Today’s post is from my friend, Amanda White. You might know her as @ohamanda – or the author of Truth in the Tinsel: An Advent Experience for Little Hands. In her former life, Amanda was a Children’s Pastor — overseeing, organizing and developing ministry for kids in nursery through middle school, but now that she is a mom, her “skills” are used up on her kids! Side note, she also happens to be one of my very best blog friends, and I adore her AND her advent book.

If you are looking for a way to help your kiddos get ready for Christmas and stay focused on the reason for the season, I highly recommend Truth in the Tinsel. And if you are looking for a super smart way to make crafty-but-easy Christmas gifts, I highly recommend you read on…

Every Christmas I end up making or buying more gifts than I intended. I’m going to say that’s a positive aspect of my personality (as opposed to the negative idea of “procrastination” or “not planning ahead.” I like giving gifts! I also like making those gifts cute on the outside. I firmly believe gifts without bows are wrong.

But I also know how expensive all these little gifts and cutesy, cute embellishments can be! The perfect sized card? The fun gifts for your neighbor’s kid, your postman and the librarian who takes your late fees every week can all add up!

So, here’s my WFMW tip to the rescue: PRINTABLE CHRISTMAS! There’s a bazillion cute printables online that are actually cute enough to use as gifts, cards and more. Here’s two of my favorite printables and the ways I make ’em even more Christmasy and helpful.

1. Printable Cards & Decor

You know all those fun printable signs you find on Pinterest? I always want to download them and put them in a frame for frugal decor. But getting a frame and actually affixing it to the wall? Probably not gonna happen.

Instead, I use these cute prints for cards! Simply download the print of your choice (seriously, just search “free Christmas print” on Pinterest) go to your printer settings and reduce the size to print these 8×10 prints into tiny card-sized pieces!

Most printer settings will even let you print multiples on a page so you can save ink and paper. I found this cute little chalkboard print and shrunk it to 46% and then printed 4 to a page for a postcard-size to slide into a package I’m sending to a friend.

Then I shrank them down to 30% and got 6 on a page–perfect for a gift tag on a brown paper bag! Or a plate of cookies! Or just any place you wanna add a little personal cuteness.

How much do you love that?!

2. Printable Kids’ Gifts

My daughter has 19 kids in her class. My son has 15. This doesn’t include all the kids in ballet, gymnastics, at church and in our circle of friends. My kids love their friends and always want to buy gifts for each one or (worse) make them!

I never want to squelch their generosity but I certainly don’t want to spend hours making perler bead Christmas trees for weeks on ends nor do I want to buy 40 dollar store items that will break before the kids get home!

A few years ago I discovered the answer to my problem: a printable Christmas I SPY sheet!

I simply printed off enough of these for all the kids in my daughter’s class, rolled them up and sealed with a sticker. How perfect and beyond cheap is that?!

After this amazing find, I went on a search for more easy printable gifts for kids. Here’s some more of my faves…

• jokes (maybe tape to a candy cane?)
• photo booth props (ok, you’d have to do some cutting, but those antlers would make a funny gift!)
• manger scene memory (this is for preschool homeschool but the matching game would be fun to give!)
• mix and match puzzles (and if you laminated these you would be a Christmas hero!)

I bet a simple coloring sheet (with a red and green crayon attached with washi tape?) or a word search and a pencil would be fun, too!

I know how overwhelming All The Things at Christmas can be and I want to do it up right—but without stressing myself or my kids out. This works for me and I hope it helps you have a happy Christmas, too!

(Every time I do a WFMW, I get super nervous that it’s something everyone in the whole world already knows about and they will laugh and roll their eyes at my naiveté. If that’s the case, be nice to me for Mary’s sake…)

Great tip, Amanda! And what she didn’t mention, BY THE WAY? You can ALSO buy printable ornaments to make Truth in the Tinsel even easier (but still meaningful). You probably won’t be surprised to know that this is how we do Truth in the Tinsel at my house!

Printable Christmas definitely works for me, too!

Photo source

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