Of course birthdays and Christmas are the biggest times to give and receive presents, but there is no reason to wait for the joy of giving – and getting, of course. This year, why not break with the old habits and give a Halloween gift?

A Halloween gift that is always a big hit around my house is a basket filled with orange and black cool stuff. It is easy to put together this kind of Halloween gift, too. All you have to do is stop by your local dollar store and pick up a basket of any color and size. Just be sure to get a basket that will hold whatever you want to put inside of it.

You can find some orange and black crepe paper and line the basket with that, and you may decide to decorate the basket with some orange and/or black and/or yellow curling ribbon as well. You can make some wild curls out of the ribbon and have them snaking all over the place. If you don’t really want to get crepe paper, you can just line the basket with some Halloween napkins that you unfold.

That’s all it takes to make a great presentation, and then you are ready to fill that basket with anything that would make a great Halloween gift for your kids, your spouse, your boss, your sister, or whomever you wish to make really happy this year.

You can stick with the Halloween theme and include only orange and black items, if you like. Or, as an alternative way of sticking with the Halloween gift theme, you can get whatever items you want and simply wrap them in orange and black paper or with Halloween napkins.

If you do not care quite as much about the items fitting into the Halloween gift theme, you can put anything you want inside the basket and let the basket itself represent the holiday. Some of my favorite items to include are:

CDs of the person’s favorite music Candles Bookmarks Some delicious treats – homemade or store bought, whichever suits your fancy Soaps Fruits—especially oranges for obvious reasons Socks or pantyhose Halloween-related objects that could be used for decorating the house – like miniature statues and so forth Mittens or gloves for the upcoming colder weather

Of course, the above are just a few ideas to get you started; you know the Halloween gift recipient better than I do, so you know best what to put inside that gorgeous basket you made for a couple of bucks.