Preaches n' Cream

Maybe it’s the new retail gig I’m doing that has me thinking Christmas: on November first they unveiled their big Christmas extravaganza windows and today in the store the decorating team (?) were wheeling Christmas trees around to start decking the halls. I actually told one of the guys to wheel his Christmas tree back into the stockroom and not to bring it back until December 22nd (When I’m usually ready to start shopping for gifts).

I’m pretty cool when it comes to gift giving, my gift is typically the gift of “I don’t give you a gift, you don’t have to get me a gift”, it’s the gift of time and money. I like to gift give if and when I want to; if I see something for someone that I know they’ll love, I’ll get it. Alternately, if I can’t find something that the person will truly love, then they don’t get a gift. I just don’t see the point in spending $$$ on junk.

This year I want to do all my Christmas shopping on Etsy and I want to do the entire holiday’s gifts for under $100.  

Here are some ideas that I’ve come up with:

Custom Family Tree (for a new mom, old mom, a gift for a family):

Antler Art (for a boyfriend, brother, dad…any boy):

Some more art (For a colleague, brother, boyfriend, dad…again with the boy gifts):

Apron (This one is crazy over the top and I LOVE it! One like this or a subtler style is a great gift for a sister, cousin, mom, friend…ME):

Another idea is trying to make your own gifts; you can look to Etsy for inspiration or cool places like The Knit Cafe   or The Work Room where they’ll teach you to knit or sew a little project. In which case it’s good that I’m bringing Christmas gifts up so early, to give you time to learn to knit and sew.