Easy Holiday Shortcuts

Amazon electronic gift certificates! For those nieces and nephews for whom you have no clue what to get.....get them electronic gift certificates from Amazon...or iTunes for that matter.

And it's wonderful for last minute....because they get the gift in their email...so voila: instant, "on-time arrival!

1) Use the wonderful "flat rate" boxes available at the post office (postage is $8.10) for two different size boxes. Make sure you get the boxes with the with the bright red "flat rate box" seal on them. This is Priority Mail, so the items usually arrive in two days, and this year my in-laws will get a box carrying a container of syrup, a can of cocoa mix, a set of table linens and a gingerbgread mix...all in one box.

2) In lieu of traditional gifts, make contributions to your favorite charity, ideally one with an efficient website that welcomes online gift-giving. In one visit, you can take care of several recipients.

We have this hilarious tradition with a few of our closest friends: A post xmas regifting dinner.

We don't even bother trying to see them before the holidays and we never have to worry about buying each other a gift because the rule is: only regifts. We usually give one good gift (maybe an extra food basket that we don't want to eat) and one that's hideous (paisley dish towels with pink fringe, for instance -- and yes, this item unfortunately exists).

And over the years, we've swapped this Jesus action figure a few times...

Does anyone else still buy something for the mail carrier? I've given up tipping federal employees. In fact, I don't don't know WHO to buy gift cards for anymore.

Please post a list (all of you) of the non-friends&family people you gift at Xmas.

Are you ready? Postal carrier, fedex guy, UPS guy, grade school teacher, daycare provider, swim teacher, religious education teacher, newspaper delivery guy, haircolorist, and then I always buy a few extra $10 Starbucks cards because I invariably forget someone.

Mind you, I don't gift out of "must-do" but rather because I want to...I work from home, so the mail/UPS/fedex folks are practically my best friends (and they never require my signature, even when it's called for). The teachers all care for my kids and I cannot value them enough. And the haircolorist? Let's just say that she keeps my secrets...

I've got a totally different take on the shortcut idea, it's a way to have some fun and make shortcuts for everyone else. AND its only suitable for those of us without kids, because anyone raising kids would call this absolutely nuts.

But for those of us without kids at home, who want a little of that joy of Christmas that kids are so good at, here's my solution.

Every year I pick a Saturday in early December, and let all my friends who are parents of kids 3- 4 through about 15 yo know that cookie day is happening at Aunt Janet's again. I bake ahead the structure for gingerbread houses, or, if in a big rush, buy the kits. I also bake a bunch of plain sugar cookies, and have the makings of more dough and all the icing and colors and sparkles and candy on hand.

All my friends drop their kids at my house to bake cookies, decorate cookies, build gingerbread houses, and sometimes even make decorations and string garland. If they get bored, I have some videos ready to pop in the machine.

In the early years I'd have 4 or 5 kids, some years it's gotten up to 15 (I hire a babysitter or two to help me manage), and now that my friends kids are getting older, the kids who came when younger sometimes come to help supervise.

I get a crazy chaotic, messy and very high energy fun day to get the kid thing out of my system, and my friends get the gift of a day in December with no kids, to shop, to wrap, or just go out to lunch together. I generally last 10 till 4, and when the last child is picked up, I collapse in a heap for the rest of the day.

It takes me half of Sunday to get the dried icing out of the rug and the glitter off the cat, but I smile all through it from the great memories.

Call me crazy, but for me, its a highlight of the holiday season

Can I come?