A continuation of our series on how the upcoming holidays can be special without slaying your family’s budget. While not all the ideas below are from our favorite local retail resource, that is consignment and resale and thrift stores, they are all thrifty and merry ideas to enhance your celebration while treading very lightly on your finances…and in addition, perhaps even helping others’ monetary situation.
Let’s start with the toughest holiday gift-choice around: the mother-in-law who has everything (that could be your mother-in-law, your spouse’s m-in-law, or just someone who, darn it, ACTS like a m-in-law towards you!) She’s fussy (no knock-off merchandise for her), finicky (forget the Hickory Farms Summer Sausage) and famously frugal (oh, I don’t need a thing. Save your money, there’s nothing I need.) Baloney. She has to have a gift or 2008 will be remembered as the year you were in such dire straits dear. Remember? What Auntie Kate recommends: One tiny, tiny, extremely luxe gift. A Jo Malone candle , an orchid, Teuscher chocolates. Of course, tiny and luxe only works if M-in-L realizes that the gift is an extravagance. If she’s unlikely to be wowed by a $65 votive candle, stick to the old standbys: a pretty nightie or bed jacket, a dozen new golf balls, a gift certificate to the best local bakery. In other words, something she’d buy herself anyway. That’ll please her and ease her budget (you do not want to know how her retirement stocks are doing.)
Okay, next hardest: the Husband. In a flush year, you could probably get away with the wide-screen he’s been coveting or tickets to the Superbowl. This year, watching mutual pennies would be a kinder, more gentle gift. What Auntie Kate recommends: A tree, if he’s proud of his yard. Make it the evergreen that’s your Christmas tree, or chose whatever is best for your climate. It’s an investment in the future value of your home, eco-friendly, and thrifty. No yard? Go the something-he’d-need-anyway route. Mine’s getting socks and underwear, but if you can’t see being quite that frugal, how about a Savings Bond? Yes, they still exist, you can even print out a Gift Certificate announcing the forthcoming Savings Bond, and you’re “investing in America.” No matter who he voted for, how can that be bad?
And those pesky second cousins, co-workers, bosses: You don’t like her taste in knick-knacks and she doesn’t like yours. And who knows if that toaster cover will match her kitchen…or fit her toaster? What Auntie Kate recommends: You, she, and the community you live in will all be better off if you make a donation to a charity she cares about and one you can live with. Animals are always safe, so are children. Not to mention, that a child who lives in your town needs financial aid a whole heck of a lot more than her toaster needs a cover. Most charities are all set up to send a greeting card stating that a donation has been made in [receipt’s name] by [your name.] Best of all, gifts like this don’t require the awful, soul-deadening gift-wrap waste.
Notice, if you will, that with the exception of your mother-in-law (who, after all, raised the husband you adore), these gifts spare the earth and your budget shopping time and gas in addition to gift wrap. So not only are you coddling your ailing budget, you’re soothing a tired Earth as well. Peace unto all.
Read the whole series:
Holidays: Make them special for kids
Holidays: Make them special for your relatives
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
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