Free Christmas

With Christmas approaching I once again turned to my budget spreadsheet. In past years I’ve been able to scrape up a couple hundred dollars for Christmas presents, which has been sufficient. (Last year all of my adult family members received a bottle of inexpensive but delicious wine, which cost about $100).
Being on a tighter budget than ever this year, I find myself with no money to buy Christmas presents, not even cheap wine. My options, therefore are: (1) To take money out of savings to cover the cost of Christmas presents & replace it after Christmas with whatever money I receive at Christmas; or (2) Come up with zero-cost present ideas.
Option two makes the most sense to me. I’ve looked around at what I already have on hand, and here are the zero-cost present ideas I’ve come up with so far:
-Mixed CDs compiled from my music collection (accompanied by guitar chords printed off the Internet for my guitar-playing relatives)
-Books off my shelf that I think a particular relative or friend would enjoy
-Homemade cards (I have a box full of craft supplies that I almost never use)
-Certificates promising future service (e.g. Dog-sitting, baby-sitting, cleaning, cooking a meal, etc.)
-Re-gifting household items that I either don’t use anymore or have never used, such as clothing, picture frames, or decorative knick-knacks
-Coupons from this year’s Chinook Book that I don’t expect I would use, but that I strongly suspect another of my friends would use
My survey of friends and co-workers for ideas to steal has also resulted in other low-cost ideas that, while not practical for me, may appeal to readers of this blog:
-Home-canned goods from the summer’s canning
-Jars of pop corn kernels
-Homemade baked goods, chocolates or candies
-Travel-size bottles of shampoo, conditioner & lotion; bars of soap; shower caps…in short, whatever could be claimed from the bathroom of a hotel room on your travels
-The blog Beg, Borrow, Barter chronicles a woman’s year-long experiment in not buying anything new and also has some ideas about cheap/free gifts
There are two criteria that I’m trying to follow in this gift-giving business:
1. Don’t give away anything I’ll need to replace at a later date. Otherwise it defeats the purpose. For example, I don’t want to give away my only copy of my favorite book because I’d just have to replace it later and while the expense is deferred it is not avoided. What I want to give away is a book I’ve either never read though it’s been on my shelf for years or which I’ve read once and think it highly unlikely I will ever read again. Probably I should also include in this criteria that I shouldn’t give anything irreplaceable: what if I decide later that I do want to replace it, but in order to do so I have to go back to Spain to find another one? Not good.
2. Don’t give just to give. I value thoughtful presents. An expensive gift that shows no awareness of my personality or lifestyle means far less to me than a cheap gift that takes into account my personality and lifestyle. I’d much rather receive the homemade chocolates than an expensive sweater I’ll never wear. So the book (or whatever) I choose to give has to be one that I not only don’t care about replacing but which would appeal to the recipient. Tricky. Very tricky.