consumable gifts Archives | Heavenly Homemakers

How I’ve been saving/earning “free” money for Christmas this year

I’ve spent time earning Swagbucks during the past few months and made my way up to $100 free dollars in gift cards! I decided to redeem them all to use at Sam’s, so now I have $100+ to use for gifts there!

I got a “check” from Costco as part of their cash-back program. I plan to redeem that for free gifts.

I’ve been saving the cashback that we earn from our Discover card and I can use that at Amazon for gifts.

Meanwhile, I’ve found some great deals here and there and have been buying and tucking away stocking stuffers for a few weeks.

How I’m Planning Christmas for Our 14 This Year

I’m looking into games that our entire family can play (which is a challenge since our kids are ages 1-25!) This Saran Wrap Ball Game is perfect though.

I’m putting together these Christ-Centered Christmas gifts for our entire family, which will be the main part of our Christmas day.

I’m focusing on consumable gifts again so that we don’t pile more STUFF into our house. :) Here are ideas for consumable gifts (not just food!).

We’ll plan a day after Christmas to enjoy with “just the grown-ups.” So much of our life is focused on the little ones, which is exactly as it needs to be. But two years ago we started a tradition of hiring sitters for all the littles for an entire afternoon and evening. We bigs all head to our church fellowship hall where we eat and play games for hours together. It is much needed and so much fun!

What about the FOOD?!

You might remember that our traditional Christmas dinner for the past several years has been Lasagna. I’m changing that this year because 1 out of 14 of us refuses to eat lasagna. NEVER do I ever cater to one person’s pickiness on a regular day. But this Christmas I’ve decided to. Why? Because our Christmas meal is supposed to be special, and if my daughter can’t possibly put lasagna into her mouth and it causes a fight at mealtime? No thanks. Not on Christmas. (This is my gift to me.)

So we’re having a Nacho Bar. Everyone can fix their bowl or plate the way they like and everyone wins. Plus, by the time we’re hungry enough to eat Christmas dinner after a big breakfast, it’ll probably be time to pull out games anyway. So we can munch on nachos and play games in the afternoon. It’s perfect!

What about that big breakfast? I’ll make an Easy Breakfast Casserole ahead of time and bake it while we dig into gifts that morning. I’ll serve it with fresh fruit and one or two of the following (I haven’t decided yet!):

Do you have fun Christmas traditions or some that you’re starting this year? I’d love to hear!

This year, I’m very focused on consumable Christmas gifts for our family. Let me explain why!

As most of you know, we had gotten to a point in life that we’d traded our gifts of toys and snuggly jammies for gifts like video and music equipment. I only kept a few toys around that I felt were worth saving for our future grandkids. AND THEN. Then God brought us more babies.

Woohoo and wow. The past two Christmases we have enjoyed building up our toy supply again. And not only that, for the first time ever, some of those toys are of the GIRLY variety.

Yeah, yeah, yeah – I know we shouldn’t put a gender label on toys for kids, but listen. My big boys never asked for a dollhouse for Christmas. Nor did they request baby dolls and lip gloss. Last year though, all of our little kids (both boys and girls) got a dollhouse. With a pink roof. The girls play lovingly with the dollhouse dolls and furniture. Meanwhile, the toddler boys strip the dollhouse dolls naked and send them sailing down the dollhouse staircase to see how far they’ll fly. Fun is had by all, so yes, dollhouses can be gender-neutral. But anyway…

This year, we don’t need many more toys.

As we’ve accumulated toys the past few years, we’ve also accumulated even more children. There are a lot of people living in our house – currently, ten to be exact. Lots of people take up lots of space, and so do their shoes, backpacks, clothes, and naked dollhouse dolls.

Also, our 7 and 6-year-olds struggle to share, put things away, and get mad when their “really important toy” that they leave out on the floor gets chewed on by a baby or hurled across the room by a toddler. I don’t want to give them more “stuff” that will ultimately create more conflict. So between that and the fact that – did I mention we have a lot of kids – this year, I’m very focused on:

Consumable Christmas Gifts

Am I only wrapping food and putting it under the tree this year? Nope! Not that kind of consumable. Though food and drinks definitely make great gifts and there will be some of that for sure!

As I’ve been planning for Christmas this year, I’ve been excited about how many items are really fun to open but can be used and not accumulated! Like craft projects. Office and school supplies. And yes, food and drinks.

DON’T TELL MY KIDS! But here’s what they’ll all be getting this year. It’s both fun and practical, and woohoo, not terribly expensive! Each person will get:

Something to Make
Something to Bake
Something to Do
Something to Chew
Something to Drink
Something with Ink
Something to Wear
Something to Share

Here are a few more details to help you understand what I’m planning:

Something to Make -craft kits and supplies for the littles plus the adult girls, kitchen/foodstuff for the guys
Something to Bake – fun muffin, cookie, or cake mixes (we almost never buy things like this so it will be a real treat for the kids!)
Something to Do – a book to read, a game to play, a puzzle to put together
Something to Chew – favorite snacks
Something to Drink – hot cocoa, coffee, Martinelli’s, tea
Something with Ink – new pens, markers, or sharpies
Something to Wear – anything from clothes to gloves to socks, depending on what they need
Something to Share – something they can use with the whole family (littles) or with friends at college and beyond (bigs)

There will be 14 of us at Christmas this year with Matt and me, all of our kids, plus the oldest two boys’ wives! I am having SO MUCH FUN putting all of these gifts together!!!

Tell me who you’re shopping for and what your gift plans are. This is so much fun!!!

Some more consumable gift ideas:

We go through cases of applesauce pouches at our house. But these Brainiac snacks are a step above and would make a great stocking stuffer that your family would consider a great treat! Get free shipping on orders over $35, which makes this even better!

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Our friends at MadeOn skin care have been helping people fix their dry skin with their 3-ingredient Beesilk lotion bars for years. I LOVE using their products, and all of my kids do too. That’s why I put several lotion bars and lip balms in all my kids’ stockings. I’m going to buy them anyway, might as well use them as gifts, right?!

THIS LINK will get you $3.00 off the regular-sized lotion bar. Plus use the code: HH10 for an additional 10% off your entire order!