I always never understand why magazines and newspaper alike put out "last minute gift ideas" features for, since each of them offer the same advice, and hardly anything new! If we were all to follow it, everyone else will be getting the same standard gifts. So this is an attempt to write an original gift guide, in hopes of providing readers with some inspirations. Listen up you people! We've got ideas for everyone including those on a budget!

First of all, personalize your gift! My mom for example, is one tough person to get gifts for: she hates pointless display objects (because of limited space in our downtown appartment) and moreover does not really appreciate home decorations, even if they do look nice. If anything a gift had to be practical. She is also superstitious so one of those lovely spinning mantel clocks were out, though she admit she loved those and one time our old one had just broke. Skincare items were generally out because she has super sensitive skin and only stick to a few tried-and-tested products.

Of course, most people are not that hard to get gifts for. However, you see my point, you can't just tick items off a gift guide and give them away. You may be wasting your own money since the gift will not be appreciated.

The worst gifts I got were NOT the ones with least value (or value difference to my gift to them) but ones that showed no thoughts. I guess I can't say it's the same for everybody but I love personalized, homemade gifts. Yes they do have to have some standards -unless they are from kids - but it's lower than store-brought gifts. Imperfections are part of the charm. You can give homemade stuff as part of your gift if you don't feel comfortable giving it as the entire gift.

I love crafts, But something most people can manage: baking a cake, a pie, or cookies. Nowadays you can get no-baking cheese cake mixes. All you have to do is wipe up the ingredients and let it set and chill in the fridge. Easy! Cookies in the shape of christmas trees, stars, and holly leaves are great for christmas. You can wrap each cookie individually (in tiny wax paper envelope, or plastic tied with a ribbon) and use as a stocking filler, put a large number in a mini clay or glass cookie jar, or those used up cookie or chocolate tin jars. You can also decorate the cake in theme, cut the base into a star shape, your imagination's the limit! If you are looking for other craft ideas, there are many great websites, books, and TV shows (check out Women Television Network, Savoir Faire, or CityLife HomeDay).

I was very hurt on one occasion when I got a gift from one of my best friends that showed no thought (I won't mention what it was but it was worse than getting the standard mug, a picture frame, or stuffed doll). Worse, it was handed to me in the crumpled up plastic bag of the store it was brought in, with not even a piece of tape to seal it like a present. It made it feel like "oh here you are", it was brand new and unopened, but I already had plenty at home, and it seem like she hunt around the house last minute and grabbed this as gift. We are all high-school students and we all have limited budget, so I could understand that, but you can still be creative! I coudn't really tell her I was hurt either, since gifts are - well I was afraid she would take it the wrong way (like I was harping about material values). But for whatever amount she spent on that, even if she had brought me a tiny pretty candle I would have been happier, or if she had stuck a piece of sweet or chocolate on the gift, to show some after thoughts, it would have been better. The gift itself would I guess still be disappointing, but it wouldn't hurt - that's not what giving gifts is about! If you can't afford big gifts, consider organizing a gift exchange within your family, group of colleages, or friends. You can buy one good gift and that's it, rather than trying to spread your dough too thinly over everyone. I would suggest having names drawn out before, so the gifts can be personalized, but the names should be kept a secret until the day of exchange.

I love hunting around for bargains and shopping so I could always find lots of goodies that look like they were worth more than the actual price. It does take time and time is a commodity. But I like doing it, and I can also find some bargain stuff for myself on the way. It's up to you what you do.

Wrap it Up!
First impressions are very important, and so it presentation. That's why wrapping also counts. It doesn't have to be very expensive and elaborate, in fact the new refreshing look of the moment is still a back-to-nature and less of the big-bows-and-ribbons wrap. If you are thinking homemade gifts, great wrapping is a great way to add-value and add-heart to the gift. For example, giving a just-mix-together-and-bake recipe and ingredients for brownies seem pretty ordinary. Only she layered the ingredients in a jar like sand art.

A great idea I picked up: use two complimentary colourful thin tissue paper (like earthy orange with a cool rose color, blue and aqua), slide the two sheets so they are not perfectly on top of each other and wrap it straight around the object, do not bother with a box because the lines and shape of the bottle (or whatever the gift) works well to make it interesting. The two sheer sheets of tissue paper creat different variations and shades when they overlap, but the pure color of the underneath layer peaks out from some areas. Tie with those natural frabic strings (what they are called.. rafella? rafetta?). The extra touch, add a sticker to the middle of the gift and label it! If you are handing the gift the very day you are wrapping it and you know the gift receiver is going to open it that day (some people save their christmas gifts for christmas, or boxing day, so this is best with birthday gifts), you can add flower petals between the two layers to make it original, different, refreshing. Downside: use a box if it's going to be obvious what the gift is from the shape, like mugs.

I am a green obsessed person, I know, and I save any wrappings I can reuse again to turn into ribbons, packing material. Contrasting colors work well if you want to experiment as well as complimentary but make sure they go together with gift items. Try blue with white or cream, gold with white or cream for really classy looks. For natural looks use down-toned olive greens, blues, browns as natural dyes are not as bright as synthetic. When people give me ribbons and bows I undo them carefully from the gift and collect these in a big tin, I reuse them whenever gift-time calls. I also love those gift paper bags, they are a great green wrapping idea because they can be reused over and over again. I also use tiny paper bags from designer brands like Aveda when I give out items like aromatherapy, soaps and candles. They do not have to be from these brands, but it is similar enough and they may not know Aveda does not carry a line called DTO. I make sure I do reseal the top and put some tissue paper inside or tie a bow to the paper bag to make it more festive.

Someone had once used fashion design drawings they did as wrapping paper, for a similar gift, and I loved it. Tie with ribbon of the main color on the drawing. If you aren't lucky enough to get your hands on those, try using calendars, or even magazines pages, as wrapping paper. With magazine, you may not get perhaps a beautiful wrapping, but a more funky one. Center the gift on a wierd image, and use thick ink pen or special gold ink pens to write a special catch-phrase next to it. You can even have personalized wrap! The best magazine pages to use are ones that are clear, with not much clutter and preferably large images. If you are giving away edible treats, find a page which is related, like restaurant showing a close-up of a delicious looking ice-cream sundae.

If you want more than the usual ribbons you don't have to go out and buy accessories, go and grab a pine cone from your garden, a spring of fig tree branch, a fresh flower, and insert it in with the ribbon, or cut slits diagonally on the wrapping paper, each following the same diagonal line and parallel to each other, weave the branch or flower stem through the slit and voila! Add a few leaves to make an 'arrangment' on the wrapping, just make sure you seal with some clear tape on the stem to keep it from falling out. And handle this gift with care! Nothing worse than mushed up flowers! If you have strips of tinsel cut it up and they'll turn into little glittery turfs, again, great for decorating. Use a waxy leave as a gift card and write the name of the recipient on it with gold pen.

Also, any christmas cards you receive can be turned in to a very pretty tiny gift box with the christmas card decorations as the top lid of the box. You can save wrapping paper. I do this with corporate business cards and other ones that don't say very much on it and I know I won't keep. These boxes are the perfect size for jewllery, hair accessories and the likes. The cards that will make the prettiest lids are ones with the drawing centered. See the plan diagram below!
add note: a tip I picked up from other websites: after cutting the card into half, use the cover side as a postcard christmas card.

Because I don't buy ready-made gift hampers or gift sets, I usually do need something to pack my gifts in. I use any cardboard box I could get my hands on: tissue boxes, cereal boxes, you name it! Instead of wrapping the gift paper as you usually do, turn the box into a gift box by glueing wrapping paper onto it. Then it makes a reusuable box for the receiver. The trick to this is neat corners. First off, use glue stick, liquid glue wrinkles paper and that's a big no no. Tuck ends underneath the edges rather than trying to cut it to fit exactly. Or use silver or gold tape to seal along the edges, cut-outs of snowflake patterns etc. to hide messy corners.

However, make sure your wrapping does not suggest a very expensive gift when it's not. You don't want to set people up for disappointment - I know, it's awful, I'm really sounding materialistic here but christmas has definitely been commercialised, and your obligatory gifts (to coworkers, your boss) should be graceful. You don't want them to leave people with a feeling of disappointment that overshadows the fact that your gift is a great gift, it's just that they had been expecting more from your elaborate gold and cream wrapping with silk ribbons and bows. Most likely, you won't have this problem if you wrap it at home yourself but just a note for people who love packaging (like me) and love creating great wraps.

Lastly, like the gift itself, remember to keep to some limits of theme. What I mean is, if you have two seperately wrapped gifts to present, do not do one in very natural laid-back and simple style, while doing the other in elaborate ribbons and such. You want to give the impression that both gifts are from the same person, you. If the item you are giving is glass bottle with gold lid, go for the gold and cream style wrapping, not the nature theme.

A Few Good Examples
To end with, I'll give you some good examples for personal gifts:

A high-school teacher: a humourous instructional-styled book entitled "How to Bluff Your Way into Teaching" (there's a whole series of book liked these for doctoring, business managament, to men/women and seduction). It was also extra appropriate because this teacher was a English teacher who loved reading - at least we know she will pick it up! She now proudly display the book on a shelf in her classroom! Don't, however, give it to a primary school teacher who has an inferiority complex about their job and feel that they are under-achieving.

Christmas: a winter-survival kit. A few packets of hot chocolate as stocking buffers, complete with fresh big mashmallows (or coffee or tea, depending on the person's taste. There are tons of exotic flavoured teas you can buy), if you want you can even chuck in mug and spoon. Mittens and wooly hats in their favourite color. Self-heating masks like The Body Shop Warming Mineral mask or Biore's. Some sun-beach-and-surf scents like Smell This Beach Smell (available at BeautyScene website), Roxy by Quiksilver's Hula Scent, to tie them over until summer reappears. Rxy is available in HOng Kong at Roxy shop (2/F, 10 Pak Sha Rd., Causeway Bay, Phone no. 2882-8105). To give you an idea of the price, the Hula Scent gift pack is $480 with surf lotion, hula scent, and surf sude in a giftbox.

Sweet 16 - I'm not sure. A lot of the same goes with the other teen ages, but one advice, try to stay away from teen idols because they come and go so quickly. My friend changed her mind about every 2 months at that age. And in 2 years, when you are older, you would wonder why you ever thought so-and-so was cool. Besides, that person is most likely 'out' by that time.

A Sweet 17 birthday present - the 17 magazine, a sample of some anti-aging skin cream. For parents, uncles and aunts, by this age, it's usually appreciated -unless that person is a real tomboy, then you may want to limit it to one small item to 'get them started'- to get make-up. Unless the kid's real rich, most of us are using drugstore stuff so you can ensemble quite an impressive kit for very little money, especially if you keep your eyes peel for flyers sales. If you want to give something from high-end stores, MAC and Stila are 'hip' brands for teens, I would say just give one lipstick, it will be a treasured item amongst the girl's drugstore collection. Stick to safe colours but try to adjust to that person's taste. Earrings with funky personalized designs are also inexpensive, wrap in a nice xmas card box, it would be just the right size. One final word of caution: be extra sensitive and make sure your gifts do not refer to weight in any way, even teasingly, even if the girl is perfectly slim, at this age girls are insecure, you don't want to be a catalyst for psychological problems!

A Sweet-18 birthday present - an empty tiny bottle of wine or some type of alcohol that they serve on airlines like United and Air Canada, filled with sweet non-alcoholic drinks or my favourite - skincare products like toners, or eye make-up remover. Just make sure it comes with instructions before they happily pop the bottle. This one is great for the type who DON'T drink (since most people who want to drink can get it before they turn 18 anyway). A tiny car toy, complete with a set of keys with a bow tied around the key ring.

A Stress Reliever/ Self-pamerping kit - well these are found ready-made at stores like Origins, L'Occitane, Crabtree... any of the lifestyle brands. You will save money than buying each of the items individually, and the hamper is usually nicely wrapped and boxed. I, however, like to ensemble my own kit, with different brands, and pulling in all my bargain finds. They generally consist of a skincare or bodycare item, candles, and aromatherapy treats. For example bath bombs, bath salts for a relaxing pampering bath, with candles for a romantic feel. I chuck in relaxing jazz CDs, those nature-sound new-age things are too obvious for me. For jazz, if they like the songs they can also play it in car stereo, wherever. If that person likes heavy metal, fine, you may even consider that! Finally, a squeaking rubber ducky, or one made of glass (crystal's too expensive for my budget), or origami.

Some functional gifts are good, and not necessarily unromantic. I love receiving funky lamps (IKEA has some really neat ones), flower vase, pictures to hang on the wall, throw cushions... but take note of what that person has around the house, and whether they care about home decorating. If they already have ample pictures on the wall, or flower vase and other shelf stand decorations, skip it. You'll have to paid extra attention the next time you visit their home, look at it with a critical eye and say what can improve the look of the house, what's missing. Also make sure it ties in with the exisitng decor of the home. But unless you know it's something that person absolutely wants for a gift, stay away from gifts that has anything to do with work and labour. No vacum cleaner kind of thing.

Hopefully we've given you some great ideas to get started. Now the rest is up to you!

Written and compiled by various members of BitterSweet, we wish you a very happy holiday season!