Community› The Bump Message Boards› Pre-School and Daycare
Pre-School and Daycare
New Discussion

ISO creative ways to send check as gift...

groovygrlgroovygrl member
in Pre-School and Daycare

So my nieces and nephews have mostly gotten to the age where sending them bday gifts is really hard, always a gift card and even that has gotten to be a pain bc how many iTunes cards does one kid need....some have Xmas time bdays too and thei moms tell me they are  overloaded w random gift cards (not to mention as they age their tastes are more expensive so my gift card may require another one or some money to get what they want). So I have started sending money. I thought to try to make it more fun I would try creative packaging, like that whole thing where you can send anything under 13 oz as long as a stamp sticks to it...

need creative ideas of things to use that I could stick a check in, without the check being visible...I have though of filling an empty water bottle w candy and wedging it in there and also using the large theater size candy boxes and hiding the checking in it but wasn't sure if I would be gross to have opened the package or have handled the candy to pour into the bottle (not that I would be touching it but you know what I mean...). I can't think of any candy that has an extra plastic bag inside after you open the box??

 

Any fun ideas that are not much $?

thx! 

Report Reply to Post

Re: ISO creative ways to send check as gift...

  • LoveEeyoreLoveEeyore member
    I've been racking my brain on this and got nothing. I tend to be cheesy and would likely do something like get a $5 giftcard from Starbucks, then fold the check up and stuff it in there or get a pair of ugly socks from the dollar store and tuck it in there. Without being catty, the mom's complaint that they are overloaded with gift cards would rub me the wrong way. Why doesn't she get them to use them so they can write their thank you notes??? (Such a huge button for me). We email amazon.com gift cards to the nieces and nephews on their birthdays. For Christmas we "adopt" an endangered animal in their names from the World Wildlife Fund. They send a cute stuffed animal and I think a certificate of adoption with info about the species.
    Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
    Report Reply
  • Loading the player...
  • groovygrlgroovygrl member

    LOL...thanks for trying to come up w/ ideas :).

    Just to clarify on the gift card comment, it was solicited- it was more like, after xmas I ask for bday ideas and is there somewhere so & so would like a gift card to and basically was told that they had a lot of them still left from xmas. I don't really blame them, I think that after like age 10 kids are just really hard to shop for.  Unfortunately getting ideas for the kids from 2 of his siblings is like pulling teeth and the others I sometimes get ideas sometimes not and frankly I'm just over trying to find & order & ship etc gifts (we don't live nearby) so sending money is easiest.  (If it were up to me we would stop the gift giving but his siblings won't go for it, even at xmas they won't do a grab bag or anything)

    As for thank you notes- that is a good one... Can't remember the last time we received one aside from an email or text from the parent, and that is only from certain siblings and some of the time... I have to find creative ways to find out if some of the kids even received the gifts when I don't hear anything on it a month later... and then MH will ask the sibling and they'll say- "I thought she sent you a thank you note? She told me she did..." so I don't know who is lying to whom but I'm not about getting involved in that (these are not my siblings). 

    SO you wonder, why am I putting effort into sending things in a  fun way when I barely get any response when I send them? Hehe. I have no idea but probably b/c it isn't my own family & I have in-law insecurity?  Also b/c I send all their gifts way late, like months late sometimes b/c there are 10 of them & I just can't keep track of the birthdays then throw in communions, confirmations and my own kids' stuff and it all just gets lost in the shuffle. I feel bad & since we never see them except like 1 day a year I thought sending a check in a more fun way might be a good way to connect or make the gift less boring b/c finding things like a box of candy, a frisbee or a ball in the mailbox seems really fun & unexpected, but there is not a good way to get a check in them! LOL.

    (also just to be clear, my question is about sending those actual items in the mail, not like in a box or an envelope, along these lines:  https://pinterest.com/imamberlee/13-ounces-or-less-happy-mail/ )

     

    Report Reply
  • LoveEeyoreLoveEeyore member

    LOL. No judgment.  I do the same for all our nieces and nephews.  I average 1 thank you a year for 12 bdays/xmas gifts.  As a kid, TY letters weren't optional, when I went to college I continued, and some great-great- aunt I hadn't seen or spoken to heard I got into my PhD program and she sent me a ridiculous amount of money. That thank you resulted in a relationship that after my first child was born evolved to email so she could see pics of her... anyway, my littlest is named for her.  We became very close and she shared with me a bit about a pocket of my family I didn't know... anyway, amazing woman.  I hope when my nieces and nephews are grown and over the -ME!- phase, they'll be interested in maintaining a family connection.  Who knows.  That's why I do it. 

    Good luck- I know those preteen and teen years are a bear to please!

    Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
    Report Reply
  • 74dragonfly74dragonfly member
    Honestly I would just send the check. I wouldn't spend time thinking about it. The only idea I had was ask if the kids had Amazon wish lists you could buy from.




    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
    Report Reply
This discussion has been closed.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards
"
"