Just what we always wanted!

It's a couple of days before Christmas. I finally have a fun plan! I live with my mom. Neither of us wants the things most people do, and we buy what we want. We have no company etc for Xmas, it's just the two of us and the cat. It's always kinda sad to have nothing to open on Christmas from each other, but that's what happens. We were watching silly kids Christmas movies (the late 60's - 80's ones) and one of them (Jack Frost, by Rankin and Bass) had this in it...



I don't want to give empty boxes, but.... We have things we already bought ourselves, and due to multiple unrelated projects, I have lots of things like Xmas patterned popcorn tins, gift bags, ribbon and lace....

I'm going to make pretty packages containing things like ... the cashews we bought at a discount store, the scarves and bracelet I got at a thrift store, jigsaw puzzles I got at thrift stores, a tool I bought the other day, some of the tea from the cabinet put into a cute tin, a pretty display of snacks we have around, etc. The goal here is to startle her on Christmas morning. We have a thing we made, I'll not call it a tree, we call it The Portal, it's gaudy colors and flashes with way too many lights, and in front of it I'll make a big pile of bright, glittery, all different looking things that will have in them stuff we already have that we can be pleased with getting!  I want her to feel like you did as a kid when you came out Christmas morning, the tree was lit, there were presents, and it was all SO exciting! I hope it will be a fun game!

Just what I always wanted! I know for sure.... because I already bought it!

What a LOVELY idea! I used to cycle my kids toys & games. When new ones came in the house, some old ones I knew they didn't enjoy as much as we thought they would just went away. Others, however, they loved, but had become a bit tired of. So, those would get put up, for later, to be revived when other things started to feel a little less 'shiny'. The kids loved rediscovering beloved items! Are there things she loves, but may have lost track of, or forgotten about, that you could wrap for her?

Like your cashews, food is another always welcome gift, here - a surprise of homemade nut brittle, trail mix with all the favorite goodies, a surprise jar of honey or some goodies (for John, that would be pickles, homemade canned chili, or venison stew that I discovered in a hidden nook!) that the recipient had thought to be all gone. I enjoy going on 'Easter egg hunts' looking for stuff like that. But, even though I'll secret them away too use for a surprise, it never occurred to me to wrap them! I love it - and you may have just bumped up the 'happy'in our holidays - and birthdays, anniversaries...

At home I live with extremely non-Christmasy people, but I'm visiting my sisters this year and there are 5 large sacks under A's tree, all containing a jigsaw puzzle or 2 from the thrift shop.

I mostly give food, although I left a finished sewing project with #2 Son to sack up for Hubby for me. We don't do the wrapping paper thing, but I sewed lovely gift sacks in bright colours and a little lace in places and they've lasted decades.

On a planet with too much "stuff", I really don't want to give people more stuff they don't have a use for. Giving them their own stuff they've forgotten about, seems like a wonderful plan!

That was REALLY fun! I ended up with 22 or so gifts.
The first thing mom opened was two sundresses she bought in the last month...  Which was a giveaway what kind of gifts those were, all piled by our portal, looking so pretty and elaborate and arranged nice. We took turns giving each other a gift from the pile, and ooohing and ahhing over it, and making up stories that got more and more silly. We laughed like loons and took about 2 hours to get through it all. Mom claimed she picked the cashews herself, on her knees, uphill, in the snow, both ways :D  I claimed to have hand woven a scarf on a loom, so the next scarf, which is very light and tie dyed, she said she forced the spiders to excrete the colors perfectly by threatening them!

It was hilarious fun, and WELL worth doing! And we got the things we wanted! We can prove it, we had bought them :D Only thing I bought just for this game was 2 bottles of cheap wine, total cash outlay 10.00  :D
A total win!

And a bonus I just realized...
I'm cleaning it all up, and I don't have to say "Well, where can THIS go?" It goes back to where I swiped it from.
No trying to find a place for something that doesn't fit in the cabinet with the others, etc.

And it's a LOT cheaper! Even if I had wrapped things in gift paper, it would have been cheaper. I didn't do that with any of it, I had enough other things I liked, bags and tins etc, that I didn't bother. And had a lot of lace and ribbon to dress them up, as I use things for other reasons. All the lace etc is going back to where it belongs, didn't get hurt at all.

I seriously vote that if you do FB or other social media, spread this idea around, more people could have fun with it too!  If I had more time to think I'd have dug up stuff we hadn't seen in a while, as is I stuck to what was easy to get quickly. I'll start earlier in the future.... What does mom want for her birthday... hmm.... bet I can find something that got shoved to the back someplace!

:D

And I'm smug, after all of that, my trash pile after clean up was one handful of bits of clear tape, some pieces of really knotted curling ribbon that had been used too much, and the cut scraps from the wrapping paper my sister had wrapped in, that is very very heavy paper, I made myself a clean copy of the pattern I use for pockets in my skirts out of most of it.

The neighbor asked if she could use trash can space, I said sure, she put 3 or 4 big bags in, on top of her own can being full. A bit of difference in reality between us.

:D

We love that show, and that song!
My wife and I usually give each other house payments for various holidays.
She did give me two brand new overalls yesterday, but she would have done that anyway.
The best presents are like that.

I absolutely loved this thread! I try to instill a mind set of gratitude in my grand kids...We have so much that we are often not grateful for what we have...Happy Holidays (and EVERY DAYS) to all my Permies friends. Thank you for all  the inspirations along the way. YOU are all blessings for me.

Another old standby gift for me is, "what would they really like to be fixed?" My sister got 2 sets of oven mitt covers which I sewed up on Grandmother's old Singer, from wool fabric that had been sitting in a box for 20 years. Now she can wash just covers and with a spare pair, can swap them out while doing so. The mitts will last longer, wool is safe with heat, and the scraps will go to the compost. (I also washed all the "up-high" light fixtures, as she's not ladder compatible.)