Walnut-Sized Gifts of Awesomeness?

November 11, 2009 6:21 PM

I absolutely LOVE the idea of the walnut advent calendar that was mentioned here. Help me figure out what to put in them!

Money is tight, and I've been looking around for various homemade gift ideas. There are some awesome threads, but what really jumped out at me was the idea of a walnut advent calendar. I've even managed to find a couple neat tutorials on putting one together.

Now my question is.. what should I put in them?? Most threads on fun gift ideas are either too expensive or (more often) just too large to fit in a walnut.

I'd love ideas covering all sorts of gifts.. if I can do different walnut advents for a couple different family members, that would be awesome!

posted by Kattiara17 to grab bag (7 comments total)

Personalized fortunes? (like in the cookies, not like $$$) Locket-sized pictures of loved ones and places visited during the past year? Candy? Coins?

If any of your family is into jewelry, it would be neat to put pretty beads into 24 of the walnuts and a chain or cord in the 25th so they could make string their own necklace or bracelet.
posted by jamaro at 6:42 PM on November 11

Learn how to fold tiny origami animals.
posted by sickinthehead at 6:47 PM on November 11

This tiny gifts thread from four years ago was one I was trying to find for a similar advent calendar question a few days ago. It doesn't have cheapness in mind but there are some good ideas there.
posted by jessamyn at 6:51 PM on November 11

i would go to the bead store. They have really cute little tiny pendants, charm, etc. They could be sewn on as a god luck charm or maybe made into a zipper pull.
you could fold up paper money super duper tiny, too.
actually looking around at bead store web sites. You could fill all them with amazing things from there. .. teeny initial charms, pretty crystal beads, snowflakes.
Wow- what a dope I am. Just read Jamaro's post. I thought I was so slick.
posted by beccaj at 6:58 PM on November 11

You know those 50 cent gumball machines that dispense little toys in round plastic balls? They range from silly to cool to ludicrous to who the heck would want that!? Anyway, you could get a bunch of those little containers.

Otherwise: small toys like superballs, jacks, finger frights and finger puppets, little jars of playdough (you can get these in the party favor section of stores - you'll also be able to find little slinkies and noisemakers and more there) in general.

Little bags of things: quarters, beads, brightly colored paperclips, mini crayons, marbles, birdseed,

Vintage ornaments (hit yard sales for these), nativity figures (if you are religious; of course by Day 20, you might be adding elephants and aliens!).

Little crossword puzzles you can customize with several programs out there - I'm making some custom ones for the family this year, trying to get everyone's name into the grid.
posted by julen at 7:56 PM on November 11

I think little edible treats that could fit inside the shells would be nice, especially if you personalize it to include the recipient's favorites (maybe peppermints, chocolates, caramels, etc.). Also, here's a page with more ideas for what to put inside walnut shell advent calendars. I liked the idea to put a poem in a walnut. Also, the coupon ideas could be interesting depending on what you want to offer.
posted by PY at 9:38 PM on November 11

Milagros might work. Often you can buy a bag of milagros for a very reasonable price on eBay, so that the cost for each works out to 25-50 cents or so.
posted by Deathalicious at 9:52 AM on November 12