Preparing for the holidays- The Gift Basket!

We do a lot of holiday parties in the winter.  There are events with work, our family, and several sets of friends all host parties where each person must bring a gift for the gift exchange that is a $10 (or $20) value.

I try to be a little more creative than just stopping at Starbucks and picking up a gift card.  I love to make gift baskets.  They are a great way to stretch your budget.

This year I am going to a Bunco/Girl's night in Holiday shindig.  I had $10 to spend for a gift.  I decided to do a beauty basket. I brought a basket home from work (a vendor brought us treats!), and I filled my basket with goodies that I had bought on clearance at CVS and Walgreens (lotions, bubble bath, masks, moisturizing gloves).

I bought a microfiber wash cloth at Dollar Tree, along with the cellophane, ribbon, and tissue paper.

 



For work, we have to bring a gift to the holiday lunch- This is a $20 limit.  I am making a hot beverage gift basket.  I have a cute coffee mug, and a cute snow man tea pot, as well as cookies (3 kinds), tea bags, cocoa and instant mocha packets.  I will probably also toss in a $5.00 Starbucks card to round up the value to $20.00.

The coffee mug came from  Tuesday Morning or Home Goods after X-mas, it was marked down.

The cookies, tea, cocoa and instant mocha mix came from various clearance sections, and combining coupons with sale prices to score some incredible deals!

I bought the basket, tissue paper, cellophane and ribbon at Dollar Tree.



Here are my tips on making a kick ass gift basket:

It's all about theme:  Movie night (with candy, popcorn, redbox codes or a DVD), pampering (body products), Coffee/tea/cocoa.  Pick a theme and run with it.

Don't waste too much money on a basket.  If you can't find a basket that you like/is the right shape, get a cardboard box, and cover it with wrapping paper, or fabric. If you are doing a movie theme, consider looking into plastic popcorn buckets (Target usually has them).

It's all about display: Remember to pad the bottom of the box/basket with crumpled newspaper or tissue paper so the items in the basket are nicely presented.  If you use newspaper, consider using crinkly paper shreds or tissue paper to cover the newsprint.

Look around for sales and on clearance sections for your basket filler.  Drug stores and mass merchandisers have great clearance sections.  Remember to combine coupons with sales.  This time of year, Bath & Body works has coupons for a free item WYB something almost every weekend. If you have a JC Penney's Card, they will be mailing $10/$10 coupons soon- use it to buy some great jewelry or candles from the clearance section for your basket.

Don't waste money on fancy ribbon, celleophane, or tissue paper.  Haunt your local dollar store, like Dollar tree, 99 Cents Only, or Family Dollar. They have great products for a really cheap price.  Or, keep your eyes open after each holiday and stock up on the clearance section.