With less than a month until Christmas, it is safe to assume that broke college students are starting to wonder how they are going to buy presents for their friends and family this year.
Luckily, there are a few cheap, yet thoughtful gift ideas available, and a few places around campus that have affordable holiday gifts.
After rummaging under couch pillows and car seats for extra change, one place to visit for affordable gifts is the Dollar General store located at 1398 N. High St. Even those with the most limited amount of money can find something there.
“We have all kinds of candle arrangements and beautiful bathroom sets that are really reasonable,” said Debbie Sample, the store manager at the Dollar General.
Sample said that there are great holiday gifts ranging from $1 to $10 in price. Other items she mentioned are jewelry boxes, clocks, crystal bowls and a four piece tea lamp set. So if a student manages to find at least one dollar’s worth of change under those pillows and car seats, the Dollar General could be a good place to find bargain holiday gifts.
Let’s face it — nobody likes receiving those hand made coupon books for free massages and IOU’s for Christmas, let alone any other occasion. For those students who are truly broke and can’t even splurge a dollar, spending the time to create a photo collage or a meaningful piece of artwork is a much better idea than giving a booklet of empty promises.
Also, instead of spending money to buy a bunch of Christmas cards, go to www.hallmark.com and send a free card via e-mail.
Another place that has great holiday gifts is Kinko’s Copies. Kinko’s is probably the best place to find affordable, personalized gifts. Ranging in price from $4.95 to $24.99, Kinko’s can take personal photographs and turn them into Christmas tree ornaments, calendars and mouse pads.
Chris Nollan, the assistant manager at Kinko’s in Dublin, said there are many different kinds of calendars. The most popular kind is the Deluxe, which has a different photograph or photo-collage for each month and one for the cover. He also said mouse pads were very popular last year.
“A lot of people like the mouse pads the best because you see them every time you use your computer, so people will see the photograph more,” he said.
Conveniently for OSU students, there is a Kinko’s located at 18 E. 15th Street. Kinko’s is having a special sale Friday where these items are 30 percent off.
The Grip Wrench, a great gift for Dad this Christmas, costs less than $20.
That and many other infomercial products can be found on the Web site www.asseenontv.com which has some great gifts ranging in price from $5 to $100. Some of the best gifts such as the Handy Stitch hand held sewing machine, the Ginsu Vegetable Knife and Chopper, the FoneFree Hands Free Speakerphone, the Bumper Repair Kit and the Bacon Wave are all under $20. There is a gift for everyone on your list at this Web site, and all the gifts are returnable.
For those crafty gift-givers there are many affordable things to make. One popular gift is a sand art cookie jar. To make this get an empty glass jar and fill it with the ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies in layers. For example, put the flower in first, the brown sugar next, follow with the granulated sugar and top it off with chocolate chips. Seal the jar and put a bow on top with a card that says just add eggs and butter and mix. Another idea is to take a candle and personalize it by painting it yourself.
Hopefully, some of these ideas will help out. Remember, there are only four weeks until Christmas, and some of these gifts may take time to order, so go and get started.
