One year, money was so tight for us that we literally waited until the last minute to get our kids gifts so we could use money that we were getting for Christmas from a family member. We told the kids we were doing Christmas on the 26th that year because we were going to visit Grandma on Christmas Day and we wanted them to have 2 Christmases, which sounded A-Ok with them, haha. We went to Grandma's early in the day, had brunch and played with toys, then came home fairly early. We settled the kids in for a movie with popcorn to be followed by a nap. My husband went out and did a mad dash shop while we watched a movie and napped. I think he got most of the gifts from the pharmacy! Then that night we wrapped and put them under the tree and had Christmas again on the 26th! The kids thought it was so much fun to have 2 Christmases. My husband had to work that day, but it was ok, we pulled it off with lots of family time the day before and getting up very early on the 26th. Everyone had a great time that is still remembered fondly.
One thing that has helped the most over the years, and it's a bit controversial, is that we didn't do Santa. That's right, our kids did not grow up with Santa. We were really struggling when my oldest was about 2, and we made the decision then to not set ourselves up like that. We really wanted the focus of Christmas to be on family and baby Jesus. And this way, we would never have to deal with the "Why did Santa only give me X when he gave Joey Y?" It also gave us the opportunity to be flexible. I have never regretted that decision, and nobody seems the worse for wear.
Now my favorite last minute shopping hint is to go to the thrift stores as close to Christmas as possible. People tend to go through their homes right before Christmas to make room for the new things coming in and I have been able to find some really cool things! I have even found toys brand new in the package, never opened. Unwanted gifts I guess, or maybe things they never used from last year.
Another one that has saved my bacon this year was asking a friend to order a gift I forgot to get on Amazon using her prime account. I gave her the money upfront and she just ordered it and had it shipped to my house. I wouldn't abuse this privilege by trying to do all my holiday shopping this way, but she didn't mind doing me a favor for a gift I couldn't buy locally. I gave her some cookies as a thank you.
You could also do food baskets. We have made up baskets ourselves to make them a whole lot less expensive. One we have done pretty frequently was a "Pasta night" basket. I bought a basket cheap at the thrift store and filled it with a box of pasta, a jar of spaghetti sauce, a box of garlic biscuit mix and a box of brownie mix. You could go as simple or fancy as you like. If you have multiple people in a family you want to gift to, you could make it a family gift and include a movie or game.. For a couple of friends one year, I bought 2 tea cups at a thrift store, bought some tea bags and filled the cup with them and added a sleeve of cookies. It looked much nicer than giving them the box of tea and the box of cookies, and I was able to make two of them from one package of tea and one box of cookies.
Here is a link to some great ideas of all sizes and I am sure you can find tons of ideas on Pinterest.
Gift Cards are another quick gift you can pick up that lots of people appreciate. Here is a link to 120 fun ways to give gift cards or money. My favorite is the zip tie package
Homemade gift certificates work well too. We talked about some options in this post. One year my husband's siblings did a homemade gift certificate exchange. One brother in law gave a free oil change, the other had a menu of baked goods you could choose from to be delivered to your house, a sister in law gave a night of baby sitting and the other gave a certificate to clean out and vacuum your car! It was fun!
I really hope that whatever your situation is this Christmas, you are able to find a moment of joy.
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