By Students For Students
Cover Story
Celebrate chritmas in style
Ashley Renner
Advertising Editor
For the bargain lovers, Dollar Tree in Granite is great and everything is a dollar or under there. The variety is spectacular. For you last minute Christmas decorators, Dollar Tree has great things including: garland, tinsel, wreaths, ornaments, and knick-knacks of all sorts.
The arts and crafts are amazing as well. So if you like to make gifts for your loved ones there’s vases, greenery, floral, marbles, stained glass kits, and paints and other little arts for kids. In fact, I found a vase for a co-worker that has an Asian design on it; it was perfect since she has a passion for Asian artwork. I also found a make it yourself picture frame for my fiancé’s 12 year old sister.
For all you men don’t fret, there are fragrant bath and body products that look and smell like Bath and Body Works brand. Some of the fragrant bounty includes oil beads, liquid bath oil, lotion, body wash, and body splash. So men, there’s no reason to leave your women unpleasing to the nose this Christmas. The lotions are so great I got some for us girls here at the Bridge so we never have dry hands this winter.
You’re defiantly in luck if you’re buying for a pre-teen or teenage girl. There’s name band designer makeup, Lip Rageous lip gloss, Hostess flavored lip balms including flavors like Twinkie, Ho Ho, and Ding Dong, and remember all this for only $1. With the great deal on makeup, I personally couldn’t pace it by so my fiancée’s little sister once more got gifts from me.
Value City is a bit pricier, but face it a dollar is dirt-cheap. At Value City, I found jewelry and clothing to be the big values. Men clothing was a nice variety and started at $8. So you won’t leave with holes in your pockets for name brands. My only complaint was men’s coats and jackets were strung about. Women’s clothing had a great variety as well, and the prices started at $7.
The jewelry department was small, but once again a nice selection. Watches are $10 and up. And face it; some of us need a watch because we’re late to class. $10 isn’t bad if you don’t want to face a tardy. Fashion jewelry is $5 and up. Guys pay special attention to this. If you need to buy something nice for that special lady, diamonds start at $30 and that cheap! If you go overboard on jewelry they have jewelry armoires reasonably priced.
If you have younger sibling or small children Value City has most the hot toy trends. My friend and I found “My Scene” dolls for the girls in our families, and RC toys for the boys. The best part was they are both half price.
The last thing we checked out was the accessories. We found belts from $3, name brand purses from $6, and sets of either, socks, mittens or ankle socks and knee-high toe socks starting at $2. If you like Betty Boop you’re in luck because they had a variety of Betty Boop slippers.
Don’t forget cds and games. For that, Slackers is best! Slackers has something for every age group and the best part is you can buy new or used. My friend loves the 60s and 70s and she went insane here. We found a Rolling Stones t-shirt, a Doors cd, and a Bruce Springsteen record. I think with these items and the Indiana Jones box set you have great gifts for your parents. Items for teens and kids range from DVD’s including Sponge Bob Squarepants, X2: X-Men United, Happy Tree Friends, Dave Attell, Finding Nemo, and anime. Cd’s include G-Unit, Mushroomhead, Hillary Duff, Outkast, Rancid, and Richard Cheese. For the gamers there’s Grand Theft Auto double pack, Socom, Tony Hawk: Underground, True Crimes, and Metal of Honor: Rising Sun.
Slackers has game system for all these game and many more. They have everything from Atari’s to Sega Picos to Play Station 2. In the new systems you can opt for a used one.
Slackers also has role playing games including Yu-Gi-Oh, Lord of the Rings, Magic, and my personal favorite Hero Clix. My fiancé and I play hero clicks so I bought him some expansion packs and they were cheaper than most places.
They have t-shirts ranging from MxPx to the Rollingstones to the Simpsons. Some other odds and ends are bobbleheads like the very cool Optimus Primus (which I got for my fiancé), cd box sets, buttons, stickers, vhs, and game cheat books.
My family and my fiancé’s family are Christians. For them I found that the Family Christian Bookstore has great sales now. I found a book of uplifting thoughts for $10, everybody needs uplifting thoughts sometimes. I also found the book “How to Find God in the Lord of the Rings” for my mother on sale for $5. I found cds for my boyfriend’s sister and mother for $8 some of the titles include the new ZoeGirl, Jars of Clay, Jeremy Camp, and Point of Grace’s #1 hits.
Just a little side note, If you’re like me you are going to a four year school next year, you need kitchen supplies. I found kitchen utensils that look like chef quality and Dollar Tree and remember it’s still a dollar. Also nice hand towels, but I found some that weren’t the best quality but they were fun. These towels start as shapes like the one I got is in the shape of a dolphin, ands as soon as you put it in water it pops up and you see the towel with a print of a dolphin on it. There are a lot of things for around the kitchen like lid openers and other knick-knacks. You just need to go and look for yourself and pick up some or all of these great deals. Happy Holidays!