Do you remember the movie While You Were Sleeping? (Great movie!) It’s about a girl without a family, who adopts a family during the holidays, and ends up falling in love with one of the sons (the poor one, not the rich one).

There is a scene where she is with the family while they open their Christmas presents. It is one of the greatest scenes of the history of movie making. Each person has one gift to open. These gifts are fairly simple, necessary items in everyday life, even the glue gun has its place. Our visiting friend looks on as the family happily opens their Christmas. She herself has an unexpected gift, but it is not the important thing here; she radiates the happiness felt by the love of the family. She is a part of them.

When was the last time you felt Christmas in just that way? That it was more thrilling being a part of someone else’s happiness than to greedily open your own store bought bliss.

Christmas is what we make it. In the past, we have made it into something bigger than it should be. All along, it was meant to just fit in our hearts.

A while ago, I wrote up a few ideas to give a simple, but meaningful Christmas to one another. BIG often seems expensive, but SMALL can be expensive too. I thought I would give you some ideas that fit inside a Christmas stocking; nothing extravagant or fancy, just nice, and inexpensive. Here are just a few random ideas.

• Personal notebook with a handmade cover.
• Sachets-satin or velvet hand stitched packet filled with potpourri.
• Handmade soap in a variety of fun shapes, wrapped in netting.
• Photos with homemade frames.
• Crocheted hat and mittens.
• Bookmark- paper, ribbon, fabric, metal, photos, etc.
• Book weights- anything heavy enough and lovely enough to hold the page of your book down
• All the makings for a fun project to do for grandparents and grandchildren together.
• Organdy bags filled with candy, bath salts, makeup, etc.
• Handkerchief dolls.
• Wooden blocks or toys.
• Travel games stored in breath mint tins.
• Bracelet kits with beads and string stored in its own Tic Tac container.
• Homemade facial scrubs, bath salts, herbal medicines all in creative, lovely packaging.  
• Family photos, old or new family movies.
• Homemade Christmas ornament- if you get together with your grandchildren before Christmas to make ornaments, it can be a fun surprise to receive one of the ornaments you made together.
• A personal note expressing love and praise rolled up and tied with a ribbon.
• Gift coupons to spend a day and an activity, for one on one.
• A personal note of appreciation saying Thank You
• A gift card and a promise to teach a skill- cooking, hair cutting, playing an instrument, painting, knitting, etc.
• A gift card and a promise to help someone conquer an “ugly” project- building a garage, painting a room, sorting through photos, organizing the basement or attic, etc.
• A personalized recording of made up stories or fairy tales to enjoy telling and retelling.
• Simple homemade toys and games
• A personally written poem or story- it may just be a thing of beauty, or it could be super silly starring the person receiving it.