How many of you are NOT buying much if any this Christmas?

[LanternWaste]

64. Homemade personalized calendars for my extended family.

For the past seven or eight years, I've been making calendars with embedded picture on the specific date of the aunt, uncle, mother, brother etc. whose birthday, anniversary, etc. falls on that date. E.g., on Oct 01, my sister's anniversary date, the date block is filled with a nice picture of her and her husband's wedding portrait, on the Halloween date block, there's a random picture of one of the youngster's in an adorable costume, etc.

Last year, all pictures were the"LOL-- I can't believe he actually posed like that!" variety. This year, all the pictures are formal head shots. Some years back, all the pictures were simply caricature portraits (I learned how to do those when I worked at Six Flags during my high school summers).

The first year I did it, it was because I had so little money-- just enough for a few dozen bound, low quality print jobs. But it's been such a big hit in the family since then; and the one year I bought gifts for everyone, I got a few "that's really nice, but we really miss your calendars!"

Lots and lots of calendar templates all over the net to grab and download, and with printer prices as they are, it's a really swell way to please one's family with a personalized at a very (very!) low cost.