Teacher Christmas Gifts

My boys have fantastic teachers.  This year I was thinking about how these women are also wives and moms, and they have to find time to prepare for Christmas too. 

So I decided to make each teacher a basket of items to help them wrap their Christmas gifts.

I shopped at Hobby Lobby when all Christmas items were 50% off, and I also picked up some items from Walmart and Deals.

I bought several colors of tissue paper, a dispenser with 8 colors of ribbon, bows, shredded paper for gift filler, good scissors, and good tape.

I was able to make some products go further by dividing them between the two teachers' gifts.

I bought a package of red large bows and a package of green large bows, and I pulled a little switcheroo so I could give each teacher two of each color.

I bought a pack of 20 Christmas cards and divided them up to give 10 to each teacher.

I picked up little Christmas stickers (envelope seals) and put one sheet in each basket.

I bought a 2-pack of good pens (for writing all those Christmas cards and gift tags) and gave one to each teacher.

I already had Avery labels on hand, and I wanted to print personalized gift labels for the teachers.  For reasons yet unidentified, those labels would not print correctly.  I tried the online templates.  I tried the Word templates.  After about four attempts, I gave up.  So I ordered labels from Shutterfly.  I got one set free and got the other 30% off.  I still spent more money than I would have using the labels I already had, but I was willing to pay to stop being so frustrated with my computer.

I had a vision of what I wanted as the vessels for all these Christmas goodies, but I couldn't find it.  So I bought cute Christmas baskets/bins from Hobby Lobby.

I wrapped the filled bins with decorative cellophane wrap and tied it with ribbon.  I topped the gifts off with cards telling each teacher how much I appreciate them spending their time and energy on my kids.  I think that's what they really need for Christmas--to know that they are appreciated!

Before I had to order the Shutterfly labels, I spent just under $20 on each teacher's gift.  I was pretty happy with what I got for the money!  I may have busted my budget in the end, but it was worth it to stop trying to figure out how to print the labels myself.

The boys delivered their teachers' gifts on Monday of this week.  I wanted to send them in last week so the teachers would have plenty of time to use these items, but I just couldn't get it all finished before this past weekend.

I'm hoping these teachers know how much we appreciate them, and I hope our gifts help them as they get ready for Christmas this year.

Jessica