Holiday Shopping for Friends and Co-workers

When it comes to holiday shopping, I start by buying for family and then go on to friends and co-workers. My shopping plan means that I am usually grasping at the final hour for caring gift ideas for people I see every day. But if I have a few things in mind, I can be grabbing gift bag items while I am out crossing off names on my family list.

My gifts are by no means entirely original. I see ideas that I like in catalogs or online and then I duplicate or twist them according to my budget and availability of items. I rely heavily on gift bags, tissue paper and gift cards. I can go to Blockbuster and buy a moviegoer's tub of popcorn and candy for one friend or make five of my own for less money and more friends.

Other Gift Bag Ideas

1. Winter Survival Package. Co-workers can keep these in their desks. Collect small bottles of good-quality hand lotion and hand sanitizer, Chap Stick, small packages of tissues and lozenges. Add a personal touch like a small ornament to tie the bag together.

2. Holiday Travel Package. This includes a car coffee/tea mug (if the person does not already have one); 2-ounce gourmet coffee packet or special tea bags; a CD of favorite music; and chocolate or other tasty treats.

3. The Weather Outside is Frightful. This gift bag needs to be filled up with hot drinks and foods for staying warm by the fire. Include cocoa packets, a small bottle of Irish Cream or other liqueur, a soup mix (dried beans and spices prepackaged) and a deck of playing cards or some other game.

Homemade Food

In our increasingly global culture, my last-minute holiday shopping may need to become less spontaneous. Where in the past I thought nothing of boxing up some cookies baked the night before and handing them out the next day at work, now due to the more stringent dietary needs of co-workers and friends I need to consider the ingredients going into those cookies. Otherwise, my friends might be dumping my gift into the trash.

In the past these are items I have given as gifts.

1. Any kind of cookie, including snicker doodles, chocolate chip, peanut butter, peanut butter blossoms, macaroons or an assortment of two or three different kinds.

2. Caramel corn. Pop the corn, make your caramel mix and pour it over the popcorn, then bake it. Yum!

3. Spiced nuts. I usually spice up pecans or walnuts. Find a recipe that suits your taste buds and go for it. It is really easy to do.

But since my kitchen is not kosher and some of my ingredients may not be either, I have recently looked into buying what I cannot make. Kosher foods are actually much more readily available than I thought they would be. Lots of food companies have gone kosher because it increases their food sales by broadening their consumer market. In addition, kosher certification on a product shows that rigid standards of cleanliness have been observed as well as other things pertaining to the law of the Torah; therefore, kosher products appeal even to non-Jewish consumers for health reasons.

Wine is another usual last-minute gift for which there are also kosher standards. A little quick research in advance can help me be sure that the wine I buy will not get poured down the drain or passed off to a neighbor.

Gifts to friends and co-workers are a way to show appreciation for their assistance and love throughout the year. Gift giving can stay simple without being inconsiderate or disrespectful of others' beliefs or dietary habits. Last-minute shopping and wrapping is not necessarily thoughtless, just busy.

Written by H. Ann Myers

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• Tags: last minute gift ideas, kosher gift giving, gift ideas, holiday shopping.