Three Top OnLine Holiday Gift Ideas for $20

It's enough to put you in a bah-humbug state of mind - the thought of driving all over creation in holiday traffic to purchase items that have to be gift-wrapped and mailed. Try these on-line gift shopping options, all of which can be done on a twenty dollar budget and keep you in the holiday spirit.

Gift Cards - the Path of Least Resistance

The most obvious choice for selecting twenty dollar holiday gifts is cash or gift cards. The cash is appreciated by tweens and older to combine with other cash gifts so as to buy something they really want.

Gift cards are nice because they don't cost much to mail, have a fixed price and still allow the recipient some leeway in how it will be spent. Since we don't eat out much anymore, a restaurant gift card gets saved for a special occasion, where the cost of a splurge meal is mitigated by a gift received perhaps months before.

Check out www.giftcertificates.com where a Super Certificate can be redeemed for the merchant gift card of the recipient's choice. There is a small fee for physical cards and certificates, so the e-card and e-certificate options are recommended.

Food Gifts - The way to their hearts

Online food sites allow you to shop by price and very often have nice selections under $20. However the delivery fees may push the total cost over budget. You can save by making choices that are in season and within a specific time frame for the desired holiday. If you are a repeat customer, very often you can get special deals and coupon codes that keep the total for purchases and shipping on target. Sign up for email notices and send food gifts year round from your inbox.

Recommended holiday gift food sites include:
The Popcorn Factory for fun snacks for all ages in cheerful containers, delivered right to their door.
Harry and David for nuts and fruit. They also have retail locations, so you can save on shipping for local gift recipients.
Pittman and Davis for seasonal citrus from Texas.
Hickory Farms has retail outlets during the holidays and offers free shipping on selected items to APO/FPO addresses for gifts to those in military zones worldwide.

Charitable Donations - Gifts for the Greater Good

Charitable gifts made in the name of a recipient have been around for some time. Instead of donating a cash amount to a generic fund, the trend is to designate a particular place or project to which the cash will go. The recipient gets a written acknowledgement that the dollar amount has been given by you in their name for the cause you selected for them. Sometimes this can be a disappointing gift if you don't consider what your giftee would believe as a worthy cause.

Twenty dollars can buy meals or blankets in a disaster zone or a phone card to military personnel provided by the American Red Cross .

At Heifer International your gift donation in someone's name will provide livestock and other sustainable resources to deserving start-up farm communities. Although most gifts go overseas, there are also many projects in the United States, in both rural and urban locations. The offspring of your gift are passed on to others in the community and so on, to provide a sustainable means of income for those in impovershed
areas. This is the sort of charitable gift that appeals to children. Twenty dollars will buy any of the following: 2 shares of a sheep, goat or pig; 1 share of a llama; a flock of chicks, geese or ducks; 2 shares of a trio of rabbits; 2 shares of a planting of trees.

Of course there are many other places to purchase $20 holiday gifts on-line Hopefully this list has helped to get you started. Be sure to buy something for yourself as a reward for all your generosity.