_ November 30, 1994 Cheap Gift .» - Containers and Wrap You can really spruce up a cheap gift by being creative with the wrapping. Crea- tiveness makes the wrapping much more than a covering. Cheese Wheel Boxes - ask at your local deli if they receive cheese in these boxes and if they are available to the public. Often you can get them for cheap or free. Baskets - ask your mom or grandmother if they have any baskets you can use. Chances are they have several from bouquets or previous gifts that they have received. Note: only ask if the gift basket is not for that same person. Kiddie Wrap - the Sunday comics. Free and reusing is earth friendly, as with most of these ideas. Wallpaper - wallpaper stores often sell odd rolls of discontinued or left over stock for cheap. You may pay the same or more for the roll as wrap, but the wallpaper has about 10x more on the roll. It’s durable, comes in funky designs and is reusable. Popcorn - use popcorn instead of tissue or styrofoam to pack your gift in. This is especially good if you give movie tickets or something of that nature. Pasta - for your starving student friends, try packaging their gifts in dry pasta. Cooked pasta is kind of messy. - The Other Press Yet more alternatives Just to make life a little more interesting... Two methods of gift giving for groups of people. The classic name in a hat and the money pool. With the name in the hat method everyone in the group writes their name on a slip of paper, tosses it into a hat (hence the title) and selects one. The name chosen is the one person that is to be shopped for. This way everyone receives something but no one is putting out a great deal of time or energy to shop for lots of people. It is always a good idea to put a price limit on the gifts. A variation of this is to have a theme like hand-made items or only food gifts. The money pool is a donation based idea that is good for the community. Based on the theory that in general we have to many material things and too much money is wasted on things that get put on a shelf or hidden in a closet, the idea of pooling our money and going shopping for a charity was developed. With a group of friends, agree on an amount that is comfortable for everyone and plan what you want to buy. Maybe you want to help out the food bank or one specific family. There is always the Toy Bank and the Share Christmas Tree, plus many other groups that need the donations more than you do. - And on a final note, try saving all that used ribbon, foam chips, etc. and giving it to a local preschool for the little monsters, I mean kids, to create with. 11 giving Noliday (aha chrishtoas) On a shoestuug Have a great non-religiously associated commercial gift-giving holiday!