1. Gift friends a home made dinner - buy 6 red envelopes and write on a sheet of paper An invitation to a specially prepared home made dinner in honor of my special friends to celebrate the festive season together! Put a time and date on it for about 2 weeks after Christmas and send off with your Christmas cards.

2. Christmas family fun activity - ask everyone in the family to write on a small piece of paper something they would like to do together that preferably does not cost money. Fold each piece of paper up and place it into a hat. Suggestions might be: play cricket at the beach, go on a bush walk, play monopoly, drive to a country town for a picnic. Now take it in turns from the oldest to the youngest and write down in that order each suggestion and then each week after Christmas choose one day per week to do each activity together.

3. Bake home made cookies - get together as a family and have everyone take it in turns to partake in the making eg. each family member takes it in turns to stir the mixture one full circle then passes onto the next person. Once made place on a favorite plate and cover with cellophane and add a ribbon and keep for visitors who call in at Christmas.

4. Gift an afternoon tea - type up a flyer for all the neighbors in your street to come for a Christmas afternoon tea.

5. Santa Sack - Buy some red and green felt material and cut up in to oblong pieces of the same size. Place one red and one green together and hand sew the outer edges or glue them leaving a space so you can fold down the top. Use a marker pen and writer each family members name on a sack. Cut a small hole and thread a piece of red or green ribbon through the top and hang each one on each family members door.

6. Home made gift box - after you take down your Christmas cards, buy a medium sized box from the $2 shop for each family member. Cut the front of the used cards up into small squares and place in a bag or hat. Mix them all together then take out one piece at a time and glue it onto the box until all sides are covered. It will look very colorful and personal top place gifts in for next Christmas. The next tip is something you can put into it.

7. Write your own blessings - cut an A4 sheet of paper into strips about half an inch wide. On each strip write a verse for happiness, forgiveness, prosperity, love, joy and abundance. Then take a twig and roll each strip around a small twig. Use sticky tape to secure the first end of the strip to the twig. Do this for each virtue and place them all into a box that each person will take one from at Christmas Eve!