Holiday gift giving can be so stressful, time consuming, and expensive. Today I’m sharing my top 5 best holiday gifts guide with you all. Here’s to hoping we can eliminate some of that holiday stress and make gift giving from the heart instead of the wallet.

Guys, I haven’t shared my secret with anyone other than close friends and family, but 3 weeks before Thanksgiving I handed in my resignation to my boss. I have worked in a law firm as a Legal Nurse Consultant for the same boss for 11 years and felt I needed a major change in my life. So I took a leap of faith and said “I’m moving on to something new.”

No. I wasn’t leaving to go to another firm or going anywhere to work for someone else. When someone asked me what my plan was, I simply told them, “to sleep in some days, rest, relax, and figure it out from there.” I’d got the deer-in-headlights look most of the time. But some people actually were supportive and said they wish they had the guts or the means to do the same thing.  I’m not going to get into the specifics of that in this post today, but wanted to preface this post with me not having a steady income presently. I need to be a bit more innovative and thrifty when it comes to holiday gift giving this year.

Gift giving doesn’t have to be as hard and stressful as we make it. The last thing most of us need anyway is more stuff. I already have way too much stuff. I don’t know what to do with it. It can get overwhelming at times and most often all that “stuff” is unorganized as well.

Here is my 5 Best Holiday Gifts/Tips Guide:

Best Holiday Gifts Guide #1: Bake or cook for friends and family.

• Most of us are short on time as it is for the holidays so baking something like holiday cookies, candies or pies are a gift that comes from the heart. I usually bake an assortment of cookies and make hard tack candy and toffee and hand them out as gifts. Many of my friends use them to decorate holiday food trays for their guests and family.
• You can purchase cute tins and containers from your local dollar store to gift wrap them and keep them fresh.
• Prepare a whole meal for an overwhelmed single mom or dad. Maybe your next door neighbor is recovering from a surgery or having trouble with her arthritis. People generally love when you cook meals for them. Especially if its something that can be popped into the freezer and taken out at a later time

I personally love to make and decorate pies and sugar cookies. Especially apple pie. It’s relaxing and therapeutic for me. People really love looking at a work of art, but the best part is they get to eat it!

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Best Holiday Gifts Guide #2: If you feel you absolutely must spend money on a gift, plan out a budget for everyone on your list and stick to it like glue.

• Really pay close attention to your friends and family when it comes to their needs and wants. It’s most often better to spend money on a need rather than a want in my book. For example, my mini food processor finally bit the dust. Most times, I only use a small food processor for marinades and such. This mini food processor is a perfect example of something that I need and would use all the time. It would also most likely fit into someone’s budget.
• If you’re not great at guessing what people need or want, have them make you a list. Every year my daughter texts me her Amazon list and between her boyfriend and myself she usually makes out very well. But the best part is she gets what she wanted or needed instead of trying to guess what would make her happy.
• If you’re exchanging gifts with family and friends be up front about the budget you’d like to spend and work out something that works for everyone.

Best Holiday Gifts Guide #3: Rather than a gift exchange do a homemade holiday ornament exchange.

• Everyone in the family can get involved in this creative activity.
• Make it a festive evening where you turn on some holiday music or movies around a table filled with items from the craft store. Get as creative or as simplistic as you want. Just remember someone is going to be hanging the ornament on the tree. Try to keep it G rated as well. I find the older I get the more I treasure the holiday tree ornaments that have a homemade vintage feel to them. This makes for holiday decorating filled with nostalgic memories every year.

Tip #4 Spend time rather than money

• Instead of having a gift exchange arrange a holiday pot luck dinner party. Make memories instead of more room to put stuff you don’t really need. Or worse yet, getting “re-gifted” the gift you gave Susan last Christmas.
• Schedule time to go to dinner or a holiday movie or show with friends. It sure beats running around to 4 different stores trying to find the right gift or size for your friend.
• Be up front with the fact that you’d rather spend time with friends and family. Who knows, you just may start a new holiday tradition.

And #5: Spend money on Experiences instead of stuff

• Gift a certificate to your friend or loved one to learn their favorite hobby or craft.
• Last year I asked my daughter not to get me anything. I said I couldn’t think of anything I needed. I made the statement “I’d rather spend money on experiences instead of stuff.” She booked me a class at Sur La Table to learn how to make macarons. I had so much fun and even met a child in my class who was on MasterChef child edition with Gordon Ramsay.
• Maybe someone in your family has been saving for a dream vacation. Contribute some money to that to help them get there quicker.

I hope my top 5 gifts guide tips and tricks has helped you in some way or sparked your own idea on a unique gift idea. Holiday are stressful enough as it is. Spending extra time trying to figure out a gift that most likely is going to end up in someone’s garage or attic is such a waste of money, time and energy.

I hope you all have a lovely Holiday Season and Merry Christmas no matter how you chose to celebrate.