Cal State Northridge child and adolescent development professor Barbara Polland points out that some of the best presents don't cost money.

"Raising children in this day and age is so costly and life can be so exhausting that the joy of the holidays can be overwhelmed by everything else," she said. "Thinking of gifts that do not cost money is not only important for the pocketbook, but as a model for our children to show how generous we can be without pulling out our wallets. The free things can actually have more meaning and be remembered long after the purchased gifts are forgotten."

Among her cost-free suggestions are coupon promises for "two times around the block playing follow the leader," making a "mess" in the kitchen, sleeping in a tent in the living room, eating dinner under a big blanket over the table with flashlights for lighting, the parent cleaning the child's room while the child helps but also acts as "supervisor," a "backwards day," where the day starts with dinner and ends with breakfast, or, for the brave of heart, a coupon that allows your children to have two hours as "parents" of the household (with a few ground rules before they take over).

"The delicious interactions between parents and their children that take place during a game like follow the leader around the block can never be matched by some object purchased at a toy store," Polland said. "What you are building are precious memories that may well last a lifetime."

She added that those coupon promises also act as wonderful gifts for adults.

"An adult daughter giving her mother a coupon promising to listen to her mother for an hour without turning the conversation back onto herself can mean more than anything ever bought at the store," Polland said.