More on Giving Money. . .

I thought this topic deserved another post.   I have written a few times about the letters that I am writing to my boys and adding a little cash in each one.  Those stacks of letters will be given to the boys when they graduate from high school.    I saw on Pinterest where someone took a pizza box and had put dollar bills of varying denominations spread around to make a fan, I thought that was a neat way to give money to a teen or young adult.  These were suggested for graduation gifts but I think they could be given for birthdays and Christmas too.  I also saw a wreath made out of dollar bills to give as a Christmas gift.  I think that would be more appropriate for a girl than a boy though.  I cannot see my boys wanting a Christmas wreath, even if it was made out of money.
Here is one for someone that likes gift cards, you could buy a cheap box of playing cards and take them out and put an assortment of gift cards in the box instead.  I may use this one for Sprat, he has asked for gift cards to a couple different places.   He does like his playing cards too.    I like the Visa gift cards I give those a lot to my nieces, that way they can use them wherever they want, they are not locked in to one store.  
Would love to know how you give your family money as a gift.  Let me know what you think.

Clever Ways to Give Money. . .

I always hated giving money to kids as gifts, this was before I had kids.  I felt like I was being lazy as the gift giver.  What I did not realize, was that sometimes kids really want money because they really do not know what they want.   My hubby and I were married for six years before we had kids so we were giving nephew and niece gifts before we knew anything about kids.
This particular year my hubby started in November telling his niece and nephew that all they were getting from him were a bag of nuts.   I took walnuts and cracked them open and took out the nut part and folded, very tightly, a dollar bill and put it inside the nut and glued it back together.  Walnuts crack very easily and equally so that you can glue them back together and you could not tell they had ever been cracked.  We did this for five nieces and nephews that year.  We gave them the nuts in a stocking with a nut cracker and an ornament.   I did put some real nuts in their stockings, I did not want to make it too easy for them.   The hubbs family was the first stop on Christmas morning and his niece and nephew were not impressed with the stocking full of nuts and neither were their parents. My hubby knew how to tell what nut had money in it and he snatched his nephew's stocking and proceeded to crack open a nut with a dollar in it.  It did not take them long to figure this one out.  We had a good laugh about it.
Sprat's first Christmas the niece and nephew got a very special present from Sprat.  I need to preface this by saying my husband's family is a little warped anyway so I do not recommend this for everyone.  You really have to have a special sense of humor to appreciate this one.  My nieces and nephew did not get this gift.  My hubby took the money we were giving and put it in a ziplock bag and tapped it inside a clean diaper, then he made chocolate pudding and slathered it over the baggie.  He then folded the diaper as if it had poo in it and we put it inside a grocery bag and tied a knot in it just like you would if you were disposing of a dirty diaper.  We then placed that in a gift bag with pretty tissue paper and all.  I know this is unbelievably gross but it was also very, very funny!!
Yes, we are that aunt and uncle and now that mom and dad.  I believe I shared how I filled the heart chocolate box with money for Valentines for the boys this past year.
If you have given money in a unique way I would love to hear about it.   Stay tuned for more Christmas ideas.

Unusual Christmas Gift Giving

I am always telling tells on myself here and today is no different.  When my nieces and nephew were early teens they were so hard to buy for.  I hated giving money because I felt like I was being lazy as the gift giver.  Now that I have my own teens, I realize that giving money is actually a good thing.  As the gift giver you just do not know what these kids are in to or wanting.  Their interests change so fast from day to day. 
My hubby and I decided one year that if we were going to give money we were going to make it interesting.  Here are two things we did for/ to our nieces and nephews. 
The hubby started telling his nieces and nephew that all they were going to get from us was a bag of nuts for Christmas.  Everytime we saw them he would mention this.  We took walnuts and cracked them so that they came apart in perfect halves.  I dug out the goodie inside.  We folded dollar bills very tightly and placed one dollar in each nut and glued the nut back together.   We gave them twenty one dollar nuts and one five dollar nut.  We threw in a few real nuts just to throw them off.  We put them in a stocking with a nutcracker and a Christmas ornament.
Christmas day when we were ready to open gifts, hubby passed out the stockings.  You would have thought we had given them underwear.  We planned for this, so hubby said he wanted a nut, he took one out and cracked it open.  When he pulled the dollar out they just about lost it.  You have never seen three kids cracking nuts like crazy.   Ahhh the memories.
When Sprat had come along we decided to take things to the next level.   I made chocolate pudding and we put their Christmas money in a ziplock baggie and tapped it to the inside of a diaper then covered it with the chocolate pudding.  I folded it up as if it were a dirty diaper and put it in a Christmas bag.   Well, you can imagine the looks and words that were exchanged.  It was all done in love and fun and once they realized it was in fact only pudding we all had a good laugh. 
So, if you are giving money do it in an interesting way.