The Best Presents You’ll Never Buy! 

Winter Break begins this week, yet all over school, people are complaining. Are you one of the many shoppers who is completely broke?  Never fear!  The Lasso Online staff has come up with a number of ideas to solve your shopping crisis. We have brainstormed holiday presents that you can give your friends and family for free (or for very little!) 

Music: Make a list of 15 or more of your favorite songs and make a CD for your friends. This gift also works for your parents; you might just want to change the genre a little!   

Write: If you like to write, compose a poem for your parents or grandparents. You could write about a favorite holiday, vacation, or birthday memory you shared with them.  Don’t worry if you don’t have a favorite memory -- you can write a descriptive poem about almost anything! 

Plant: Home Depot, Giant, and Safeway – all these stores sell seed packets. Find a flower, vegetable, or fruit that you or your parents really like and buy a packet of seeds. Then, go to Michael’s, Home Depot or A.C. Moore to pick up a small ceramic pot (a small one can cost a mere 79 cents at Michael’s) and decorate it yourself.   

Cook: Do you not have enough money to shop or make a gift for your family before the holidays?  No problem!  Offer to make dinner...they’ll really appreciate the effort and you probably already have most of the ingredients at home.  Also, check out Lasso Online’s Holiday Recipes for some tasty holiday sweets.  

Scrapbook: Make your own scrapbook or collage of holiday photos.  Michael’s and A.C. Moore sell very cool (yet very cheap) decorations, paper, and other materials to personalize your work.    

Coupons:  Here’s an idea…present your family members with coupons!  Nope, we don’t mean coupons for Pizza Hut, but rather coupons for chores that you can do to help them.  The holidays are hectic, but you can make them more relaxed by offering to do the dishes, take out the garbage, drive your younger siblings around, or anything else your family might find helpful. 

Bake: Preparing an entire meal may be a bit difficult for the more novice cooks among us, but almost everyone can bake!  Cookies, brownies, cakes, pies – we all love a good dessert!  Some are very simple to bake; Pilsbury sells rolls of holiday cookies that simply require you to slice them, put them on a baking tray, and pop them in the oven.  Not too difficult!  

Art: Are you an artist or filmmaker?  Well, put your skills to use by making your own holiday film, drawing, painting, or sculpture.  Everyone will appreciate your talent