A Frugal Christmas For Kids

[pollypurebred39]

Did you know it's 143 Days, 8 Hours, 51 Minutes till Christmas? But who's counting? With this in mind I thought I'd start a thread about frugal Christmas gifts for kids. So many of us here are struggling to pay the bills and put food on the table, Christmas looms on the horizon and a lot of us are wondering just how we'll pull it off. None of us want our kids to wake up Christmas morning and find nothing but floor under the Christmas tree. So what do we do when we just are squeezing the life out of every penny we've got? We could rack up some more debt...But, I'm fairly certain that none of us here want to go that route. So I thought I list some ideas, and would thrilled if you added your frugal ideas.

How To Make a Snowman Kit

Dig around in your closets (or head to a thrift store) for all those snowman essentials: a button nose, two eyes made out of coal (rocks will work), a carrot nose (play food, perhaps?) a scarf, a set of mittens, two sticks for his arms, a few more buttons for his middle and a couple more rocks for his mouth.
Then, have some fun accessorizing. Add a wig, a crazy hat, some jewelry, a pair of shades – whatever you think will amuse the recipient.
Finish by sticking all the pieces in a box, and creating a fancy label for your kit.

I've done this but I didn't just wrap the box, I created a box like you'd buy at the store. I painted the box and then printed out snowmen & snowflakes, printed out the words "snowman Kit". Then I cut them out and glued them to the box and taped it shut with clear packing tape.

A Snow paint kt

Fill the squeeze bottles with water.
Add a few drops of food coloring to each one.
Shake until well mixed.
Add more food coloring to darken your colors, if desired.
Then, screw the lids back onto the bottles, and send the kids outside for some snow painting fun.

I've done this also. I added spray bottles and made a label for each bottle. I decorated the box the like it was purchased at the store.

[Syn D]

Your just filled will good information!!

Thank you for all of it!!

My daughter came home from school years ago with a snowman she made, it was made out of a white tub sock, filled with rice..

[pollypurebred39]

Syn D, Wow! That's a great idea. You could really make a neat stuffed snowman toy with very little sewing skills.

One of my favorite stuffed animals was a stuffed monkey my Mom made out of men's work socks. Every morning after I made my bed, I set him up on the pillows. He's long gone now, but I still think about that stuffed monkey!

[Maine Girl]

I am a big fan of the rubber band ball kit which is a marble and colored rubber bands for them to build. Also art supplies like colored pencils and those intricate coloring books at the craft store

[pollypurebred39]

I found a really great link for printable coloring pages. They have lots of characters that are recognizable to kids today, like Sponge Bob.

It would be easy enough to make your own coloring books. To save money I'd print out the pages I was interested in and put them in a file. I'd take them to a local printer and print out as many copies as I needed to make books. No sense wasting printer ink!

Coloring Pages - Free Coloring Book Pages for Children - Coloring Printouts - Free Printable Coloring Pages to Print Out : Coloring Pages

Right now report folders are are dime a dozen. You could decorate the cover adding your child's name. Add a pack of crayons from all these back to school sales and you've got an extremely frugal and personalized gift.

[pollypurebred39]

Maine Girl, Oh My Gosh! A rubber band ball kit is awesome!

[pollypurebred39]

Syn D's stuffed sock snowman got me to thinking. Why not make sock puppet kits? Any kid that likes crafts is sure to like this.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQa1NpCQh_w&feature=related]YouTube - How to make a sock puppet - by JAYLEE w Avenue Q[/ame]

[pollypurebred39]

Two cute ideas

A candy Sundae

Crafts with Candy: Chocolate Sundae – How To Instructions From Candybouquethowto.com!


Bubble Gum Bouquet

Make your own Bubble Gum Candy Bouquet - candy craft idea from www.CandyBouquetHowto.com!

[MyMelody]

You can fill a knee-high stocking with potting soil and sprinkle grass seed (winter rye works well) along the top before tying off the end, then hot glue on wiggly eyes, a pompom nose, and a felt or pipe cleaner mouth and it makes sort of a homemade chia pet. They are super cute and look like chubby little worms when they grow! Put it together with a little watering can, an "adoption certificate" with cute clip art, even some scissors for "haircuts," and it makes a fun gift.

[pollypurebred39]

A homemade chia pet! What a cute idea for the budding gardener!

[McD]

Polly---Moo Cow has a sock monkey! It's sitting on her bedroom shelf. Our neighbor, Dave, gave it to her for Christmas last year.

A tradition we have started is that every year the kids give the great-grandparents and grandparents a photo ornament. The first year it was an actual framed ornament as both of my kids were to little to do an actual craft, but Wesley makes and decorates the ornament now.

Sorry Polly, I didn't realize this thread was geared towards gifts for kids. I guess I didn't read your original post clearly enough.

We have a poster here, Lady_V, who has knit some awesome play food for a kitchen. I want to make some play food for Maggie this year.

My mom used to make me homemade barbie clothes. I remember one Christmas that I really wanted new furniture and a new barbie doll house. Well, Santa could only afford one or the other, so I got the new doll house and my mom made furniture. She took scraps of material and glued around empty thread spools and proclaimed them to be tables, chairs, etc.

If you have a child really into Little House on the Prairie, you could make a Laura Ingalls style rag doll.

[pollypurebred39]

I'm sure your Little Moo Cow will grow to love her sock monkey as much as I did!

That's a great tradition MrsMcDowell!

[Momto5RN]

paperdolls
i use to love them
free printable site
Marilee's Paperdolls Page: Printable Paperdolls, Links, Books

[pollypurebred39]

Oh what a great link! Paper Dolls!!!! I think my niece will be getting some of these. Thank You!

[pollypurebred39]

MrsMcDowell,

That's okay, I like that you shared your family tradition. I think that it's a great one.

I love the idea of play food. How cute!

My Mother used to make me clothes for my Barbie too! She never made furniture though, what a great idea.

I love the idea of rag dolls. I'll have to see if I can find some links for making rag dolls.

Thanks for the ideas!