Holiday Custom Gift Ideas for Christmas

With the holiday season just around the corner, you start racking your brains to think of the right gifts to buy for your family and friends. You want people to appreciate the thought that goes into choosing the gift? Try custom holiday gifts.

You know your dad loves books and you can never go wrong if you choose the topper on the New York Times bestseller list. The Amazon Kindle may be good choice of custom holiday gifts for him this year. The Kindle is an electronic handheld reading device that you use to read a book and store books like a library for future reading. How about buying an Amazon Kindle for your dad this year and ordering his must-read book through Kindle?

Perfumes, bath and spa products, gift baskets with gourmet food and chocolates, you have given them all to your spouse or your mom and now you are looking for something different. Why not make a custom gift basket of your own? Collect her favorite scented bubble bath and perfume, add a bottle of wine and lovely candles, an iPod loaded with her favorite music or the latest book by a favorite author and a gift voucher at a spa to pamper herself.

Looking for a gift for a child who is too young to take care of pets or has a parent with an allergy? Stuffed toys don't excite you? How about an alive pet from the Discovery store? It responds to touch and falls into sleep if left alone for five minutes. Customize the gift by adding a monogrammed toy bag adding the child's favorite fruit and cookies to the basket. Creative craft supplies and building blocks, music CDs and DVDs of favorite films are easy to customize holiday gifts for children, based on their individual talents, tastes and preferences.

Custom holiday gifts make a lasting impact at Christmas because the receiver understands and appreciates the thought, the time and the effort that you have invested to ensure that your recipient is pleased with the gift.

20 Places in America to Take Your Kids Before They Grow Up

We're lucky to live in a country with a huge variety of natural and made-made wonders to see. There's nothing like seeing these things for the first time, but a very close second best is seeing them with a child. Here is our list of places you should plan to see with your child before they grow up:

Natural wonders

• The Grand Canyon, Arizona - one of the natural wonders of the world. The first site will take your breath away.
• Niagara Falls, New York - kids will be amazed by the 6 million cubic feet of water that go over the falls EVERY minute. Make sure to take the Maid of the Mist boat ride to get the full effect of the falls.
• Glacier Bay, Alaska - quick before the glacier melts away.
• Yosemite National Park - photographed endlessly by Weston and Adams, this is the most rugged of all American parks.

Man made wonders

• Mount Rushmore - so oozing in patriotic fervor, it looks like it would have had to have been created in Hollywood, if it hadn't been built by 400 men over 14 years.
• The Golden Gate Bridge - spans the beautiful San Francisco Bay and is one of the most beautiful bridges in the world.
• Hoover Dam - big big BIG

Historic Civil War battlefields

• Gettysburg - the bloodiest battle of the war, and where Lincoln made his most famous speech.
• Appomattox - where Lee surrendered to Grant to end the Civil War.
• Vicksburg - One of the most famous battles, this one to gain control of the Mississippi.

Deserts

• Badlands National Park South Dakota - like a lunar landscape, run over by prairie dogs.
• Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, Nevada - just outside Vegas, and one of the most beautiful red sunsets anywhere.
• Painted Desert, Arizona - home of the petrified forest.
• Death Valley, California - 280 feet below sea level, unworldly, and perfect for watching the stars.

Cities

• New York - perhaps the greatest city on earth. Your kids won't believe it. Make sure to see the Statue of Liberty up close.
• Boston - history abounds, like a book come to life.
• San Francisco - a one-of-a-kind wonder, perhaps the most beautiful city for natural beauty in the world.
• Washington DC - center of American democracy, and the ultimate civics lesson.
• Chicago - the greatest mid-Western city at the soul of America itself.
• Savannah Georgia - historic old South, renowned for its architecture.
• Charleston, S. Carolina - last remaining remnants of the old South before it Sherman burned it down.

Great beaches

• Cannon Beach, Oregon - one of the most untouched beaches in the U.S.
• Poipu Beach, Hawaii - kid-friendly, with ample opportunities for shallow snorkeling for children.
• Ocracoke LIfeguard Beach, North Carolina - so private that "banker ponies" still wander freely.

A holiday vacation provides families with an excellent opportunity for bonding. Find unique holiday gifts ideas for dads, kids and moms.

Top Tips for Cheap Holiday Gifts This Year

We may or may not be in a recession, but every year things get tight in January if we're not careful in December. Here are some tips for more careful spending through the holidays.

1. Plan early. Make a list, figure out a budget and stick to it. You can save money, not necessarily just by buying cheap holiday gifts, but by taking advantage of early-bird sales and avoiding last-minute shipping premiums.

2. Bake your own. There are literally thousand of things you and your kids can bake that are often better than store-bought items, especially when it comes to baked goods and candy.

3. Make your own. FamilyFun.com has lots of kid-friendly crafts projects for holiday gifts. We especially like the House Keys holder (http://familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts/season/feature/famf117gift/famf117gift2.html) It's simple ideas like these that can really make both kid-giver and recipient beam.

4. Have family make a gift list. There's nothing that wastes money faster than buying useless items you find in the check-out aisle just so you have a present on Christmas. Everyone would rather get something they really want, even if it's not a surprise, than an item they have to return, or worse, throw away a few weeks after the holiday.

5. Recycle. Wrappings and ribbons costs add up. 2008 will be the year that reusing wrapping paper doesn't look stingy, but smart and energy-conscious.

Even with cost-cutting, there's no reason to eliminate holiday giving entirely but there are simple ways to make it cheaper this year.