This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Holy Cross chapter.
Gift giving during the holiday season can be stressful. Do you get a gift for that friend you just met? What do you get for your roommate? However, one of the biggest gift-giving struggles college students face is the challenge of purchasing gifts for everyone on their list while not letting their bank accounts hit the red zone. Some of the best remedies for this are DIY gifts that don’t bust your budget and are able to cover everyone on your list this holiday season.
- A great gift for a roommate or good friend is a picture collage! Depending on how much you want to spend, you can get a collage picture frame fairly inexpensively and fill it with pictures that you can print at CVS or Wal-Mart. Another alternative to a store-bought frame is a “homemade” one that can be done using a variety of things. Once you have the pictures, look for a small, inexpensive bulletin board or piece of thicker poster board. Cover the board with fabric or spray paint and add little buttons, ribbons, shells, etc. (along with the pictures) to make a DIY collage type of thing.
- Another gift idea for a friend is a DIY lantern for a dorm room. Using mason jars or empty wine bottles, you can make cool lanterns that add awesome lighting in a room. To add the light, you can either get small faux tea lights (battery-operated usually) or battery operated light strands. The light strands look especially awesome coiled up inside the jar/bottle (add a bow or some string to give it some color or sparkle).
- Another option that is fairly easy to do is making a vase. If you spray paint the bottle/jar and then use puff paint to add a cool design over it, it can look really cool and can add some color to a dorm room! They also have some pretty faux flowers at Michael’s that would look awesome in the vase.
- A really easy (and relatively effortless) gift are boxes or containers of cookies, chocolates, or other little candies (they can be homemade or store-bought). This is a pretty safe bet when it comes to gift giving. Once you have all the goodies, decorate a cookie tin or box and fill it with all the treats. They also have cool Chinese take-out type of containers at the Dollar Store – or something similar. These are awesome because they look cool and are easy to fill and package.
- A final idea for a good friend is a box full of little fun things that are relevant to your friendship (a little cheesy, I know). Maybe she loves fuzzy socks, English breakfast tea, or your Mom’s chocolate chip cookies. Gather some of this stuff together and put it in a fun package to give to her. It may not be filled with the most expensive or lavish things, but she will undoubtedly appreciate the thoughtfulness of all the stuff in the package – and it won’t bust your budget.