HERE ARE A FEW SUGGESTIONS FOR GIFTS UNDER $50

1. One of the best . . . . is making cookies, shortbread, Christmas cake, scones, preserves, etc., putting them into Christmas tins and wrapping them up in a basket with Christmas clear wrap - nice ribbon on top - people love these kinds of gifts because they are home-made, they can be used for entertaining and, wow! they're so good!!! So if you can bake, this is certainly the time to rev up the oven and make your friends smile!

2. Candles - candles are always welcomed especially at Christmas time when we use so many more candles than usual. Make them special - there are wonderful candles in gold, red and green - make some sets - and certainly the bees wax candles are always wonderful! You can find such a variety of wonderful candles but make sure not to go on the cheap here - really good candles cost extra because they burn longer, they don't drip and have a wonderful flame!

3. Puzzles & Games - every year the toy stores get new types of puzzles which can be enjoyed by a group all year round - new monolopy games, computer games, mind games - all kinds!

4. Kitchen Gadgets - for the cooks who always love a new gadget, Christmas is a good time to find one. Go to a great cooking store or a department store and you'll find some really fun things which cooks would appreciate such as the new silicone oven mitts - some pretty ones now with great colors and patterns and silicone paddles.

5. Chocolate - dark, luscious chocolate! An interesting item I found was a Bodum chocolateire - you put in warm milk, chocolate chips, pump the whisk a few times and you get creamy, frothy cocoa. Everyone loves hot chololate! And certainly it's a gift that'll be used for a long time to come.

6. Centerpieces or plants - many florists at this time of the year make some very special table centerpieces or pots of wonderful plants for the season. With the plants, you can add a wonderful painted clay pot and that really makes it special!

7. Socks - not just any socks! But whimsical, fun socks in all kinds of lengths but especially the ones which reach to the knee - they can be fun and warm too! This time of the year, you can find all kinds of patterns - buy them two or three pairs for the fun of it!

8. Jewelry or a great watch - beautiful, shiny jewelry - this is the time of the year to make a jewelry gift very special! It doesn't have to be real gold or gem jewelry but there are great costume jewelry makers such as Carolee, Perry Ellis, Anne Klein, and so many others - great department stores have a wonderful selection.

9. Monogrammed anything - Monogrammed towels, sweaters, hats, fluffy bath gowns, pillow shams, glasses, cups, napkins, silver jewelry boxes - you name it and it's wonderful! A cousin gave us a pair of monogrammed towels for our boat one year - it was great! It's very special to have something that has been monogrammed. It's very easy to find places who do this for you nowadays.

10. Journals & Books - very special ones such as the ones created by PaperBlanks - they are absolutely fabulous - the luxury of these journals are tremendous and it feels fantastic to use them all year round. Don't get people calendars or date books - people usually already have one or they like to pick their own. But journals are a very special gift. You can also add a good book especially if you know what the recipient loves.

11. Something memorable - if you love taking pictures, then create wonderful albums with great covers such as silver plated or matted pictures and in the album include all kinds of pictures you have taken of the people you are giving the gifts to with captions under the pictures. It's a fun thing to do and much appreciated! Quite a keepsake! You could also create a CD or a web page but it's always more special to receive an album, personalized and pretty which can be displayed on their bookshelf or coffee table - great memories!

12. Foods from around the world - if your family lineage is English, Italian, Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese, Belgian, Russian, etc., you know the special foods of your culture. Share them with others of different cultures. For example when you are going to a Christmas party or a dinner or exchanging gifts at work, create a basket with old-family treasured and loved recipes - especially if they are hand written - along with the dry ingredients necessary to create the dishes - herbs, spices, hard-to-find items, or unique items to your cultur - authentic ingredients. People will love to cook the recipes knowing they are preparing something that is tried and true, and they'll have the right ingredients on hand. For instance, if it's a French recipe and it calls for capers, dijon, bouquet garni and tarragon then buy a jar of capers, a jar of dijon, bouquet garni and tarragon from a places who specialize in really great herbs and spices. You get the idea - it's fun, interesting and if you include 6 recipes with ingredients, it'll be fun or if you create a 4 course dinner menu and have all the non-fresh ingredients in the basket, it'll be really special! You could add a special cheese or another type of food to the basket too -

So there you have it - some novel, some not so novel gift ideas but I hope they help you with your Christmas gift giving!

For all of you reading this article, add your ideas to this list  - your own special gift ideas - make it clean . . . there's so much out there - you may have found some very interesting, fun or different things that you'd like to let other people know about - let's see how long this list can get -