMAN!, Snowman Hangman, or a little sight word fun with I SPY Christmas and Winter games.
Happy "shopping!" Merry Christmas! and HAPPY HOLIDAYS.
