Ballin' on a Budget: Group Gift Giving

There are pros and cons to working with a large group of people. The biggest con for me is probably that time of year when Christmas comes and you're the jerk that gives everyone their 75th candy cane of the day. 

No one likes that guy.

So, this year, I decided I would figure out a way to ball on a budget in order to gift every one of my 20+ coworkers with a little something more special than a candy cane.

I figured I'd post this in case you need some inspiration for group gift giving at your office or school!

SPOILER ALERT: If you work with me, do not read on. I will ruin your Christmas.

I work with approximately 20 women and a handful of men (I still need to figure out what I'm getting them!), but for starters, I purchased an adorable Decorate-Your-Own Snowmen kit from Target for $5 (they have a Christmas Tree version too!), which worked out well because the kit comes with enough foam stickers for 20 snowmen.

I topped simple brown paper lunch bags with these foam dudes and personalized each with the recipient's name. (Even if you're not going to use these for gift bags, the snowmen would be cute for jazzing up a lunch for a little one, holiday party goodie bags, or to use as place settings for a holiday dinner).

As I was saying... I had the idea of gifting the ladies with their own DIY pedicure. I purchased some epsom salt and lavender, added those to a clear bag along with some dried lemon slices (thinly sliced lemons, dried in a 200 degree oven for 2 hours). Voila! Lavender and Lemon foot soak!

 

I also threw in a bottle of my favorite budget-friendly polish - N.Y.C. and a glittery holiday nail file.

That leaves me having spent about $40 for this entire project - $2 per person!

With all of those savings, you can also add personalized card or note to each bag, maybe a few homemade cookies with a recipe card, or even a candy cane (if your heart is dead set on candy cane giving...).