February 14^th is traditionally the most romantic day of the year – yet if you have small children and no baby sitter or if you haven’t got a “Valentine” you might feel left out.Why not take up the chance of a celebration with the people you love instead?

You could invite a few close friends, or have a Valentine’s tea with kids. From activities to games and party decorations we’ve put together some Valentine’s Day ideas for a fun filled day.

Valentine’s Party Decorations

A few simple decorations are sure to put everyone in a cheerful mood! Fill a few Valentine’s party balloons with air or helium to decorate your house. Illoom balloons glow in the dark and will create a unique party atmosphere.

Spruce up your table with red confetti and tea lights.

Valentine’s Day activities

Sealed with a kiss

If you have children they might enjoy making cards in the run-up to February 14th, so get a few craft supplies and let their imaginations run wild! They can send them anonymously to classmates or friends.

(Not so) romantic poetry

Children could also try their hand at poetry. Why not let them complete the last two lines of “Roses are Red, Violets are Blue…” and transform this old love poem with any original or funny ideas! Try these two examples to get the giggles started and creative juices flowing:

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Onions stink
And so do you

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Cashews are nuts
And so are you

Home baked treats and party food

Why not bake some love themed treats and share them with friends and relatives? For tasty home-make treats, check out our Valentine’s Day recipes. They will make great party foods, or a thoughtful gift for your partner. Our Jammie Dodgers Recipe, Valentine’s Chocolate Hearts Biscuit Recipe or Tasty Chocolate Truffles Recipe are all easy to make so kids can help you too.

If you’re having a party, you could cut your sandwiches in heart shapes with a large cookie cutter and have plenty of pink and red foods (cherry tomatoes, pizza, strawberries and so on…).

Valentine’s Day Games

With a little imagination it is easy to give traditional party games a Valentine twist. You could play musical statues or musical bumps to love songs or make a pass the parcel package with heart shaped sweets or chocolates. Here are a few more hearty games:

Heart hunt
Hide chocolate hearts, small packs of love hearts or chocolate coins around the house or garden.

Guessing games
A simple variation to a traditional guessing game! Simply fill a jar with heart shaped sweets and have guests guess how many hearts are in the jar. The person who comes the closest without going over wins the jar of candy.

Broken hearts game
Cut large hearts out of red card. Making sure each heart is unique, cut the hearts in half, making a zig zag or jagged edge. Give each party guest one heart piece and tell them to find their match by finding the other half.

Movie date

If there are just the two of you, why not stay in and have an intimate movie date. Snuggle up together with a romantic film and a pack of popcorn. If you have kids why not pop on one of Disney’s classic love stories like The Little Mermaid or The Lady and the Tramp?

More Valentine’s Day ideas…

For more Valentine’s Day ideas, read the following articles:

Surviving Valentine’s Day – Whatever your situation – single, in a new or long term relationship, this article will give you tips and advice on how to make Valentine’s Day a success.

Top 10 Valentine’s Gifts – Whether you’re experiencing the first flush of love or enjoying the adoration of your soul mate, we have put together its top ten gift guide for Valentine’s Day. From the ultimate Valentine’s Day gift – a diamond engagement ring – to a romantic walk in the country, there are ideas to inspire you and delight your loved ones.

Christmas is a fun time of year, but it can also be stressful when struggling to find original and affordable gift ideas. Our practical Christmas gifts tips will help you get the creative juices flowing, so you can sit back and enjoy the big day!

Small Christmas gifts for friends, relatives and teachers

Baubles or decorations as Christmas gifts

Pretty baubles, Christmas candles or other decorations can make special gifts for Christmas. It’s more personal than a box of chocolates and the recipient will remember you each year when they decorate their house for Christmas. If you have children, baubles could make a cute teacher gift idea. You could also decorate baubles with small pictures of the children to give to close relatives.

Home made treats

Home made biscuits, sweets or Chocolates are always welcome Christmas gifts. Why not make a large batch of peppermint creams, chocolate truffles or mince pies? Put a few of each in a little box or transparent food bag, tie with a ribbon and you have a supply of affordable small gifts for friends and relatives.

Decorated picture frames

For a cute inexpensive keepsake gift for grandparents, why not buy small plain photo frames and ask the children to decorate them with glitter and paint? When your frame is decorated, just insert a recent picture of the children or a favourite drawing.

Find more inexpensive Christmas gift ideas in our Budget Christmas Gift Ideas article.

Gift tips for a stress-free Christmas

Get the toys ready to play with

Children’s toys can be notoriously fiddly to get out of the packaging. Why not open your kid’s toys, remove the fixings and check all batteries are in before you wrap them up? They will be able play with them straight away and you will have time to unwrap your own presents too.

Wrap as you go

Wrap and label your presents as you buy them – this will break up a somewhat daunting task and free up time nearer Christmas.

Send your Christmas gifts

While it is an opportunity to catch up with everyone, driving around to all your friends and relatives to hand out gifts can be time consuming.

Why not lighten-up your work load and send your Christmas gifts by post? Many online shops offer free wrapping and gift messages in the run up to Christmas. So shopping online will not only save you wrapping and posting the gifts yourself,  but it will also allow you to shop at your own convenience in the comfort of your home.

Many online stores offer guaranteed before Christmas delivery dates, so you can be confident that your Christmas gifts will arrive in plenty of time for Christmas Day.

For hassle-free Christmas gifts, why not browse our range of Christmas balloon gifts, teddy bears and chocolates?

To discover more tips for a stress-free Christmas, why not read our Christmas countdown, Christmas stress management and A Christmas (Gift Buying) Carol articles?

Gift wrapping, gift tags and Christmas cards

Alternative wrapping paper

Even if you recycle, buying paper to wrap presents can seem wasteful. Why not use alternative wrapping paper, such as newsprint, or children’s art work?

You could also make the wrapping part of the gift and present your gift in a bag, vase, antique box, picnic basket, backpack or anything the recipient might enjoy or use. Fabric bags that can be re-used for shopping are also an alternative to conventional gift wrapping. For more gift wrapping ideas, check out our gift wrapping tips.

Recycled gift tags

Why not cut out old Christmas cards to make gift tags for the next year? You will recycle and save some money too!

Create your own greeting cards

If you have children, relatives and teacher will love to receive hand made cards.

You can either create your own cards with crafts materials, or for more professional results have the cards printed with your own artwork.

Ask the children to draw a festive picture (or create your own), scan the artwork and have it printed on the front of a card. Several companies offer this service online. You can also use the “photo card” service in your local supermarket to print the scanned image.

While Secret Santa is a fun way for a group of people to give and receive a gift, it can be difficult to buy a gift for someone you don’t know very well on a limited budget.

Our Secret Santa gift guide is packed with tips and gift ideas ranging from novelty chocolate pizzas to books and toiletries. With most gifts under £10.00 you’ll find something for every friend, family member or co-worker.

Buying gifts for the office Secret Santa

If you’re buying a gift for work’s Secret Santa, remember that it is often best to give gifts that offer an escape from work.

While you can choose a funny novelty Secret Santa Gift it is best to avoid saucy gifts – even if intended as a joke, they might shock or offend. You often spend more time with office or work colleagues than friends and relatives, so you don’t want to risk upsetting them!

Stick to the guide line prices – overly expensive gifts would make others feel uncomfortable.

Always have a couple extra items in stock – it would be embarrassing to realise you’ve forgotten to include someone!

You can read more on office gifts on our web site.

Funny and novelty Secret Santa gifts

Anything from a novelty shop. From naughty card games to fart machines, there are fun novelty gifts for everyone. Just make sure you don’t go overboard!

For something a little different, why not check out our novelty chocolates? Chocolate coins, chocolate pizzas are fun treats for everyone. White chocolate maggots are popular with fishermen and chocolate tools with DIY fans. You could also try putting someone off chocolate forever with creepy chocolate worms or chocolate spiders.

Our Small Traditional Sweet Shop is filled with traditional sweets and is sure to be a hit with adults and children of all ages.

Traditional gifts that always work

While these gifts are not highly original they are traditional favourites because they work. Generic enough to be suitable for people you don’t know very well, they can also be personalised if picked with thought.

• Books – paperbacks are relatively inexpensive – from novels to recipe books you can tailor your choice to the recipient’s taste
• Belgian chocolates – always popular!
• Journal or photo album
• Gift vouchers – not always a cop out, especially for people who like to shop for themselves and have picky tastes.
• Alcohol gifts – wine, champagne or their favourite drink
• Board games or card games – some classic games like Uno are relatively inexpensive and will provide useful entertainment over Christmas
• Teddy bears and cuddly toys – Christmas teddy bears can be taken out every year. While Little Uglys, Uglydoll Clip-ons, My Blue Nose Friends and The Snowman Soft Toy are all popular small gifts for adults and children of all ages
• Beauty products – bath bomb, shower gels can be tailored to all budget and are popular Secret Santa gifts for women
• Scented candles
• Plants – choose a small seasonal plant such as poinsettia

If you want to get creative

If you’re blessed with creative talents, then why not make your own gifts? Creative cooks could make Christmas cakes or other festive foods. They would no doubt make a welcome gift. You could also organise a Secret Santa with a creative theme. Usually popular with groups of girlfriends where givers need to make or customise and idet of clothing or some Christmas decorations for the recipients.

Not sure how secret Santa works?

Secret Santa, also known as Chris Kindle or Kris Kringle is a western tradition were the names of all participants are placed in a hat, and each participant draws the name of a person to buy a gift for.

Participants can also submit a short list of items for the gift-giver to choose from. Usually there is a £5 or £10 spending limit and presents are exchanged anonymously. It’s popular in offices, schools, amongst groups of friends or in large families. Sometimes people leave hints, so the recipient can guess who the giver is.

Our creepy Halloween party tips will help you add some mischievous fun to the occasion. From haunting Halloween decorations, to Ghoulish costumes and food and sweets to gross out your guests, you will find all you need for an eerie celebration.

Don’t pull the curtains, turn off the lights and hide behind the sofa all evening – join the spooky fun!

1 – Creepy Halloween decorations

The first thing to consider is the decorations. You’ll be amazed at the range of accessories you can buy- from glow in the dark pumpkins to fake cobwebs with spiders.

Halloween balloons are a quick, easy and relatively cheap way to create impressive decorations. The illoom balloons will glow in the dark and create a perfect Halloween mood. Choose from orange illooms, pumpkin illooms or the flashing ghost illoom balloon or mix all three. You can scatter your balloons on the floor or tie them up by your front door. You can even inflate them with helium for full floating Halloween lights.

Mounted on a balloon stick, they will also make an unusual trick or treat accessory.

Remember that no Halloween decorations are complete without a pumpkin.  They’re surprisingly easy to carve, just spoon out the pulp and seeds and cut out eyes, nose and mouth. Add a tea light and you’re away!

2 – Ghoulish costumes, make up and accessories

While shops are full of Halloween costumes for children and adults of all ages, you can easily create your own zombie style look with a few old clothes and a bit of make up.

Fake blood is easy to use and surprisingly realistic. See on the right an example of what you can achieve in a few minutes with white and black make up and fake blood. Rip and stain some old clothes and that’s it.

Please note – If you are using fake blood apply it at the end. You might also want to spend a bit more and buy quality make up as some cheaper alternatives can stain badly.

Remember that a few well chosen accessories will finish off your look. Wands, plastic weapons, devil horns will all compliment your costume.

3 – Spooky Halloween food 

Halloween is the perfect time to be creative with party food. With a little imagination, it’s easy to create a creepy menu that will put your guests in a spooky mood.

You can use food colourings to turn ordinary foods into devilish delicacies. Just imagine blue mash potatoes, green orange juice or red fairy cakes – just don’t blame me if your guests refuse to eat!

For more freaky food ideas check out our Halloween food for a spooky mood post. If you want to try a more conventional dish, why not prepare our pumpkin soup recipe?

4 – Crazy-scary Halloween sweets

Halloween wouldn’t be complete without sweets. Our range of novelty chocolates are out of the ordinary sweets that are sure to make everyone lose their appetite. Creepy chocolate spiders, chocolate maggots or chocolate slugs are all treats (if you can call them treats) that are sure to gross out your guests. They will also make perfect take home gifts for children if you are throwing a party.

If you don’t want to put your guests off chocolate for ever, why not try rock lollies, sherbet flying saucers or chocolate coins?

For more Halloween party tips, check out our A Tricky Problem for a Halloween Party article.

Special gifts for this important milestone

Traditionally the Tooth Fairy gives children some money or a small gift in exchange for baby teeth that have fallen out.

Losing teeth is an important milestone in a child’s life and you may wish to mark the occasion with a special Tooth Fairy gift. Small keepsake boxes for baby teeth are popular and a new toothbrush with some “big teeth” toothpaste will make a useful gift.

Tooth Fairy pillows

Children typically place the tooth under their pillow and the Tooth Fairy replaces it with money while the child is asleep. Our Tooth Fairy pillow is a tiny princess shaped pillow with a special pocket to put a tooth or coin. It’s an ideal tooth fairy gift for a little girl and perfect to ensure baby teeth are kept safe!

European traditions

Different cultures across the globe have their own traditions. For example, in France where I grew up the Tooth Fairy is replaced by a little mouse “La Petite Souris”, who swaps baby teeth for coins during the night. Other European countries such as Spain or Italy have similar traditions with a small mouse.

Why not follow the continental tradition and give your child our cute Steiff cuddly mouse?

Customs around the world

In some Asian countries, when a child loses a tooth he or she should throw it onto the roof if it came from the lower jaw, or into the space beneath the floor if it came from the upper jaw. While doing this, the child shouts for his baby tooth to be replaced with that of a mouse. This tradition is based on the fact that the teeth of mice – as for those of all rodents, grow for their entire lives.

In Japan, a similar tradition calls for children to throw their top teeth either on the floor and bottom ones in the air, in the hope that the new teeth will grow straight.

In Middle Eastern countries the custom is to throw the baby tooth into the sky towards the sun and ask for a better one to replace it!

Watches or jewellery are always welcome graduation keepsakes.  It’s also easy to personalise jewellery and watches by having the gift engraved.

If the graduate is about to start work, you could always treat them to clothes vouchers to help them kit out their work wardrobe.  Or why not use it as an opportunity to spend some time together and take them on a shopping trip to choose a new work outfit?

Treat them to a meal at their favourite restaurant. Or, if they’re leaving home for the first time, throw them a congratulations/going away party to give them a night to remember with their friends before they leave.

If you’re planning to spend a lot of money, then a weekend away or holiday vouchers are a great idea.  It gives the graduate the chance to get away for some well-earned rest and relaxation (or not as the case may be!), before they begin the next stage of their life.

Just remember, if you want to add an extra surprise to whatever gift you choose, why not send a graduation balloon or a graduation bear?

For  GCSE and A Levels gift ideas, why not check out our Congratulations gifts to celebrate exams results article?

If someone you know is graduating this year, then naturally you’ll want to congratulate them on their achievement.  But then the question of how you express your congratulations arises, and you might well find yourself facing a dilemma – do you buy them a graduation gift or would a card be enough?

The first step is to determine how close you are to the graduate. After all, your relationship with the graduate and his or her family is the main consideration when deciding whether or not to buy them a graduation gift.

If it’s the son or daughter of a friend or a cousin, niece or nephew then a graduation or congratulations card will probably suffice.

However, if it’s your son or daughter, or you’re particularly close to the graduate, then a graduation gift that acknowledges their achievement would be appropriate.

If it’s the son or daughter or a close friend, you might have to make a decision that will set a precedent. If you buy their child a gift on graduation, they’ll no doubt feel obliged to return the sentiment as and when your child graduates (presuming you have children).

It might also be worth considering that graduation gifts have become much more popular in recent years, so you can now find a range of graduation themed gifts to suit all budgets. This allows you to choose anything from a small keepsake to a more substantial gift depending on how close you are to the graduate.

Our graduation teddy bears and graduation balloons are all affordable gifts to mark this special occasion.

It you are you one of the thousands of families of GCSE and A level students who are hoping to celebrate their exam success this summer, why not check out our Congratulations gifts to celebrate exams results article. It includes some interesting gift ideas to help you celebrate their exam success in real style.

But choosing a gift can be difficult, especially if you’re on a budget. To help you out, we’ve put together some great graduation gift ideas that won’t break the bank.

Graduation teddy bears are usually relatively cheap. A bottle of champagne – providing they’re over 18, of course – is also a safe bet.

A top up card for their mobile phone is a useful gift and a great way to encourage them to keep in touch.

However, for something more personal, fill an album with photos from their time at school, college or university.  It will make a wonderful keepsake.

Another personal idea that will bring back amazing memories is a CD or memory stick with their favourite songs from their time at school, college or university.  (Obviously, make sure that you download songs legally and don’t break copyright laws!)

If they’re about to leave home for university then put together a going-away hamper, filled with useful necessities like toiletries, food and drink. You can tailor the contents to your personal budget.

If they’re leaving home for the first time, then suitcases or other luggage are useful gifts. But if that’s stretching the budget, why not treat them to a guide book on the town or city that will be their new home?

For a gift that’s sure to make them smile, you could have a graduation balloon delivered directly to their home.

Whatever you choose to buy, don’t forget it’s the thought that counts and with a little thought, time and creativity, it’s possible to come up with a memorable gift that won’t cost a fortune.

For  GCSE and A Levels gift ideas, why not check out our Congratulations gifts to celebrate exams results article?

No matter how grand or intimate your wedding, it’s likely that your parents will attend if they can. While it’s not always necessary these days for parents to contribute to the cost of the wedding (although many still do), it’s worth remembering that they’ve supported you throughout your life and your wedding day is a great opportunity to say thank you.

Gifts for Mums

Flowers are a traditional gift for mothers (and step mothers) of the bride and groom, but if you’d like to give them something longer lasting, then jewellery is an option. A locket with a picture of you (or your spouse for his or her parents) or a bracelet engraved with a personal message, are both special thank you gifts for mums.

Gifts for Dads

Dads on the other hand, might welcome a personalised bottle of champagne, wine or whisky. Alternatively you could merge the two gifts together and treat mums and dads to a special meal in a top restaurant or even a weekend away if budgets allow.

For a fun thank you gift, why not send them a thank you balloon? Once you’ve said thank you to all the important people in your life – then just remember to have fun and enjoy your special day!

With all that pressure on your best man, it’s only fair that you say thank you and present them with a small gift to express your gratitude. But men are notoriously difficult to buy for so, we’ve put a few suggestions together to help you.

Traditional best man gifts

Traditional thank you gifts for the best man include cuff-links, hip-flasks and tie pins, all of which can be personalised to make them even more special. Pint glasses, whisky tumblers and shot glasses can also be personalised to make interesting best man thank you gifts.

Treat them to a memorable experience

If you’d prefer to make a more original thank you gesture, then experience gifts are great for best man thank you gifts. From power boat driving gifts, theme park tickets and skydiving to paint balling, sporting event tickets and flying lessons, you can give them a thank you gift they’ll never forget.

Thank you gifts for ushers

If you’re having a church wedding or a larger civil ceremony, then you might also have ushers to thank too. While the best man thank you gifts we’ve mentioned are also suitable for ushers, you might want to go for something a little bit more quirky. How about wedding party socks, or cuff-links that state their role in the wedding or even personalised chocolate bars?

Both ushers and best man would also appreciate bottles of their favourite tipple. However, if you’re really stuck, we’ve a great range of chocolates and thank you balloons that are sure to make them smile when they receive them after the wedding. Our chocolate pizzas will make a quirky and affordable gift they’re bound to remember.