Christmas in July

I know, it does seem a bit crazy, or cruel to bring up the idea of Christmas right after encouraging a buying ban, but I assure you, there is a method to my madness.

I have a large number of family and friends that is getting bigger every year due to marriages and pregnancies. That means that every year I have more and more people to get Christmas presents for. I currently have about 30 individuals or families I would like to give personal gifts to. Even if I spent only $10 on each of these people/families (which we can probably all agree is a fairly small amount for a nice personal gift), I would spend $300 on gifts. In reality I usually spend much more than $10 on many of the people on my list.

The Christmas season (one wish should end with happy memories of family togetherness) often ends with reminders of debt accumulated during the season. We are also left with a mountain of discarded wrapping, but that is another story.

As green crafters we have the ability to make wonderful gifts, for little or no money, but it does require some time and planning. For crafters, especially knitters, July is the perfect time to begin thinking about holiday gift giving. Check out some of my Reuse posts for ideas on material scrounging. I will be adding more ideas in during the month.