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Greetings!

Here are some ideas that worked for us.

1. We did scrapbooking with all the die cuts, stickers, crazy scissors, and glue there.

2. We wrote Church sayings in calligraphy on the computer, ran them off on parchment paper and then bought matting and inexpensive frames, and the tiny dried flowers to glue like a swag over the top and bottom of the saying.  They were beautiful and inexpensive.

3. We made all kinds of bird houses which still is the rage here.  A man in our ward made them for much less than we could buy them for.  We put dried flowers, silk leaves, etc. etc. to make them neat.

4. We made the 5 feet tall wooden Christmas trees on a stand and drilled holes for the twinkle lights, then tole painted them.

5. We also made the 5 ft old fashioned-looking lamp post and added the twinkle lights, spray glitter, and that puffy snow you can put on.

6. We ordered complete sets of Church library prints, ordered binders, and plastic sheets so everyone had complete library sets inexpensively for FHE etc. (Believe it or not, this was one of the favorite!)

7. We made Christmas cards with the embossing powder and the crinkled paper and stamps.

8. We had a cookie exchange where you brought as many dozen of one kind that you wanted to exchange so that all of your baking was done.

9. We had a neighbor gift table where we made the labels etc. put the ribbons, and everything but the item sent so it was ready, like "May your Christmas be merry and Sprite", the green apple poem with the yummy dip recipe, "light" poem to go with candle etc.

10. We ordered firewood which is very unusual for St. George and had it delivered to the church and made those Yule log things with the bows and poems.

11. My favorite thing was something that someone gave me.  I gave it to everyone the next year, and now the whole Relief Society wants to make them.  My friend ran off all those great heart-wrenching stories like "The Orange", "The Empty Box", etc. on green, white, and red colored paper tied with curling ribbon.  The stories were placed in those brown paper sacks with handles, tied with the curling ribbon and the poem with the "Twelve Days of Christmas" on them.  I stamped and embossed a picture on the front and made little note tags.  It was so wonderful to read those stories every night.  It meant so much and cost so little!

12. We've also put together the little wooden boxes to give with the "Empty Box" story.

13. We're really into the ceramic statues that replicate the Nauvoo ones.

14. We stain wood ovals and paint them with ivory and they look just like the Deseret Bookstore ones!  Many did the women statues, and tons of temples...they make nice wedding presents too.

15. We made those Kodalith quilts and pillows with the family pictures on them.  The quilters quilted them for us!

16. We made the interchangeable year-round wooden wreath and cookies jar lids to tole paint.

17. Some made the Christmas material pillow cases for their families so that the last thing they thought of each night was the Savior.

18. We made those little wooden mangers to fill with straw for good deeds done.

19. We made the dough sculpture ornaments.

To get in the door, each sister had to bring at least 5 non-perishable food items to fill the baskets to take to the needy.  Everything that was made, (except the Kodalith quilts) went into the baskets.  The quilts that had been made all year went with each basket.  One ward gives theirs for wedding gifts.

We have all the Laurels come to this to see how fun it can be.  At the end of the day, we take the baskets over to the YM and YW president's homes for them to bake cookies, caramel corn, and get turkeys from the bishopric and they are delivered so they have things for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We have Christmas carols playing all day.

We eat from those bread bowls the gallon broccoli and cheese soup mix & chili (you buy from the restaurant wholesalers.  We have pumpkin cream bars for dessert.

Not fancy, inexpensive, and really nice for the price!

I hope some of these ideas are new.  Happy gift making and giving!  Your sister, Marsha