Growing up our Christmas tree was always colored lights and a hodge podge of ornaments usually with our names (sister and I) on them. We'd get ornaments every year. Since there was so much going on with the tree we pretty much used whatever wrapping papers we liked. There were always tons to pick from and honestly it all looked good. Now I decorate a small tree with my ornaments the same as when I was growing up and it still makes me smile. Very homey and reminds me of my childhood. BUT, the big tree we have (did our first one last year) since there were only a few ornament colors I picked wrapping paper to match because honestly it would've bugged me. This year we changed the blue ornaments to red so it's red, white, silver, cream and I bought different paper to coordinate. Years from now when we finally have kids I'm sure all this matchy, matchy perfection stuff might go out the window!

I enjoyed the ideas. I give my kids,nieces & nephews money every year but like to make it fun. Can you tell me how the person baked the $$ in the bread idea? I am always looking for new ideas. Here are some I have used. The first year I orderd little snowmen ornaments from oriental trade catalogue. They were wooden and opened up and I hid the money in them, bought a cheap gift and wrapped the gift and used the ornament as a decoration to the gift wrapped box. I had to watch because they did not care about the ornament and threw them aside. I have one daughter in law who I have decided can smell $$$ and usually figures it out. In the past I have orderd plastic puzzle boxes but it is expensive. Also they did not have patience and hit the box with a hammer to get to their loot. I have used an old book and glued pages in back section together. Cut out a section dug like a hole and put money in. If you ever saw a hide-a- book, it is along that line. I also purchased the chineese take out boxes and filled them with fortune cookies. A special fortune cookie had $$$ in it. I have a pattern to make fabric fortune cookies(easy & Cheap) So I put the $$ in the fabric cookie you could use real ones but they break easy. Another take on this is to change the fortune to you will receive $$ in your future and wait to give it to them later in the day or in another time. I have used cd boxes nesting boxes picture frames, and balloons. I used stockings that I made for them and put $$ in it ,a double gift. Here was a favorite I ordered money machines-they were a small box with money printed all over and said money machine and a slit in the box and a tab that said pull. You taped the money together with removable tape roll it and put it in the box attache dto the tab & they pull the tab and money continues to come out. You could make them your self with any box or even use a kleenex box, cover it with play money write money machine yourself and do like above. They really liked this one. They assume by now it will be money every year. This year we bought a new house and have not sold the old one yet so they knew we were really tight on money and have heard that all year long so... I used a roll of indiviually wrapped toilet paper. Separated the roll 1/2 way in using a table knife and my fingers and folded the money and stuck it down in there. the card board roll inside bends but I straightned it back out fluffed the edges of TP. Put it back in its wrapper. I made up a poem about times are tough and we don't have much money so we wanted to get them something useful but funny. It went on about something that would last and they would remember how much we loved them all year through.(You are on your own there or e-mail me and I will send it). I have to admit this one really stumped them becasue at first they are looking around shaking the roll,turning it upside down and then got this look on their faces like I think they mean it and started thanking us for the gift and changing the subject real fast. I have to admit I had a funny look on my face and could not make eye contact. I can't lie very well. A few minutes went on and guess who figured it out?(money smeller girl)She was searching for it under the table so we would not see her just in case they weren't getting $$ I have anohter idea but some of my family live in differnt states sometimes thay are home and sometimes we ship gifts. I want to plan a scavenger hunt and wrap clue #1 then hide the clues #2 #3 #4 each wrapped of course until they find the final gift. I give them all the same amount so it won't matter what one they find or pick up. We also celebrate different days so that will help but will take some planning. 2009 I am going to use glycerine soap. I am going to the local craft store and buy supplies to make my own bars of soap around the money. I saw this idea in a catalogue but it was expensive and you did not get a guarantee on how much money was in them. I may make different shapes for different interests or not. I have 11 months to worry about that. I am always looking for new ideas so keep them coming. becca elf

I only made one mistake this year. I gave all the kids a digital frame. I bought a 2 gig memory stick for each frame. I have all their pictures and their kids pictures on the computer so for each frame I put all the pictures of them as kids for each one and a few group pictures of their kids and their cousins. I also put all the pictures that I have of just their own kids. I labeled each memory stick so I could keep them straight. After I wrapped each gift I put the appropriate stick in the box and put a tag on each gift as it was being wrapped. When I wrapped the last box I took the stick to put in the box and saw it had Robert and Shannon's name on it. Well, that could't be, because I already wrapped their gift. I didn't want to unwrap the gifts I had already wrapped so I put that stick in the gift and put the name tag on it that I thought it was supposed to go to. They all opened their gifts last Saturday anyway while they were together, so it was an easy mistake to fix. They have all called since getting the gifts to let us know how much they like the digital frames with all those family memories in them. That's quite a compliment. They have never thanked us twice for anything previously. Linda

Thanks for sharing that article, Moni, some really good ideas there! When my grandkids were little, I always wrapped their birthday gifts in the Sunday comics, and they loved it. They always knew which gifts were from Grandma, even amongst a big pile of gifts at a birthday party. One of my grandsons has even hinted I should continue that 'tradition' with his kids now, but alas, I don't get a newspaper, nor do I know anyone who does. Years ago, I went 'all out' wrapping Christmas gifts a few times, but it seemed few appreciated it or even noticed, for that matter, so I gave it up. Now I use mainly gift bags, because they are so easy and quick. And almost everyone else in the family uses them, also. Rusty