the 12 days of [simplifying] Christmas: simply gifted

I've had a Target gift card floating around my purse for awhile. I figured there might be a few dollars left on it, and finally remembered to use it the other day. It had still $25.00 left! Who forgets about that much? That would be me.

There was a time I thought giving gift cards for Christmas was too impersonal. Handing over a small piece of plastic--even if it did have value--seemed so...not fun. I've changed my story. Gift cards are simple, the recipient can get what they really want, and I love receiving them myself.

Packaging gift cards with a small gift makes them even more delightful. It doesn't have to be big. My brother, Steve, loves the Rocky Road fudge at Cabela's. For his birthday I got him a nice big slab to go along with a gift card. I added a simple bow and still came out ahead time-wise.

I added a simple box of my niece's favorite goodie, Altoids, to her Target gift card.

 

Last year we gave our married kids a "date night" package complete with gift cards for dinner and movie tickets. I found these buckets of goodies at Target for about $7 or $8 to package them up with. I would love to receive a package like this!

Lynn thought it would be fun to purchase another bucket for a movie night with Ella, when that card shows up on our advent calendar. They had them again this year and she's going to love it! (Popcorn and Skittles are her favorite treats.)

I try to keep a stash of these pillow boxes from Paper Source on hand for packaging. Toss in a gift card and there's still room left for some chocolates, a favorite lip gloss, or some sewing supplies. The polka dot are my favorite, but I couldn't find them recently. I'm really hoping Paper Source will bring them back. The solid colors are beautiful too. I can just imagine this plain pool color tied up with red and white polka dot ribbon. A tulle tie also looks darling wrapped around these.

Another favorite is clear pillow boxes from Paper Mart. They're fun because the recipient can see the contents inside. And you can get 50 of the 3 1/2" x 5 1/2" size for $7, so they're inexpensive and last forever.

A couple more gift card packaging ideas I've shared in the past:

teacher appreciation gift

teacher birthday gift (bottom of post)