Alternative Gift Ideas-Baking

One thing that I have noticed over the past couple of years is that homemade cooking is becoming a lost art. I have found that people love homemade baked goods or items they can quickly put together themselves to call homemade. The one thing people seem to love are my home canned food items especially the jams and jellies. This brings me to my next list of ideas for alternative gifts.Here are some ideas:

-your speciality homemade Christmas cookies. (I use reusable Christmas tins for this. You can find tons of them at Goodwill. I also will sometimes put in baggies and wrap in small gift bags.)
-Homemade quick breads 
-Fresh homemade loaf of bread
-homemade candies
-home canned jams, jellies, salsa, others (put a piece of Christmas material under the removable ring. Tie a ribbon around the ring.)
-jar of cookie mix with directions on how to prepare (can find tons of recipes for this on the internet)

Try some of these today. If you are giving them to a child's teacher, babysitter or other caretaker, have your child help in the preparation. As we go along I will try and include some recipes in my blog with some of the more popular items that can be made from scratch. Have fun baking.

Alternative Gift Ideas

As I write about alternative gifts, I want people to know that buying gifts is not the problem. It is our attitude of more is better that is the problem. As a society, we think the dollar amount on the item shows how much we love someone. The idea behind alternative gift giving is not being a scrooge or miserly. If that is what we get out of it then we have missed the point. Alternative gift giving is about the attitude. Refusing to buy into the fallacy that more is better and will show how much I love you. This year, don't max out those credit cards. Better yet, don't even use those credit cards. This year set a reasonable budget and think of a gift or gifts that the person will really enjoy or appreciate. Here are some more ideas that my sustainable living class came up with the other week.

-Divide out those bulbs or special plants. Plant them in a pretty pot so they will flower around Christmas.
-Have a friend or family member who wants to learn a new skill that you know. Give them a gift certificate for free lessons wrapped up with the materials they need to get started. (knitting/crocheting, woodworking, canning, piano lessons, etc)
-Buy locally made arts and crafts, home cooked goods, soaps, jewelry from a local artisan as a gift
-Buy a fair trade item that someone needs or would enjoy.
-Make a family game night basket for the whole family include board games, snack items and drinks.
-If you can, give homemade jams and jellies along with a loaf of homemade bread to enjoy it on. Give a gift basket with some of your salsas, chips and maybe a pretty bowl to serve it in.

These will hopefully get you started. Please post comments with any other suggestions you have.

Presence Versus Presents

This year during the Advent season our church is stressing the importance of giving "presence" versus "presents". It is not to say that we should never buy any gifts for anyone but instead intentionally think about gifts for people that help build relationships. As the video from Advent Conspiracy says we spend 450 billion dollars on just Christmas gifts here in the states. We are a society addicted to busyness but in the meantime our relationships with spouses, children, family and friends suffer. Does any of this buy us the happiness that we crave?

Instead of giving the sweater they are going to return or another toy for the child who already has too many, why not think of something different this year-your time. We spend so much time running around trying to "buy" the perfect Christmas when all most people want is "you"-especially our children. So, this year think about some gifts where you can give your time. Here are some examples to get you started.

-taking an afternoon and making Christmas cookies with your child
-volunteering a specific number of hours at your friends favorite charity
-offering coupons for free babysitting to a family with young children or a special needs child (maybe even include a restaurant gift certificate so they can go on a date together)
-coupons to shovel snow, rake leaves, etc for someone who cannot do it themselves
-cook a home cooked meal once a month for a busy family  
-take your friend out for coffee, breakfast or lunch. Spend time catching up on what is going on in their lives. Better yet have them over to your house for an afternoon of catching up 
-have your friend over and bake Christmas cookies together. Split the finished product between the two of you when you are done.
-spend an afternoon creating homemade gifts with your children for their family members
-have a friend over and make some gifts together.
-buy a boardgame for a family that they can all play together and enjoy

As you can see from the examples, the emphasis is not on how much "money" but how much "time" that you spend. I hope these examples get your creative juices running. I am sure you can come up with many more. Please share your ideas in the comment section. We will all benefit from them.

Fair Trade Items

One good alternative for Christmas gifts are fair trade items. These are hand-crafted items made by individuals in low-income areas of the world, bought from them for a fair price which then allows them to earn a fair wage. Several small cottage industries have been set-up because of this program. The items are usually well made and beautiful.

Each year, our church hosts a fair trade fair on a Sunday morning. A local business who specializes in fair trade items comes and sets them up. Our members than buy things from them before and after our services. This gives them an easy opportunity to support someone in need while getting some Christmas shopping done.

Here in the Kentucky Bluegrass area there are two shops who carry these items year round. The first one is Lucia's Boutique which is located at 523 East High Street. Here is a link to their store: http://www.luciasboutique.com/events.html  They are the ones who set up at our church. The other store is Peace Crafts which is located in Berea at 307 Chestnut Street. Here is a link to their website: http://www.peacecraftinberea.org/

If you do not live in the bluegrass region, there is a mail order business online called SERRV international. Here is a link to their website: http://www.serrv.org/

Check out these great organizations and shops when you get a chance. They make great alternative gifts  and support someone directly who is trying to support themselves and their families.

If you live here locally, stop by our church on Sunday (November 21) from 9:30-1. It is Word of Hope Lutheran and is located on the corner of Man O' War and Armstrong Mill Roads. Hope to see you there.

Alternative Gift Giving

Thought I would share a gift idea that my friend started a couple of years ago with her children. Underneath there Christmas tree, she wrapped a gift with 12 envelopes in it. Each envelope had a month written on it. Inside the envelope was a piece of paper that listed a special activity the child enjoyed doing and also designated which parent the activity would be taking place with that month. The activities were all from different price ranges from going for a bike ride to going to a play together. The envelope is opened at the beginning of its designated month and then the date is put on their calendars.

My friend admitted that the first year her children were polite when they opened up the gifts and did not seem overly excited. This changed though after the first year of monthly special activities. Now, this has become one of their most anticipated gifts. My friend says that her and her husband also look forward to their "dates" each month with their children and have developed some treasured memories from them.

I give this as an example that treasured gifts do not have to cost a lot of money and to get your creative juices started. Try to think of a gift this year that gives of your time versus just a material thing. Relationships are so important and worth the time and effort.