If buying gifts this year for whatever reason, whether it’s your babysitter’s Birthday, a Christmas gift for your neighbor, a Valentine’s gift for your favorite Aunt, or a Thank You gift for someone who took care of your dog, has you panicked, join the club. Families all over the world are feeling the pinch of an exceedingly tight budget.

When the budget starts to suffer, we start to rethink giving gifts. Yes, we want to show our appreciation to the people who support us and love us, but we just don’t have the money anymore. The answer goes back to the old days: giving gifts from your heart, using the talents you have, and you will never go wrong.

Making chocolate treats is one of my favorite gift ideas. It’s pretty simple to impress someone with a beautiful box of chocolate covered pecans or chocolate dipped pretzels. Chocolates always seem festive, and homemade chocolates say you appreciate someone very, very, much indeed.

Chocolate gifts aren’t as hard to make as you might think. With a little practice, you can create marvelous confectionery delights that will thrill your friends and family and make you the talk of the town! This is a fancy chocolate treat that no one makes for themselves, so it is the perfect gift.

Chocolate Dipped Coffee Spoons

This spoon will top your list of all time favorite gifts for the coffee lover. What’s great is that you can give this gift to a man or woman because chocolate knows no limits.

Get ready with these items:

You’ll need to buy heavy duty plastic spoon, I like the clear ones. If you’ve got a great thrift store or antique store in your community, you might be able to find some unique silver spoons that would definitely add a special touch. Be sure they’re in good condition, then wash and dry them well.

In the baking aisle of your grocery store, you will find milk chocolate coating. This is the chocolate you’ll want to use. Don’t use the Real Chocolate as it is way too fussy and you don’t want to worry about it not turning out right.

If you’d like to add some crushed peppermint candy or other candy sprinkles to your spoons, that’s really pretty, too. You may also look for flavoring oils, like peppermint or amaretto, to really make these spoons fancy.

You’ll need to cover cookie sheets with parchment paper so the spoons won’t stick while cooling. Don’t use waxed paper as the chocolate will stick and you’ll have a mess. Parchment paper can also help the clean up if you’re working on a larger number of spoons.

I recommend that since you’re giving a gift of food, buy the proper wrapping. Look in your candy making section of any craft store for clear cellophane candy bags in a size to fit the spoon, leaving some of the handle sticking out. You’ll also want to find some ribbon and raffia to tie the package closed and to decorate the gift.

The process is simple:

Place a large pot of water on stove, bring to boil and turn off heat. Meanwhile, cut your chocolate into small pieces and melt by placing in a small heavy pot inside the larger pot of water that has boiled. When chocolate starts to melt around the edges, remove from hot water and stir with a rubber spatula or big wooden spoon until all the chocolate has melted. Be careful that you don’t splash any of the water from the big pan into the small pan.

When the chocolate is melted down, take a spoon and carefully dip it into the chocolate, hanging on to the handle, and place it on parchment paper on your tray or cookie sheet. Now is the time to add any decorations like sprinkles or crushed peppermints. Then continue dipping each spoon and decorating. When you are done, take your cookie sheet full of spoons and place it in a cold area. You can put them in a freezer or refrigerator but don’t let them stay in there because they will get moist. If you do use the freezer or refrigerator, take them out in just a few minutes and let them totally set up somewhere dry.

Once the chocolate has set up, you can put each spoon in a candy bag, and tie a piece of ribbon, raffia, or what have you around the handle of the spoon to close the bag. Now you can add a little extra ribbon, a candy cane, or any other decoration you’d like. If you are giving more than one spoon to someone, be sure to put them in a candy bag first, then place all of them together in a pretty bag or box.

You have now completed a gift that anyone would be thrilled to receive. Don’t you feel good knowing that you used your creativity and time to make a personal gift for someone you care about? This is not just any gift… it’s a gift you gave from your heart.

Tender memories of Christmas joys are only enhanced when the gifts mean a little more. As each of us roam through the golden toned corridors of our Christmases past we can select a few cherished moments and gifts that shine a little brighter than others. In homage to these meaningful Christmases of our youth new parents embark on a frenzied journey each year to buy those toys that will in turn shine brightly in the adulthood memories of their new babies.

Nostalgia is priceless

There is no way to put a price value on these holiday gifts. The gift itself may have cost a small amount, but the love felt with its giving and the memories that span a life time are without price. It will be the same for your children. It may not always be possible to gage what gift will be the one to engender such fond memories.

Parents are surprised to find their babies and toddlers paying much more attention to the trinkets in their stockings than the elaborate gifts beneath the tree. For a child there is no mystery - it is not the price tag they count, but the imagination, time and love that is put into the gift itself.

Make it personal

Not all nostalgia toys come from a store. Kids love to hear stories that are true. My children’s interest is never piqued more nor held longer than when I relate stories to them from my or their father’s own childhood. They love to hear about what toys and candies we ate, the movies we loved, the songs we sang and the traditions our families had for different celebrations. Hardly a week fails to pass that they request a ‘mommy’ or ‘daddy’ story at bedtime instead of the usual book. Our children are not alone in this interest. My nieces and nephews and friend’s children share a similar obsession with their parent’s past. Each child latches onto a different memory and takes it to heart.

Keep these stories in mind when shopping for your toddler’s Christmas gifts. Purchasing a doll that resembles your beloved Emma-Lou, will delight your own baby girl when she knows the full story connected with her new baby doll. The same is true of boys. My son’s favorite gifts for Christmas to date were a collection of well-loved and abused Star Wars action figures that his dad had played with as a boy.

Old is New

Don’t panic if all your childhood toys went to Goodwill years ago. You can still get your child a gift with a story. A growing trend among toy manufacturers is to recommission toys from yesteryear. If you are new to the Christmas shopping scene for youngsters it might surprise you to see how many familiar toys you will find greeting you like old friends from store shelves. Nostalgia toys are fun not only for the children to get, but for parents to give. This year as you shop for your baby and toddler and bask in the magical memories of your childhood Christmases you may discover that it is truly better to give then to receive.

If you are not inclined to share your much loved toys or they are no longer in your possession, why not start a new tradition? Pedal cars, trains, tractors and even pedal airplanes are making a big comeback for the new generation, in classic and new colors sure to please the little ones in your life.

You have selected your toddler’s first bike. It is a sweet sassy little number complete with racing stripes and a bell. It is only 18 inches off of the ground. After the frenzied research and purchase is complete don’t be tempted to think your job is done. Dreams of Christmas morning watching your child run to the toddler bike are incomplete unless your toddler is properly equipped with a helmet and other safety gear.

Why does a toddler need a helmet?

Many parents when shopping for a toddler bike forget about the helmet. The bike is only knee-high and the likelihood of serious injury may seem quite remote. Don’t be one of the parents whose Christmas efforts and dreams are rewarded by a broken baby. It is very easy to see the reasoning that a tiny bike might only cause a small bump or bruise, and let’s be honest, for many this is the case. The news headlines on Boxing Day are not topped with mangled and helmetless riders of toddler bikes. Yet there is an element of protection a helmet provides that will insure your child’s safety.

Does a Toddler need the padding?

Toddlers have plenty of natural padding in the form of chub, but they may need a few extra layers to prevent bumps and bruises as they hit the road on their new tricycle. It seems kids these days are buckled, padded and helmeted until they can hardly see or breathe. These safety items really make a difference.

Even the most vigilant parent cannot prevent every fall, nor do they want to. It is necessary to risk a good tumble to learn how to ride a bike, even if it is a tricycle. Toddlers want to learn how to do everything by themselves. Why not give them the padding to make any falls less scary for both parent and child.

Think of it this way: your timid, yet eager child perches atop his bike ready to ride when splat! He falls off skinning his elbows or scraping his knee. This is not a serious life threatening injury, but how long and how much talking will it take to convince your child that this fancy tricycle is fun and not a toddler torture device?

Teach them young

Perhaps the more compelling reason is that of precedent. This is a toddler bike, but it is your baby’s first bike. Setting the expectation of wearing a helmet and other padding protection for knees and elbows now will establish good habits. Then when your toddler somehow becomes a daredevil 8-year old rocketing up and down the street he is doing so while happily wearing the appropriate safety gear.

The first toddler bike is a big deal. Enjoy your child’s Christmas present along with them and have the shiny new helmet and elbow pads with red racing stripes to complete the holiday Kodak moment. Have a safe and merry Christmas!