That little extra for the Christmas Season

[Catsmith]

I bet there are some pretty inventive people on here that have some great ideas for getting that little bit extra to cover the Christmas Expenses.

I'll go first....

We buy stuff and sell on ebay, make jelly, salsa, and other goodies for presents, our youngest daughter is sewing all her gifts, Middle one usually paints all her gifts.

We get creative this time of year, and plan ahead.

What do you do?

[runfiverun]

when the kids were little i started working for a christmas tree lot.
16 years later.....
anyway that paid for christmas every year.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I'm not big on the whole Christmas gift giving.
I tend to give homemade gifts...I started that 20+ years ago
when I was a supervisor in a Circiut board assembly shop.
Everyone would get me a gift, My Boss told me to NEVER give
gifts to lower employees, just gracefully thank them when they give me a gift.

WELL, I gave everyone of them the same homemade gift anyway.
It went over fairly well. Every year a different gift to the masses.

To the shootin' members of my family, it's an easy choice.
others get, my homemade maple syrup, saurkraut, wine ...ect.

So it don't cost me much :)

Oh Yeah, I dated a Cowgirl for about a year...She owns a small farm, so I gave her a T-post puller and a Large size varmint live trap (cage type)...She was honestly thrilled.
Jon

[MT Gianni]

When the kids were little we were encouraged to work as much overtime as possible from Oct to the second or third week of Nov. 50-60 hours weeks will add up quickly. Now we live alot simpler and feel it is crazy to spend what you don't have for junk.

[Down South]

I'm going to make a few batches of home made soap for Christmas presents. I've got some beeswax left over. I was thinking about buying some of those itty bitty Ball canning jars and making besswax candles too.
We started a new rule several years ago. We only buy for the kids "Grandkids now". We tell all the other kin folks not to buy for us.
I'm not trying to be Scrooge. Christmas can be hard on some trying to keep up with the Smith's and Jones's

[41 mag fan]

The meaning of Christmas has been slowly erroded away by corpoations like Walmart, who see and found a way to commercialize the day and make a pennys profit.

My parents always buy for us, and over the last 5 yrs I've given up trying to to convince them we don't need anything.
So now I tell them buy me a ham or a turkey. They balked at first, but last 2 yrs i've gotten a big ham. Thats the best gift they could give, we enjoy it and it's something we can always use. Not like some trinket they buy us.

Now we buy them gift cards to like Applebees, Red Lobster, ect and they love it....same as we do a ham or turkey

[km101]

When my kids were small we started making (if Possible) or buying each of them a Christmas tree ornament, in addition to their toys. As they grew they each made us a Christmas tree ornament each year. They are grown not, but we still make and receive handmade ornaments. They are some of the most treasured things I have.

For family and friends we do homemade cakes, candy, cookies or jelly or jam. Everyone seems to like it.

[DIRT Farmer]

My Sons "take" me hunting somewhere. There is not much I need or want but I do love the gift of time.

[Idaho Mule]

An economical and practical gift to outdoors type people (might be some of us here) is a half dozen bungee- cords and a roll of duct-tape. Guaranteed it will be used and appreciated. JW

[PS Paul]

I normally catch a fair amount of salmon and steelhead to smoke, so friends and staff get a lot of that from me. Since I run a large sporting goods operation, family have grown accustomed to getting outdoors apparel, ammo, knives, hatchets and those neat outdoors-themed novelties like mugs, photo frames, salt n pepper shakers and the like. No matter what, always items/gifts that are practical and get used......

[EMC45]

In the past I have sold reloading gear and gun parts. Mostly here. One year we were flat busted broke and I massed together a good bit of reloading gear and components I wouldn't use. Made around a grand. Paid for everything and then some. Another year I bought a box of gun parts for $100 and kept what I wanted and I sold the rest here. Made about 6-700 bucks and covered bills and CHRISTmas. I do cash only. No debt.

[jmsj]

Day job just keeps the bills covered. We don't spend all that much on Christmas presents. We try to put more emphasis on Jesus during the Christmas season. But year round for extra money I do gunsmithing for the local area and recycle the brass, copper and aluminum from the day job. When the economy was better, I used to pick up small portable welding jobs and carpentry/remodel work.
jmsj

[WILCO]

What do you do?

I made a smaller gift list. Everyone gets booze. :D

[WILCO]

The meaning of Christmas has been slowly erroded away by corpoations like Walmart, who see and found a way to commercialize the day and make a pennys profit.

Which creates jobs and profits for investors. :mrgreen:

[WRideout]

This time of year I give away homemade wine and beer. A couple of years ago I got carried away with a batch of dunkel lager that was pretty high test. A friend tried it and liked it, but he said he couldn't drink more than two at a time.

Wayne