Christmas in July Day Twenty Seven: Twelve Days of Christmas

Before I begin this post I have a disclaimer: Yes, I know the Twelve Days of Christmas really runs from Christmas Day to Epiphany.

Ok, now that's out of the way, I want to talk about Twelve Days of Christmas gift giving.

Many years ago my friend gave me a Twelve Days of Christmas gift. It was a beautiful cloth basket filled with small gifts for me to open beginning December 13 and ending with Christmas Eve. I loved it! It was so much fun and I had never received a gift like that.

Fast forward several years. I was at a loss one year as to what to give my folks for Christmas. So I decided to give them the Twelve Days of Christmas. I filled a basket with 12 small gifts and wrote a clue for each gift. They really enjoyed it, so I kept the practice up for the next two years.

I've also give TDofC gifts to my brother and SIL. For theirs, I made up clues using the lyrics to Christmas songs. You can check out my TDofC posts by clicking on the Twelve Days of Christmas label located on the right side of this page for more details.

 Have you ever given TDofC gifts? If so, please share!

Christmas in July: Twelve Days of Christmas

I know that the Twelve Days of Christmas traditionally begin on Christmas Day. For practical purposes, when I give TDofC gifts, I begin them on December 13, ending on December 24. Giving TDofC is so much fun. I love the reaction from the recipient. They truly enjoy having a small gift to open every day through Christmas Eve.

I have written about the TDofC gifts I've created in several posts, including here and here. This year I don't have any plans for TDofC gifts, so I thought I'd look on Pinterest to see what I could find:

This is such a cute idea!

12 Days of Christmas gift tree - very clever

Great ideas for giving

Evidently you can turn ANYTHING into a Math lesson!

Aren't these gift tags lovely?!

Twelve Days of Christmas

According to the banner at the top of my blog there are only 203 days until Christmas. I don't know about you, but once it drops below 199 days it begins to pick up steam. On May 25, I started working on this year's The Twelve Days of Christmas gift for my folks. This will be the 4th year that I give them a TTDofC gift. I try to incorporate a different theme each year in the spirit of the 12 days.

Last year, my mom threw a wrench into my plans when she announced that all they wanted was gift cards. I had already purchased several of the gifts and didn't have enough budget left to purchase 12 gift cards. After mulling it over for a few days, I decided to go ahead and purchase gift cards (in very small dollar amounts) and I gave the remaining gifts to other people or to my folks for their Christmas Day gift.

This year I'm going to save myself some grief and just purchase gift cards. I made a list of 12 different sources for the cards. My daughter told me that if you buy gift cards at Target with your red card, you get 5% off. I've never looked at gift cards there, but that will be my first stop. Anyway of saving money works for me!

The hardest part of this year will be in coming up with an attractive, fun, creative way of delivering the gifts to them. Last year I stuffed them in some "The Twelve Days of Christmas" cards I had purchased from Current, Inc. I don't want to use that method again this year. I may use gift card tins, small jewelry boxes, and small fabric gift bags (like the kind at Michael's). That way I could actually wrap the boxes and the overall TTDofC gift would have some variety to it.

I usually print out a list of clues to go along with that day's gift, so I'm really going to be creative with the clues for the gift cards. Any help from all of you creative bloggers out there would be much appreciated!

Here is the list of the cards I'm going to purchase: AJ's, PF Chang's, Barnes & Noble, Hallmark, Outback, Olive Garden, Elephant Bar, Cheesecake Factory, Costco, Car Wash, Trader Joe's, Sprouts.

I'll update again on June 25th, and let you know of my progress...

2009

2010

2011

The Twelve Days of Christmas Gift

So, after all my rambling, and planning, and scheming, and creating, and agony over what my TDofC gift was going to be for my folks... it all fell apart at the last minute. A couple of weeks before the first day of the gift, my mom told me that they would really appreciate it if the gift only contained gift cards. What?! My budget would not stretch to cover 12 days of gift cards. Plus, I had already begun buying the gifts I already had planned.

I fussed and stewed over it for a couple of days. Then I graciously grudgingly lovingly went to Plan B. I chose four places that I knew they liked and I bought three $10 gift cards for each place. I had purchased some Twelve Days of Christmas greeting cards from Current Stationery a few years ago. I placed one gift card in each greeting card. I decorated the envelopes and left little clues or sayings in each greeting card. I tied the stack together with ribbon and voila! I delivered the Twelve Days of Christmas gift to them on time.

I'm glad I don't have to think about TDofC until May 25, 2012... but I'm probably gonna go with the gift cards again now that I know that's what they really want and need. At least I have time to think it through better and maybe I can up my budget. Oh yes, what did I do with the gifts I had already purchased? I wrapped them and gave them to my folks at our family Christmas.

Christmas Spirit

My perfectionism has kept me from posting in a while. I have so much Christmas decorating started, but it's so random I didn't want to post any photos. I'm still not posting any photos today, but I'm gonna share what I've been up to.

I have five trees up. Three of them are decorated. The fall decor is all down and packed away. The Christmas Stockings are hanging up, but I haven't decorated around them yet. I've taken down all of my everyday decor and packed it away to make room for the Christmas decor.

I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping. I will finish before Thanksgiving except for the gift I'm buying on Black Friday. Everything is wrapped, just waiting for the tree to go up so I can attach the bows and ribbons and place under the tree.

My Christmas cards are all signed and addressed. As soon as I print out the Annual Christmas Letter that I've written I can stuff them and seal the envelopes. I'm planning to mail them on December 1st.

I have accepted the fact that I will not be meeting my goal of stitching eight Christmas Stockings this year. I'm trying to finish two more for the new grandbabies, but the adults will all have to wait til next year.

Our family Christmas is scheduled for December 17th. My menu is created and I have a couple of fun activities planned besides opening presents.

The 12 Days of Christmas gift for my folks is completed. I will share the final gift list after they've opened them all. (just in case one of them reads my blog!) I will show the basket and the gift tags before I give them the gift. Look for that on my upcoming 11/25 post.

So there you have it. I have been busy, I just don't have anything at the photo-ready stage. I am so inspired by all of you bloggers that have posted this past week that you're in the swing of decorating too!

My husband can tell that I'm full of the Christmas Spirit. I'm listening to Christmas music more hours in the day than I'm watching the news...

73 Days and Counting...

I don't know why I feel like I'm off to such a slow start this year. I feel like I'm totally behind. But I'm not. We delivered JD and Janel's gifts last week when we drove to Manhattan KS to visit them. I've started buying for all but three of the others in my immediate family. I kind of know how I want to decorate. The biggest dilemma being what to do with the stockings again this year. We don't have a fireplace and our house is very small, every wall is already filled with decor. I've decided to remove some paintings from one wall by the front door and hang some sort of hooks there for all 13 stockings.

the presents we brought back from JD and Janel's

I'm pretty well along on the 12 days of Christmas gifts for my folks. I've got my Christmas cards half signed and addressed and will finish the rest this weekend. I've started a list of fun stuff I'm hoping Dan and I can get to this year.

My family Christmas is planned for December 17th, and I've got my menu planned.

I think the one thing that's really making me feel overwhelmed is the Christmas stockings. I need to make eight of them this year and I am hopelessly behind. I know there is no way I can finish them all and now I need to make some tough choices as to which ones I complete and which ones I leave until next year.

I am very excited to start decorating the house. I'm going to start early this year because we are not having Thanksgiving here. We're going to Katie's house. Hopefully next week I'll feel like I have a handle on things. I don't know why I always take on too much!

How are your preparations for a stress-free Holiday season coming along?

Twelve Days of Christmas

This month I have made some progress on the TDofC gift for my folks. I only have two letters remaining to choose gifts for. Those letters are "I" and "M". I have decided how I am going to create the gift tags to attach to each day's gift. I'm ready to begin my shopping. I'm quite pleased with my progress this year and should have some photos to share next month.

Four months from today: Christmas Day!

Christmas Eve

Four months from tomorrow will be Christmas Eve. I feel panicked and overwhelmed when I think of it. For somebody who strives to have a stress-free holiday each year I have sure set myself up for failure!

The source of my panic is the Christmas Stockings I am cross-stitching. I have set a goal that is too ambitious for me to accomplish, I fear.

Everything else is going great. I have finished shopping for two of the 12 immediate family members. I know what I'm purchasing for one extended family member and am just waiting on Hobby Lobby to put the item on sale. My cards are assembled and ready for me to start addressing and signing in October. I will be posting about my progress on the 12 Days of Christmas gift for my folks on Thursday.

I have fall fever so bad I could burst. I will decorate the house for fall on Labor Day weekend. Yes, I know it will still be way up in the triple digits here. Just having fall colors displayed throughout the house will make me think it's a little a bit cooler!

I am thinking about my Christmas decor and how I will switch it up a little this year.

Now if I could just stop spending so much time on the computer and get those dang stockings stitched...

The 12 Days of Christmas

Five months from today is Christmas Day! From May 25th - November 25th I work on the 12 Days of Christmas gift I'm going to give my parents. I know they don't read this blog so I'm not ruining the surprise by writing about this year's theme.

This is my third year of giving them a TDofC gift. Each year I've come up with a different theme. The first and second years it was relatively easy to come up with something creative. This year was a little more difficult! I finally came up with the theme of "Christmas Joy".

See: C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S J-O-Y: 12 letters!

So for my clues I'm using vintage scrapbook paper and cutting it into the shape of each letter. They will be instructed to open the letters in the order they appear in each word.

I am fashioning a gift that starts with each letter. Here's what I have so far:

C- Homemade candy
H- Harkins Theatre cups & gift card
R
I
S- Stocking for mom
T
M
A- AMC movie gift card
S- Stocking for dad
J- Nativity plate (stands for Jesus)
O- ornament
Y

As you can see I need to come up with gifts for several of the letters. The one that really stumps me is the "Y". If you have any ideas, please send them my way. Actually if you have ideas for any of the letters, I'd love to hear them.

Other than working on the TDofC gift today, I'm stitching my fingers to the bone. I'm starting to get panicked about all of the stockings I need to make this year. Yikes! What was I thinking?!

I'd love to hear from you about what you're doing to get ready for Christmas!

It's Time to Get Serious

May 25th is the date that I kick off my "12 Days of Christmas" project for the year. This will be my third year of creating the TDofC as a gift for a loved one. I have the theme for this year's gift, "Christmas Joy". I will give a gift on each one of the TDofC that matches one of the letters in "Christmas Joy". I already have four gifts decided.

I will continue to work on the TDofC on the 25th of each month, ending on November 25, 2011. I will give the gift a few days prior to December 13th, with the instructions of opening the first gift on 12/13/11.

I am really enjoying this new tradition! I didn't realize how much fun it would be for me. Nor did I realize how much fun it would be for the recipients.

I don't think the person(s) receiving this gift read my blogs, so I'll be providing updates as we move through the months of this project.

Do you have a Christmas project that starts early each year?

The Twelve Days of Christmas

For Christmas 2009 and 2010, I gave "The Twelve Days of Christmas" baskets to my folks. In 2010, I also gave one to my brother and sister-in-law. TTDC baskets are great gifts for anyone, any age.

The first year, I made a list of various elements of Christmas to celebrate. I purchased parchment paper and typed the list in alternating red/green font. I then rolled the list up and tied it to the basket with a ribbon. This was their "clue" list to see if they could guess the gift for that day. Each gift was then wrapped and tagged with the day it was to be opened. It was a lot of fun for me to make, and they really enjoyed receiving it.


The clues I used were:
12/13 - On the first day of Christmas, let's celebrate the reason for the season (nativity)
12/14 - Yummy! The second day of Christmas tastes great (homemade goodies)
12/15 - The third day of Christmas is for enjoying the festiveness of the holidays (live poinsettia)
12/16 - Mmm, the fourth day of Christmas smells so Christmassy (candle)
12/17 - The fifth day of Christmas celebrates the sounds of the season (CD)
12/18 - The sixth day of Christmas is for spending time together (gift card)
12/19 - It's the seventh day of Christmas - let's take time to read something inspirations (or at least fun) (book)
12/20 - The eighth day of Christmas reminds us to reach out to others in the spirit of the season (note cards)
12/21 - The ninth day of Christmas, sit down, put your feet up and let the fun begin! (puzzle)
12/22 - On the tenth day of Christmas, we'll pause to appreciate the gift of time (calendar)
12/23 - The eleventh day of Christmas is a good time for a relaxation break (teas/coffees)
12/24 - The twelfth day of Christmas reminds us again of the true meaning (nativity)

My mom collects nativities, that's why I started and ended with a nativity set.

When 2010 rolled around, I didn't want to repeat the previous year, so I came up with the notion of using Christmas songs as clues. Since I was making two baskets for different families, I personalized the clues and gifts to each family. There were some duplicates, but not many. This time I printed the lyrics to the songs out, and bolded the words in each song that served as clues to the gifts. I even went so far as to find an Australian Christmas song to use for the Outback gift card!

Here are the songs I used and the corresponding gifts:

Let It Snow! (snow globes)
Sleigh Ride (teas/coffees)
Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer (framed photo)
O Christmas Tree (nightlight) (ornament)
Rockin' Round the Christmas Tree (puzzle)
It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year (calendars)
Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella (candles)
God Rest You, Merry Gentlemen (decorative pillows)
We Wish You a Merry Christmas (goodies)
Aussie Jingle Bells (gift cards)
Do You Hear What I Hear? (gift card)
What Child Is This? (nativity)
The First Noel (book)
Up on the Housetop (framed photo)
Angels We Have Heard on High (decor)
Silent Night (nightlight)

I am definitely giving at least one TTDC basket this year. I've already bought a gift for it. I haven't decided on my theme yet. I don't want to repeat, so I need to come up with a new angle.

Have you ever gifted someone with The Twelve Days of Christmas? What style did you use? I always happy to steal borrow from others' creativity... Please, share!