Christmas Presents for Students and Parents
Well Thanksgiving was a week ago, so we’ve been in holiday season for a solid couple of weeks now! I mostly love the holiday season, but it can be very stressful for me. Sometimes the pressure and the stress gets to be so much that I find myself hating the holiday season, which then leads to guilt for hating what can be such a special time of the year. Pressure, stress, guilt- those are all awful feelings and if you feel them too during the holiday season please know that you’re not alone! I see you. I feel you. Please know I’m alway a comment, email, or Direct Message away if you’d like to talk privately about any pressure, stress, hurt, guilt, whatever you’re feeling this holiday season.
To help take some of the stress away this holiday season I’m sharing three simple, affordable Christmas gifts for school- a gift for students, a gift for parents, and a gift for coworkers. Even if you’re not a teacher I’d love for you to check out these ideas! They’re great gift ideas for your children, nieces and nephews, to give grandparents, and to give coworkers no matter where you work!
My favorite Christmas gift to give my students is a book. All teachers know Scholastic books can be expensive, but typically in each of their catalogs they have a $1 seasonal book. Up until this year that’s what I’ve always gotten my students because you can’t beat a quality book for $1. This year when it came time to purchase my students’ Christmas books I looked through several Scholastic online catalogs, but could not for the life of me find any $1 books.
Of course I was disappointed {and a little panicked- I had only budgeted myself $25 for student Christmas gifts!}, but I figured a scroll through some of the catalogs was worth a shot! I’d only ever seen the $1 book on the first page of the catalog so I hadn’t scrolled through any of the catalogs I had opened. I started looking and found an even better deal- a pack of Winter themed books- 8 books for $7.50. That’s 93 cents per book! This year I have 24 students in my class this year so I ordered 3 of the Winter themed book packs and had them shipped to my school.
The books arrived three days later. {I do have one or two extra $1 books I bought for my class last year so in the event I get a new student in the next 12 days I’ll have a book I can give that student too.} Between now and the last day of school before Winter Break I will sit down and chose a book for each of my students based on their reading level, interests, etc. I’ll write their name on the inside of the book, Merry Christmas, my assistant and I will each sign our names, and we’ll write the year. We’ll tie a ribbon around each book and they’ll be ready to be given to students at our Winter Class Party!
To help take some of the stress away this holiday season I’m sharing three simple, affordable Christmas gifts for school- a gift for students, a gift for parents, and a gift for coworkers. Even if you’re not a teacher I’d love for you to check out these ideas! They’re great gift ideas for your children, nieces and nephews, to give grandparents, and to give coworkers no matter where you work!
Christmas Gifts for Students- Scholastic to the rescue!
My favorite Christmas gift to give my students is a book. All teachers know Scholastic books can be expensive, but typically in each of their catalogs they have a $1 seasonal book. Up until this year that’s what I’ve always gotten my students because you can’t beat a quality book for $1. This year when it came time to purchase my students’ Christmas books I looked through several Scholastic online catalogs, but could not for the life of me find any $1 books.
Of course I was disappointed {and a little panicked- I had only budgeted myself $25 for student Christmas gifts!}, but I figured a scroll through some of the catalogs was worth a shot! I’d only ever seen the $1 book on the first page of the catalog so I hadn’t scrolled through any of the catalogs I had opened. I started looking and found an even better deal- a pack of Winter themed books- 8 books for $7.50. That’s 93 cents per book! This year I have 24 students in my class this year so I ordered 3 of the Winter themed book packs and had them shipped to my school.
The books arrived three days later. {I do have one or two extra $1 books I bought for my class last year so in the event I get a new student in the next 12 days I’ll have a book I can give that student too.} Between now and the last day of school before Winter Break I will sit down and chose a book for each of my students based on their reading level, interests, etc. I’ll write their name on the inside of the book, Merry Christmas, my assistant and I will each sign our names, and we’ll write the year. We’ll tie a ribbon around each book and they’ll be ready to be given to students at our Winter Class Party!
Christmas Gifts for Parents
When it comes to parent presents, no matter the holiday, I always do a keepsake gift. Typically for Christmas I do an ornament. To go along with the Winter themed books I’m giving my students they’ll make snowman ornaments for their parents.
Snowmen Ornaments from 2016
When it comes to buying supplies for parent presents I like to go to Hobby Lobby or Michaels because there is always something on sale and/or always a coupon. Because of where we live currently I go to Hobby Lobby because it’s the most convenient for me so I’ll be using Hobby Lobby links, but you can find these supplies anywhere Christmas decorations and/or basic craft supplies are sold.
Materials
Materials
One of the reasons I love this particular ornament is because many of these materials are materials you probably already have in your classroom. I’ll be able to make an ornament with each student in my class for about $20. That’s right around $1/student!
- Blue Matte, Shiny, and Glitter Ball Ornaments- You’ll need one ornament per student. The pack that I’ve linked has 32 ornaments. I love to use the matte ornaments for this project, but the most cost effective way to buy the ornaments is in a pack like this so I’ll use all the matte ornaments, then move onto the shiny ornaments, and then I’ll move onto the glitter ornaments if I need them. The most important tip I have for choosing the ornaments you’re going to use is to make sure they’re shatterproof because kids!
- White Acrylic Paint
- Sharpies- black, orange, and color of your choice
- Fine Tip White Paint Pen
- Twine
- Paint Brush
Directions
- Using white paint, paint from the top of the palm (right under the base of the fingers) up the student’s hand, excluding their thumb.
- Make a hand print on the ornament.
- Using the white paint pen, write the student’s name and year on the back of the ornament.
- After the handprint is fully dried use the black Sharpie to add a hat, eyes, and buttons. Use the orange Sharpie to add a carrot nose. Use the Sharpie color of your choice to add a scarf.
- Add a twine loop to the top of the ornament so it can be hung on a Christmas tree!
I always have my students decorate a white paper bag to ‘wrap’ the present in! You could also wrap the ornament in white tissue paper, put it in a cellophane treat bag, and tie it with ribbon or twine.
Christmas Gifts for Coworkers
As teachers we have a lot of coworkers and after buying Secret Santa gifts, plus gifts for your assistant(s), teachers you’re close with, etc., it’s probably starting to feel like you’ve spent a small fortune on Christmas gifts for work.
Last year my assistant and I bought fuzzy Christmas socks for our grade level team, as well as our administrative team, and our Literacy Specialist. Typically once a year Old Navy sells their fuzzy socks for $1. This year fuzzy socks were part of their Black Friday special, but I’m hoping they’ll go on sale one more time before Winter Break begins! Even if they don’t Dollar Tree and Target have $1 Christmas socks that will work perfectly for this little gift!
All you have to do to package this gift is tie a ribbon around each pair of socks and attach a gift tag! The gift tag I used says ’For your mistletoes this Christmas’. If you’d like an editable copy of this gift tag leave your email address in the comments below and I’d be more than happy to send it to you!
I hope you have found these simple, affordable gift ideas helpful this holiday season! In the spirit of helping a sister out I’d love for you to share your go-to, simple, affordable Christmas gift in the comments below!
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