If small Christmas gifts go in stockings, what do huge Christmas gifts go in?

Huge Christmas gift bags, of course!

I found these these three packs of huge Christmas gift bags on Amazon.
The pack on the right is considerably cheaper than they other two because it contains only two bags, while the other packs contain six.

The first thing I think of when I see these bags is that one or two Christmases ago my middle child saw a HUGE stuffed dog at the store that she fell in love. We managed to creatively smuggle it to the house and get it under the tree on Christmas Eve, to her delight the next morning.

In this case, it worked just fine to just Doggie sitting under the tree. But if we had a gift like that for, say, a niece or a friend's child, one of these bags would have been perfect for it.

Other than huge stuffed animals, what other types of gifts could use a huge bag like this?

* Play Kitchens
* Guitars
* Tennis Rackets or Golf Clubs
* Tricycles
* Baby walkers, Bouncy Chairs, etc

Depending on how likely you are to buy huge gifts for people anytime soon, it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a pack of these handy. Then, when someone needs a huge gift, you're good to go!

See, this is why the Internet is important. Like so many things, it would never have occurred to me either that "Christmas Confetti" exists, or that I need any.

But look how fun! A cheap and colorful way to add some holiday cheer to just about anything.

Add it to a Christmas craft, school project, or homemade Christmas cards.

Put 4-5 pieces into each Christmas card envelopes before you seal them.

Sprinkle some onto the tablecloth at Christmas dinner.

Toss it into the air right before you snap some family photos!

Decorate gift bags and gift tags with them!

Maybe even sprinkle a few around the edge of a platter of Christmas cookies??

I'm sure there are several uses that other people who are more creative than I am can think of.

I think that my favorite of these three is Beistle Holy Night Confetti on the left, because it has so many different colors and because I think you could probably get away with using it for something other than Christmas if you wanted to.

I confess: We have cats.

Three of them, in fact.

Still, both my husband and I grew up with dogs: He had a beloved reddish-blond cocker spaniel named Rusty, and I had a black cocker spaniel named Ebony.

Well, Ebony was really my mother's dog, but I still remember going to the breeder to pick her out before she was even old enough to come home with us, putting cayenne pepper on our furniture so she would stop chewing it, and taking her for many many many walks over the years, so it feels like she was at least partly mine.

Anyway, the point is that even cat owners like us can appreciate a good dog and realize how cute these personalized dog Christmas ornaments are. I think my favorite of the three is the one with the snowman family and the dogs. It would make a great gift!

I love bears.

In fact, I love bears so much that when I was pregnant with my first child, my mother suggested that I name it "Teddy" if it was a boy. (It wasn't, and I didn't.)

Ironically, I bought teddy bears more before I had kids than after. I guess because after I had kids, my need for more bears took a backseat. And, interestingly, my kids were into stuffed dogs and other animals more than they were ever into stuffed bears.

Here are a few Christmas bears I found, all at a pretty good price.

If I had all the money and space in the world, I'd set up a decorative bench in my house that was lined with teddy bears like the first two.

And while I'm imagining having all the money and space in the world, I'd also have a tree with nothing but bear ornaments (like the one on the right.)

I don't know about you, but a HUGE part of December around here is baking (and eating.)

Every year my kids and I have a day where we make a triple batch of sugar cookie dough and decorate Christmas cookies in the shapes of stars, Christmas trees, snowmen, and reindeer. In addition, we always bake some "regular" cookies -- things like snickerdoodles, peanut butter cookies, and brownies.

Within the last year and a half, my middle child has gotten extremely creative in her baking. For example, last December she made Reindeer Cookies out of Nutter Butter cookies, using pretzels for the antlers and M&Ms and icing for the faces.

We donated them to our church's Cookie Sale to raise money for MUST ministries, and they were a total hit.

I'm anticipating her being even more creative this year, and adding cupcakes to our December repertoire would open up all kinds of ideas.

These sets of Wilton baking cups (24 cups each) are less than $3 and come with a decorative pick to stick inside each cupcake after you've decorated it (it's own little cake topper, basically.)




If you're going to be baking Christmas cupcakes this year, here are a couple videos to give you some clever decorating ideas:

Easy Christmas Cupcake Decorating Ideas

Santa Christmas Cupcake