We have all read the newspapers, we have heard NBC nightly news, and we have all looked at our declining checking accounts.  We know that this Christmas we either need to tighten our belt or get creative.  I enjoy the creative route and new ideas around the holidays are warmly welcome.  My Christmas list has been adjusted and I am following the action plan I have mapped out below: 

• a. For people at the bottom of my normally long shopping list, they are simply marked off and the obligatory present is replaced by a Christmas card or Chanukah card and a smile. Surely they too will feel released from the expense.
• b. For those in the middle of my shopping list, they will now receive my labor of love. I will bake my much requested banana nut bread and chewy chocolate chip cookies. I will place the baked goods on a lovely plate that I find in a pawn shop in Los Angeles and then I will wrap the goodies in beautiful cellophane tied with a big silk ribbon (merchandising and presentation are everything).
• c. For family at the top of my list, I will give my cash for gold but I won’t do this at the mall. I will spend my money wisely and will look for a place where people sell scrap gold (maybe the same pawn shop where I buy the plates) and I will purchase a delicate bracelet for my sister and a pair of earrings for my mom.

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