The 12 Days of Christmas: Day 9, Our Favorite Things

I was never an avid Oprah fan, but every year I looked forward to her holiday episode, “Oprah’s Favorite Things.” If you haven’t seen one of these episodes, they were pretty spectacular. Oprah would present about a dozen or so products that she fell in love with that particular year. She raved about it, would sometimes interviews the inventor or designer, and then with a big fanfare, Oprah employees walked in with that particular gift for everyone in the audience. You couldn’t help but wish you were sitting there!

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image by ginnerobot

Here’s a fun way you can replicate that idea in a budget-friendly gift idea. Put together a collection of your family’s own favorite things and items that represent the best parts of the past year. These could be favorite foods you’ve discovered, a gift card to your favorite restaurant, photos of some of your family’s favorite memories for the year, a favorite CD or DVD or a product you’ve fallen in love with.

My own box of favorite things for this year will include:

a box of Kodiak Cakes mix
Patriotsby James Wesley Rawles
photos of my kids on their swim team
a gift card to Chipotle. On all our family travels this year, we ate plenty of Chipotle burritos and loved it!
waterproof matches. Sounds silly, but the kids and I tested them, and they really work!
a pillowcase sewn by my daughter. She learned how to sew this year and loves it.
a gift card to a bowling alley (We re-discovered this fun sport just recently.)
half-pound of See’s California Brittle
a copy of The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Our family has loved the entire Percy Jackson series.
recipes for two favorite main dishes I discovered this year

Get the idea? This can be a whole family project with each person contributing and there’s no limit when it comes to creativity. The gifts can be handmade or homemade and don’t have to cost a dime, and if you’ll be mailing this across the miles, it’s possible to put everything in a flat-rate envelope. Plus, deciding what to include brings back lots of fond memories.

There’s still time to put this together. It might be the best gift your family has given!

(5) Readers Comments

Linda
December 22, 2010 at 6:11 pm

Great idea! I've been looking for ways to make Christmas more personal and (maybe a little less expensive). This idea would be both thought-provoking and fun. Thanks for sharing!

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countrygirl
December 26, 2011 at 12:04 pm

Checked back to read all the comments on this one and there weren't any so I thought I'd leave one.
I don't have a lot of family favorites but here it goes
1. a picture of our family moose hunt, quality family time of us working together and enjoying it
2. Terramar geo fleece. they have quality priced base layers (long johns) for the whole family, and we've fallen in love with them
3. Chai tea, I love coffee and so does my daughter, but we all drink chai tea, vannilla big train
4. free shipping from Amazon
5. hoop looms for knitting, my kids have both learned to make hats on these this year
6. seeds, of all sorts, and this was topped of by presents from my SO, two coffee plant starter kits, a stevia growing kit and a bananna growing kit. We all like to grow things.

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traumamamma
January 13, 2012 at 2:52 pm

Couldn't put "Patriots" down! Got it on Kindle, on my phone, and paperback….told everyone about it! Some really great skills hidden in that book! He has a sequel that I am not exactly sure of the name of, but it is about "Survivors"….Got to be a good one! Keep that library growing… Fahrenheit 451, you know!…that will be next…God Bless!

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LizLong
January 14, 2012 at 5:09 pm

What a fun idea! I'll keep it in mind for the future. Maybe work it into our Scout activities somehow….

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Charlotte
May 4, 2012 at 1:38 pm

Can you preserve the kodiak cakes mixes for long term use?

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