Super Thrifty Christmas Spectacular!

Handmade White Bear Hat

Through a combination of his own doing and (I believe) subtly implanted suggestions from S.B., all Mr. C would say he wanted for Christmas this year was, "A white bear hat and a box."

S.B. went all out and got a large armchair-sized box from our local furniture outlet.  It now sits in the middle of the living room, and all the boys in my family have spent many enjoyable hours in this man-cave of theirs.



We searched for a 'white bear hat', but the only ones we were finding cost $15 . . . which isn't an amount we felt like spending on an item for which Mr. C may not even know why he's requesting.  Instead, I found the little white ski hat pictured above for $1 at WalMart, and the roll of yarn for about $1.50.  45 minutes later and VOILA!  A White Bear Hat.

The only video we took on Christmas was of Mr. C opening The White Bear Hat.  I'm not saying he jumped up and down with excitement, but at least he feigned interest in it for a few moments.

As a bonus, he looks pretty cute in it, too.

The big present we got him, however, was a kitchen playset.

No, of course not that one!  I was dying to get him that one, but we just couldn't justify spending the money on a large (though adorable) plastic thing that would take up half our living room.  The $90 could be put to better use . . . like -- apparently -- on the Mary Kay products I allowed myself to get suckered into buying this morning (but, boy, do I look FABULOUS!).

So, instead of buying him a kitchen, we ransacked the thrift stores to make him one.

Broken toaster oven with real 'dinging' bell! = $3

Mini cooler that your child can carry around the thrift store while shouting, "Let's put beer in here!" = $4

End table with small nick = $4.75 (knocked down from $8 after Salvation Army attendant could figure out how to ring it up)

Genuine fake gold-plated bowl = $1

Used sink faucet that only took you half an hour to hack-saw off its pipes = $4

[All bought new:] Cedar board piece, plywood backing, randomly chosen pot of wood stain (that just happens to match nearly perfectly!!), construction glue, 4 small brackets, and various odds and ends = ~$20

A few hours of working side-by-side with your loving spouse to create a handmade, recycled toy for your darling cherub = one hundred million billion dollars in shrink bills.

The end result:

TaDAAAAAH!
OK, so it was too cold for the glue to stick on some of the items, so a lot of things already need to be fixed, but -- come on -- it's pretty neat, isn't it?  Not that Playskool has any competition.

(Please take a moment to note the stove knobs: old child-resistant bottle tops, which click in a pleasing manner as they are turned.)

Mr. C enjoys his kitchen, although he definitely just spends most of his time with the most-expensive item I bought for it:

A cute little tea set on which some adorable old lady spent hours researching Chinese symbols and painstakingly painting - $5  

Here is what Mr. C has done to it (so far):

Look out, Andy Warhol

Oh, well; at least he's happy.