How to Save Money on Christmas Presents for Your Girlfriends

Not only is Christmas a wonderful opportunity to shower partners and family members with gifts that express your love and affection, it is also a terrific holiday in which to honor those special girlfriends in your life. For most women, the circle of girlfriends that they laugh and cry with all through the year is too special a group to ignore come holiday time. If you are a little light in the pocketbook this Christmas season, but still want to offer your girlfriends a token gift, this article is for you.

Choose Names Within the Group. If you have a tight circle of friends that regularly gets together for nights out on the town or gripe sessions over coffee, propose the idea of picking names for gift buying this year. This method of gift exchange will offer all the gals the financial freedom of only purchasing one gift, instead of several. This will eliminate the stress of choosing quality gifts for all the girlfriends, without breaking the bank.

Establish a Gift Theme. If one or two of your girlfriends is in a different financial bracket than the rest of you, this can present an awkward situation when it comes to exchanging holiday gifts. Nothing can kill the joy of a gift giving occasion faster than if one or two of the gifts clearly outshine the others by a wide margin. A simple way to eliminate this problem and keep all the gals in the same relative area of cost is to establish a theme for this year's gift exchange. The theme can be baked goods, books, homemade gifts, tee shirts or any other theme that appeals to all of you. Obviously, the theme should lend itself to fairly inexpensive gifts in order to keep everyone on the same page.

Offer your Girlfriends the Gift of your Time. A great way to show you care at Christmas is to honor your friends with the gift of your time instead of something that can be put in a gift bag or box. Include a little note in your holiday card that lets your girlfriend know that you are gifting her with ten hours of babysitting or an afternoon of errand running this holiday season. Hone in on exactly what each special friend needs the most this year and use your time in an effective and thoughtful way. Another sweater or pocketbook is surely a wonderful gift, but the gift of your time may be what she needs most of all.

Make your Girlfriends a Mini Scrapbook for Christmas. If you and your girlfriends have a long history together, you surely have a ton of photographs of you together stored away or sitting in your digital camera. Visit your local craft store and choose a cute but inexpensive mini scrapbook in which to organize and display those favorite photos. Use a felt tip pen to write captions and information to jog memories under each photo. This is an inexpensive and thoughtful way to honor those special gals this year.

Designate this Year as the Year of the Gag Gift. A fun way to save money and still offer gifts to all your girlfriends is to designate this holiday season the year you give only gag gifts. These funny gifts can be practical joke style items such as the dribble glass or the hand buzzer, or they can be simple household items that represent something unique to the recipient. Select an evening close to the Christmas holiday where you gather together to open the gifts and share stories and memories related to the items. These gifts will only cost you a few dollars, but will be the catalyst for a fun night filled with laughter and a stroll down memory lane.