Cheap Christmas gifts make the world go 'round. Okay, maybe cheap Christmas gifts don't make the world go 'round but at least the provide some relief to one-upmanship gift giving during the holiday season. Cheap Christmas gifts don't have to be bad, thoughtless Christmas gifts.

On the contrary, some of the most thoughtful offerings are cheap Christmas gifts that convey a special me-to-you message behind them. We've decided to list some of our favorite cheap Christmas gifts but only as a starting point. We encourage you to come up with your own, personalized list of cheap Christmas gifts that you can bestow upon others.

Box of Air

For someone who is long-winded in conversations you may wish to nicely wrap a nice box of air. You can tell this person it's a box of air for when you start talking, can't stop and need to take a breath. Suck on this box of air for a minute.

Sand

Sand is cheap and is one of the best cheap Christmas gifts for those who live miles from the shore, yet love the beach. Tell your special person that you are giving them not the gift of sand, but the gift of beach. You may even wish to add a seashell to the sand to make it even more authentic. Don't give this gift, however, to someone with a cat as this will most likely end up in the litter box.

Picture Collage

So, you don't have enough money to get reprints and heck, you don't even own a camera. No problem, simply use the office copy machine and run of different copies of your various body parts. Once you have many copies of all different part, then take this home, cut up the pieces in an interesting and artistic fashion and paste them onto the side of a cardboard box. Wala! You're done making a great, and thoughtful cheap Christmas gift.

Canned Laughter

You've heard laugh tracks on television. Laugh tracks are also called 'canned laughter'. Canned laughter makes any situation seem funnier. Similar to giving a box of air, simply give an empty can to a loved one and every time they open the can, laugh. Tell them this is canned laughter and you are handing over the reigns and now they get to laugh every time they open it. They also get to think of you when they do.

Name a Star

Name a star after your loved one. Either Christmas Eve or Christmas Night, take your loved one outside, point at the night sky and say, "I named that star after you." Be sure that your finger shakes a bit when you point so that this star could be any one of 2.76 billion in that vicinity. Whip out a drawing of a silly picture of the night sky with your loved one's star in it, notated of course, and with your signature on the bottom.

No matter what cheap Christmas gifts you decide to give this year, but sure to personalize them since this will make the cheapness of the gift palatable to most. Be creative, be exotic and be personal. Hey, if you pull this off, you can save yourself hundreds of bucks, you cheap ass backastard you!