It is a day before christmas

[janitablue]

you have  twenty dollars to buy a gift for your child. You child gave you a Christmas list a month in advance, but things are just not adding up financially. What would you do to make Christmas a very merry Christmas.

[calsmom62]

Itunes gift card. Happy kid. They are quieter with headphones.

[Summerlion1123]

There's a ton of stuff at the dollar store my son would love so I'd get 20 things from there.

[Momforhealth]

Oh yes so true. I once gave a family back to school clothes and jackets for their three kids when they didn't have it. And gave away tons of toys. You can request items too. Freecycle is cool.

Quoting corrinacs:

My son LOVES simple stuff.  I could make a ball out of aluminum foil.  Spend $5 on some matchbox cars, find an old shoebox for a "garage", make cookies with ingredients from home.  Freecycle is awesome, btw.

I have tons of crafting materials on hand, too :).  Oh, we could have so much fun :).

[Momforhealth]

Can relative come over to help?

I worked for hr block a while ago and they let ppl borrow on their tax return as long as you did your taxes with them. Maybe they are doing that still? Not sure.

[WesternNYmom]

I would give each of my kids $10 and take them to the dollar store and let them pick out what they wanted.

[jbfcmom]

I honestly couldn't even imagine myself doing this. No way I would have nothing for them on Christmas Eve. If we were in a hardship and I had no money, I would still be planning way before 12/24. I would have been scouring freecycle and craigslist all month, checking consignment stores, borrowing from my in-laws, sewing/making things...anything I had to do.