With the holidays come Santa, hot chocolate and long lists of gifts for friends and family: perfume for the aunts, scarves for the cousins, photo albums for the grandparents. The presents begin to pile up, and so do the bills. Yet bringing joy to the holidays should inspire creativity, but not put pressure on the piggy bank.

Junior Sara Pettersson begins her Christmas shopping about two to three weeks before the big holiday. She first carefully makes a list of what she wants to buy and the locations where she can find the gifts.

“I try to buy something special for all my friends; something unique for them that I know that they will love,” Pettersson said.

With a credit card that her parents have entrusted to her, Pettersson shops at local malls such as Valley Fair, mainly for clothes for her female friends.

“I think fashion is really fun, and I think it is fun to get something for them that I think would fit them, although it is hard,” Pettersson said.

Additionally, Pettersson puts together her own scrapbooks as Christmas presents.
“I love making them for my friends in Sweden, like with memories that we have together from when they visit me over here,” she said.

Other students use their own money during the holidays. Sophomore Brian Park uses money he has saved, including allowance, to buy gifts for his family every Christmas season.

“I would get my brother video games,” Park said. “My dad loves golf, so probably a golf club, and [for] my mom, jewelry. It all depends on how much I have during that year.”

Freshman Brandon Nguyen avoids the shopping malls but takes a little time each year to make homemade cards from materials around the house for his three family members.

Math teacher Audrey Warmuth participates in many gift exchanges during the holidays. With her family in Canada, members draw names out of a hat, and each person buys only for one other person. With her husband’s family in Southern California, members buy gifts for all the other members.

“It tends to be really expensive,” she said. “But a lot of the time it’s just gift cards bought for each other, so the money kind of ends up floating right back. It’s a bit of an odd tradition as well.”

Some of her favorite gifts over the years have been homemade ones.

“I always really appreciate baked things because I usually don’t have time to do that myself,” Warmuth said. “I have my set of recipes that I tend to go back to all the time, so it’s interesting to see what traditions other people have in their families as well.”

The math department also holds a Christmas party annually for themselves and their families, usually a potluck meal before winter break.

Each guest only brings one gift in the White Elephant game. Each person picks a gift when his or her name is drawn, and he or she can choose whether to steal another person’s gift or open another.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Warmuth said. “You go home with something; you brought a little something. We have a lot of laughs doing it. That’s a nice way to share the holidays and not spend a lot of money.”

The Internet provides a wide array of information on gifts that users can wisely use to research before stepping into stores. In that manner, people can avoid the traps of stores like IKEA, with a strategic zigzag pattern to confuse customers about exit locations and make them more likely to see products they would purchase.

Simple Google searches for “cheap gift ideas” will provide thousands of results, but customers will have to weed through hundreds of strange gifts, like candle lighters and peanut butter cup collections. Students should evaluate whether they would rather spend a few hours browsing through web articles and comparing prices online or running from store to store in the mall to find the best deals.

Keep in mind not to procrastinate holiday shopping until the few days before Christmas, since stores realize that those late customers will pay high prices just to get gifts for all of the people on their lists.

Remember that friends and family will still love the simple homemade gifts they receive, whether they be drawings, notes, albums or food. There’s no need to empty the wallet every holiday season on lavish presents.