<p>I give wreaths, centerpieces, trees. They are fresh (from live trees) so they can enjoy them during the holidays and throw them out after they holidays. Perfect gift! Nothing to eat (for those on diets, etc) and nothing to store! Everyone enjoys them then has no guilt to throw them out after the holidays!</p>
<p>I’m trying to think of something expensive for S1 to give us now that he’s making more money than he knows what to do with. ;)</p>
<p>One year my sil gave us beeswax candles. They smell good and they do get used up. We give another sil Cooks Illustrated. We tend to give a lot of books and CDs. Have also done the heifer thing - I hadn’t realized mini had a place we could donate to as well.</p>
<p>We also send wreaths to several family members. We used LLBean in the past, but now we send one from QVC. </p>
<p>My brother and I decided a couple of years ago to take each other (and our spouses) out to dinner. We wait until long after the holidays; this year we took them out in March and last weekend they took us for our xmas dinner! We try to find new place each time, and we both like microbreweries so we have a lot of fun. </p>
<p>This idea was a HUGE help when our relationship was strained. I didn’t really feel like going out to dinner with him, and I am sure he felt the same way about me. We followed through with our tradition and I think we have worked through our differences. During those tense years, sharing a meal and a few drinks helped remind us of what we had in common.</p>
<p>My sibs/families have started charity gifts, we have so much stuff and we wanted to do something “better”, and so many people had to fly to my parents that stuff to lug back was no gift! </p>
<p>For example, last year I gave each family unit a card from [Give</a> the Gift of Charity | SixDegrees.org](<a href=“http://www.sixdegrees.org/goodcards]Give”>http://www.sixdegrees.org/goodcards) which allows them to choose a charity and donate the money. To go with the gift cards, I bought each one a small Christmas ornament from our church’s craft fair.</p>
<p>This year, I’m matching people to charities. Examples: For my nephew, who is a guitar player, we bought a tshirt from the Fender Foundation, and the proceeds from that go to Fender’s inner city music programs. My niece’s sorority supports breast cancer research, so we bought something from the Komen website and that money goes to Komen. We are working on similar matches for the rest of the bunch (15 people), it’s actually a lot of fun! (I recommend checking any charity through sites that monitor such things) My sons are helping choose/find the charities, and we will write cards explaining how we connected each person to each charity. Each donation is about $35.</p>
<p>For the people who have everything and don’t need anything: customized photo postage. I typically order it from zazzle.com</p>
<p>This year we made a 16x20 canvas portrait for the grandparents of all the grandkids using a groupon by Canvas on Demand. The groupon was for $45 and included shipping. I upgraded when I downloaded the image to close the back and put a wire instead of claw hooks for $12, still reasonable. They run this special quite often in different cities and as it’s internet based anyone can use it no matter your location. Here’s a link to the daily groupon specials (wow, this special is now in TX for $39!):</p>
<p>[GroupRoundup</a> - A Summary of Local and National Groupon Deals](<a href=“http://grouproundup.com/home/national]GroupRoundup”>Grouproundup.com)</p>
<p>note: They do need a good lead time for holiday delivery. Also, there was a mark on our canvas at delivery, however with a phone call to customer service we quickly got it resolved and a replacement sent with no questions/hassles whatsoever.</p>
<p>greenbutton, I love your idea of matching people to charities, and that does sound like fun!</p>
<p>Unless I’m going wth one of my tried-and-true charities, I usually check [Charity</a> Navigator - America’s Largest Charity Evaluator](<a href=“http://www.charitynavigator.org/]Charity”>http://www.charitynavigator.org/) . Lots of great ideas here.</p>
<p>restaurant.com gift certificates, which are now on 80% off sale until the weekend.
That means that a $25 coupon costs $2.
You can buy them in the form of egift card, and email them anywhere. The recipient selects participating restaurants, and downloads the certificate. Of course, there are limited restaurants, with stipulations.
use the code word -**TOUCHDOWN ** at checkout.</p>
<p>For several years now DH has sent these peanuts to his sibs and Mom. They come from the largest peanut producing county in our state. Everyone loves them and don’t have to worry peanuts going bad. They keep forever. No need to gobble them up all at once,although you’ll want to once you taste them. His sibs expect them every year now and love them. <a href=“http://www.pnuts.net%5B/url%5D”>www.pnuts.net</a></p>
<p>Lots of great ideas. I like that peanut website for North Carolina peanuts, PackMom (and the UNC,Wake Forest nuts,etc ). I’m in Virginia and we have lots of great peanuts too. The Virginia Diner sells peanuts with labels from lots of colleges (UVa,Virginia Tech,etc). There’s also The Peanut Shop of Williamsburg and Whitley’s. We’ve sent peanuts in the past and they do keep well and people seem to love them.</p>
<p>Last year I gave my SIL a share of a Camel from Heifer, with the article about how Heifer is teaching the Masai how to raise camels. And I also found an embroidered camel Christmas ornament for their tree, and I got a gold - tone embroidery needle (crafts store) and hung it around the camel’s neck from a length of embroidery floss (“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle…”) All of this went into a gift wrapped box. They loved it. </p>
<p>I also gave a “stocking” of hot sauces from different specialty shops. He is a hot food nut.</p>