I always gave my family presents at Christmas. But, early in my marriage, I made a box of tiny items, read cheap items, that I had gotten all year long. Usually, there were a dozen items in the box. I often found reduced items that looked useful and bought four--one for me, one for my mother, and one for both my two sisters.
A coffee scoop was reduced to ten cents. It went into the box. I cannot remember anything else, but I still had the scoop up until last year. I never used it for coffee, but other things need to be scooped. I put it in the homemade hot chocolate mix.
None of the items were worthy of being called a gift on their own and certainly not wrapped. The first year, I would not allow the recipients to open that gift first lest they be stunned and insulted.
One year, my sister said the "junk box," what I called the gift, was the best gift of all. That was a shock since she got good things from me! She explained it was fun.
My father and two brothers were not recipients of this gift because everything in the junk box was girly stuff or homemaking type items (like the scoop).
This is a strange gift, sort of an auxiliary gift. I know this tradition has not reached the nation. It would have been too much for a stocking. AND, I was transporting this to my mother's house.
Do you have a tradition or practice that might be looked upon as strange or new?
