Great gifts don’t have to be expensive. It’s more important that they’re thoughtful. You can spend a little of your time and creativity instead of a lot of your cash and still give your friends and family nice, fun gifts for the holidays.

Baking is a holiday tradition, and an inexpensive way to create delicious gifts for friends, family, loved ones, and coworkers. You can get a lot of goodies out of one batch of supplies, and you can customize the goods for each gift recipient. Holiday-colored chocolate chips are available at grocery stores for $2-4 per bag, and holiday-themed cupcake liners and toppers are for sale at places like Craft Mania, T.J. Maxx, and Wal-Mart for $1-6 per set. There’s nothing like a little home cooking to show someone you care – and you don’t have to spend a ton of money to create treats that everyone will love.

If you don’t have time to bake, you can always order treats from a bakery like Grant’s Bakery in Lewiston. You can get a dozen mini pastries for around $7.00 or a dozen cupcakes for around $10.00, and you can use the order form on their website (grantsbakery.com) to place your order early on. Placing the order allows you to budget your funds ahead of time, and allows the busy bakery to “assure the availability” of the product you want, says bakery co-owner Doug Grant. “If you have an order, we know we need to make that product for your order, and it gets set aside.” That way you are guaranteed all the tasty holiday treats you want to gift.

Memories are priceless, and photo enlargements are fairly inexpensive. If you want to show someone you care about them without spending a ton of money, you can always enlarge and frame a photo you love that means something to both of you. You can get an 8×10 photo print made for less than five dollars, and you can pick up a frame for around the same price. Include a nice note with the photo, telling your friend or loved one what the photo means to you and why they are important to you. The sentiment will mean more than an expensive gift would. If you use Instagram to take photos, you can order good quality prints of them using the free Postal Pix app (PostalPix.com) and have the quirky, fun prints mailed directly to your house.

Instead of getting each other actual gifts, you could get your friends together for a holiday scavenger hunt. Split everyone into teams, making sure each team has someone to drive and someone with a digital camera or smart phone. Give each team the same list of things to do and then head out – whichever team accomplishes the most tasks in two hours (with photographic proof!) wins a prize, a homemade trophy, or simply the glory of winning! Not only will you have a blast performing the tasks (posing with holiday decorations, dancing in public, making snow angels, etc. – be creative) but you’ll have the photos to remind you of the fun for a long time to come.

If nothing else, you could always make a loved one a list of things you would have bought if you could afford it or if it were in the realm of possibility. After all, it’s the thought that counts, right? Make them a list of gifts you’d love to give them: “since you’re addicted to pasta, I’d give you a month-long trip to Italy to sample every spaghetti and ravioli and tortellini imaginable” or “I’d of course buy you a pet unicorn to jet you to school and work!” You can be creative and include photos or drawings of the things you’d love them to have. They’ll appreciate the thought and humor you put into the gift, and it won’t cost you a dime.