Last minute Christmas Ideas

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Only 2 days left until Christmas. If you are like my family growing up, we were still doing shopping until the stores kicked us out on Christmas Eve. Now that I have my own family, I tried really hard to get all my shopping done early so that I could the festivities that this season has to offer.

If you are still scrambling for gift ideas and don't have a lot of time, consider gift cards. They are quick to pick up and then you won't have to worry about finding the 'perfect' gift. You can get a gift card to their favorite restaurant, sporting good store, kitchen store, or craft store. Since they are buying gifts after Christmas, they may even be able to cash in on all the great after-Christmas sales.


If a gift card is too generic or 'not thoughtful' enough, you could make them a coupon good for: a special outing to a movie or restaurant. Or, make them a handmade coupon book with all sorts of fun redeemable gifts. Time is priceless. And to your spouse, child, sibling or parents/in-laws, they will love knowing they get an outing with you in the future.

Good luck!

Hay in a Manger

Although I don't have children yet, I am excited to do this tradition when I do. We had a wooden manger in our living room by the nativity set that looked similar to the one pictured above. There was also a can all cutesied-up that had pieces of hay/straw in it. When one of us 7 children did something kind for someone else, we got to place a piece of hay in the manger.

The goal was to have the manger nice and comfy by the time Christmas morning would come so that baby Jesus would have a nice place to sleep when he was born :) If we were mean or did something unkind, one of our siblings would enforce that we remove a piece of hay. I am sure my Mom loved this tradition to not only keep up in line, but also to help us remember why we celebrate Christmas. On Christmas morning before opening gifts and seeing what Santa brought, we would place Jesus in his hopefully comfortable bed.

"Gifts to Jesus" box

Another one from Courtney...One tradition that is kind of neat is our "GIFT to JESUS" box. We always had this shiny present wrapped under the tree and on Christmas Day after all the presents were opened, we would have to write down a gift that we were going to give to Jesus that year (kind of like a new years resolution). An example could be reading scriptures daily or doing a small act of service for someone daily. It was fun to look back and see what the previous year's gift was and to reflect on how well we did.

12 Days of Christmas Idea

Here is a fun 12 Days of Christmas idea. All of the gifts are common things you would able to find easily like hot cocoa, popcorn, rice krispy treats, Christmas story, etc. Click here for the complete list. There is even a cute little poem to go with each day.

From Leslie: Movie idea & Christmas Beds

Thanks Leslie for this idea! On December 1st (but it wouldn't be too late), she put Christmas quilts and pillowcases on her kids' beds and gave them this new holiday movie which she highly recommends: Wonder Pets Save the Nutcracker!

If you don't have a fireplace...

We don't have a cute mantle to hang our stockings from (and probabaly won't for a while), but I still wanted it to be cute and festive. So I have hung our stockings from a mirror with hooks, put a little garland around it and made a sign that says, "The Stockings Were Hung".

I have had the mirror for a few years, but it is only about $20 at Wal-Mart and the sign was a sign I found at the thrift store. I repainted it red, painted some letters creme that came in a package at Dollar Tree and put it together. That simple and it doesn't make me so disappointed that we don't have a fireplace.

Christmas Kick-off

Kick-off the Christmas season by doing something special on December 1st. You could:

-Have a candlelight dinner
-Make countdown chains (later post on this to come)
-Watch a Christmas movie
-Decorate your tree
-Read a Christmas story

Pick anything that will help you get in the Christmas mood. Our Christmas Kick-off consisted of:


eating yummy Jello popcorn (click here for the recipe) and watching some of the Christmas Classics like "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"