Cheap, Vintage Holiday Gift Ideas for a Recession Christmas

Cheap, Vintage Holiday Gift Ideas for a Recession Christmas - One of my all-time favorite hobbies is thrift store / vintage shopping. I can spend 4 hours in a flea market scrounging for the best objects! The following are great items you can pick up at the thrift / antique store or flea market for pennies and turn into something quite extraordinary!

Tea Cup Frenzy: You can find pretty much any style of tea cup/saucer set you can think up. From decadent swirls to gaudy 70s prints and everything in between! A great way to turn a simple vintage tea cup into a gift is by adding a few bags of tea and wrapping it in cellophane. Add a pretty bow, a stick of honey and voila: The perfect gift. There is nothing more decadent than drinking tea out of fancy cup and saucer!

Candy Dish: Who doesn't like candy? And who doesn't like candy presented in a beautiful way? One of my favorite things to pick up when I'm antiquing is opulent dishes I can put things in. I will never forget the look of joy on my friend's face (and envy on those watching) when she opened a vintage candy-dish gift from me. I found the most beautiful, ornate, blue-toned glass with swirls and details. Inside the dish was tiny pieces of individually wrapped dark chocolate. Total cost? $15.

Framed Sheet Music: This is especially a great gift for music lovers, but anyone can appreciate it! You can often find vintage sheet music for $1-5. Look through the selection at your local store and choose a few covers that speak to you! To make this gift even more special, frame it in either a new, modern-looking frame to off-set the vintage or a vintage one to drive the point home!

Pendant Set: For this, you'll need a necklace chain that has small clasps at the ends to allow for changing the pendant. You can buy one new (usually very inexpensive) or at the flea market if you find one you like. Next, look around the jewelry section of your local flea market/antique store for some beautiful pendants. You can usually find these at inexpensive prices. I like to look for owls, round pieces with jewels, and anything that screams "vintage." Wrap the chain and 2-3 different pendants together and give as one gift!

Soap Dish: It's one thing to have a generic soap dish from Wal-Mart or Target. But if you want to make a statement, why not choose something with a little more flare? Back in the day, soap dishes were quite common (opposed to the liquid pump that reigns today), so their presence in the world of vintage is obvious. You can find many styles - so choose one that suits your giftee best! Afterward, buy a nice bar of soap (new, of course) and wrap the two together. Whoever receives this gift will be charmed!