Ten Handy Longaberger Christmas Basket Uses

I can't imagine the holidays without Longaberger products!  As a new consultant 26 Christmases ago, I couldn't wait to use all my Longaberger baskets for decorating and entertaining . . . and I still get excited about it!  Don't you?  Please share your favorite holiday basket uses.

Here are ten of my favorite uses:

• fill Longaberger Baskets to give as gifts--It's fun to personalize a basket, collecting small items that particularly suit someone, placing them in a useful basket, and wrapping it with cellophane and lots of ribbon.  Longaberger also makes perfect gifts for companies to give.
• hold Christmas cards received--This year's Yuletide Greetings Basket is perfect for cards, as is any thin basket or the Sleigh Baskets.  I stand newly-received cards in front of the basket until everyone sees them, then put them inside the basket with their envelopes in the back so I can check addresses.
• collect family signatures--Sharpie marker in hand, circulate among holiday guests at a family gathering and have each person there sign the bottom of a basket.  A board-bottom basket such as the Social Gathering or Buffet is nice for this, but splints are easily signed too. These signatures won't hurt the appearance of your basket and are fun to look back on years later.  I used the Falling Snow Basket for this in 2010.
• carry food--Longaberger Baskets and pottery provide a safe and secure way to carry food (and protect your clothing!), with baskets to hold every possible dish you might create.  The Cake Basket, with its riser creating two layers, still can't be beat!
• hold gift-wrapping supplies--Use the tall, slim retired Umbrella Basket to hold standing rolls of gift wrap and a smaller basket such as a Cracker or Small Store & Stack Basket to hold pens, tags, tape, and other little necessities.  Some energetic gift-wrappers create a ribbon-dispensing basket, putting rolls of ribbon inside a rectangular basket and feeding the ribbon between the splints on the side of the basket.
• haul gifts--When you go to family holiday gatherings, take your wrapped gifts in a big Small Laundry or Blanket Basket, then safely corral and bring home gifts received in it as well.  These spacious baskets are hard to tip and can carry a lot!
• hold Christmas trees--Longaberger's 2015 Santa Belly Tree Skirt is perfect to hold a tree, but I've been using other baskets for this for years.  I use the 2000 Holiday Hostess Twelve Days of Christmas and the 1997 Holiday Hostess Snowflake Baskets, which can hold the flat square metal bases of Alpine-style trees.  Set your base in the basket and fill over it with festive shredded paper, sparkly snow blanket, or loose pine cones.
• carry decorations --I use big baskets to carry groups of Christmas decorations to their holiday location and to return them to the basement after Christmas.
• organize gifts and stocking fillers--If you put everything under the tree late on Christmas Eve for your little ones, it can be nice to have it all together in a basket, perhaps even a separate basket for each child, which is easy to carry out and empty into stockings and under the tree.
• hold Christmas cards and supplies as I write them--Gather your Christmas cards, address book, pens, stamps, return labels, stickers, and whatever else you need in a basket.  One you can place on your lap like a desk with a lid to write on is especially nice.  My retired Medium Gathering Basket makes the process more fun for me.