Donna Bitner loves spoiling her children with Christmas gifts — particularly trash bags, toilet paper and towels.
“I go overboard for Christmas,” Bitner, 55, a mom in Clovis, New Mexico, tells TODAY.com.
Bitner showed TikTok a typical Christmas basket for her sons, ages 25 and 28, who are both single and live alone.
“Come with me while I pack a laundry basket full of household supplies for my boys,” Bitner said in a TikTok video. “I have been doing this for years. It’s a very practical gift and one that they are always appreciative of. This is the bonus gift that they get after opening all of their presents.”
In Bitner’s video, she filled the baskets with trash bags, toilet paper, laundry detergent, paper towels, dishwasher pods and soap. She also packed sponges, dishrags, towels, toilet bowl cleaner, cleaning spray and paper plates.
“It’s a great tradition and a really useful gift,” Bitner said in her video. “They love it.”
TikTokers were impressed by the pragmatic presents.
- “My parents are putting four brand-new tires on my car. I am so thankful for practical gifts.”
- “I did this for my brother. This year, money is really tight for him, so I figured something like this would help.”
- “With the economy the way it is now, that’s all everyone wants for Christmas. Forget the other stuff.”
- “I lost my job and have been couponing to save money. And this is what I am doing for my own kids this year.”
- “My brother gave me 40 pounds of fresh pork. Our freezer was pretty empty. I’m so grateful!”
Bitner tells TODAY.com that she picked up the tradition from her own mother who gave household supplies (dishrags, towels) as gifts for several years, until her death in 2006.
As a single mom, Bitner appreciated the monetary help and the indulgence, as she would squeeze the use out of items until they were in “tatters.”
“They were great, practical gifts … it was good to take away the pressure of buying those items,” says Bitner.
While some moms who offer practical gifts care more about Christmas minimalism, that isn’t Bitner’s aim. She also buys traditional Christmas gifts for her kids, like gaming gear and kitchen gadgets, making the baskets a bonus gift. Bitner says she doesn’t give her 32-year-old daughter supplies for Christmas because she lives in Ohio. “I stock up for her when I visit instead,” she explains.
When Bitner first gave her sons their Christmas baskets, she hoped they would pick up tidier habits.
“At first they looked through it and said, ‘What should we do with this stuff?’” she says. “I said, ‘Well, hopefully use it to clean!’”
According to Bitner, her younger son is a bit cluttered, while her older son struggles to keep his home neat, which she partly attributes to his Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis. Bitner says she also pays for her older son’s monthly cleaning service.
People love the surprising way she celebrates Christmas, she shares. “All the reactions have been positive — like, ‘I wish my mom would give that to me’ or ‘I would love that gift,’” she notes.
Last Father’s Day, Bitner even hit Lowe’s home improvement store to pick up latex gloves, head lamps and other “fun little things” she thought her husband would enjoy.
Ironically, Bitner considers herself a “gift hog” but only for simple craft supplies. “In our stage of life, we buy what we need,” she says.
This year, as she did in 2018, Bitner will also gather edible presents for her kids.
“I will do a five-gallon bucket full of the cleaning supplies,” says Bitner, “and a large tote filled with their favorite shelf stable food and snacks.”
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