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.