I’m so thankful we’re surrounded by great people and I love giving gifts to them, but it can all add up so quickly, so inexpensive gifts are great. 
After considering making soap, I scratched that idea (maybe someday) and saw THIS picture on Pinterest, via Cheri. There is also a color version available to download.
It took me at least half an hour to find the source of the picture, because no one seemed to know who took it. I didn’t want to print them out and distribute them if the photographer hadn’t released the rights, and I really wanted to give credit where it was due. Especially for this amazing picture of President Thomas S. Monson. It’s beautiful, right? What an amazing man he is! I was excited when I finally found the photographer who took it was Brian Tibbets.
I emailed Brian and asked about this photograph, and he replied saying, “When I posted the picture, I put no restrictions on it. I am happy to have you use it however you please. Thank you for asking. This same picture is available on wikipedia, and licensing info is there too.”
So YAY! Now I can share how I used it and maybe help some of you with your gift giving for LDS neighbors or family. I love it so much I’ll be printing off 8×10’s for family as well.
And just a disclaimer here—I agree with Cheri when she talked HERE about how she recognizes that not all the people share the same faith as her, but that she hopes no one will choose to be offended. I am LDS, and I live in Utah where there are a lot of LDS people around me. I have other gifts I will give to those who do not believe as I do, as I realize they would probably not want a picture of President Monson. 
So here’s what I did with the picture for inexpensive neighbor gifts. I printed 4″x6″ pictures, added a photo gift tag to the envelope, and along with the picture inside, added this quote by President Monson about Christmas: “Giving, not getting, brings to full bloom the Christmas spirit. Enemies are forgiven, friends remembered, and God obeyed. The spirit of Christmas illuminates the picture window of the soul, and we look out upon the world’s busy life and become more interested in people than things. To catch the real meaning of the “spirit of Christmas,” we need only drop the last syllable, and it becomes the “Spirit of Christ.” 
HERE is a sheet you can download that I typed up with the quote and credit to the photographer and where they can print off a larger picture if they want to. 
Easy, inexpensive, and hopefully something a little different and special.
If you ever want to lift your spirits and get in the Christmas mood, watch THIS. It makes me cry every. single. time I watch it. But in a happy way. ;).
Tomorrow I’m going to show you how to make the Photo Gift Tags using Picnik. Happy Monday!
I’m impressed with all the trouble you went through to verify the photo, that’s awesome! I live in Utah and tho I am not LDS, I would be grateful for the spirit it was made and presented in if I were to receive something like this from one of my LDS neighbors or friends. Happy Thanksgiving!
What a great picture, Christie! Thanks so much for sharing, I’ll for sure use it all in some way for Christmas this year!
I have been meaning to print this up for myself for a while now, but I never thought to give it as a gift. Great thinking Christie. I am totally doing this for my family. Thanks for hunting down the photographer, too. I couldn’t find it. You rock Christie.
Cheri
You do neighbor gifts? You are making me look bad! :) I love that photo, what a great gift. I think I’ll consider this your gift to all of us readers and print a big one too.
What a lovely idea!
I love that photo. I’ve had it pinned for a while now and didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do with it. This is a great idea!
This is so beautiful! Thank you for sharing.
Oh man! WHY did I not listen to your ‘warning’ about how that video makes you cry every time? ugh.
off to try to get supper on the table now and try to explain to my husband why I am crying haha
I pinned that photo too! I am going to put in my living room. I LOVE that picture. I love the idea of having a picure of him. as if he were a dear sweet grandpa in our famliy, mixed with our other family pictures…
What a beautiful idea! Love that picture of President Monson too.
LOVE IT! We have this photo printed and displayed in our home. It makes me smile every time I look at it. I had NO IDEA Brian Tibbetts took this picture! I know him! We went to school together! What a small small world! Anyhoo, thank you for the wonderful idea. I will be doing it.
Thank you so much! My husband is using this idea for his coworker’s (he works for the DI) and we are using this for neighbor gifts!
I have been trying to decide what to do this year for neighbor gifts and ON TOP OF THAT, I have been looking for a gr8 photo of Pres. Monson to frame for our house. I immediately went to your links but I can’t get it to download. Am I doing something wrong???
Just found your blog via pinterest. Thank you soo much for making this photo and the quote available. We are on a super tight budget this year and this is exactly what I was looking for to give as gifts to our Home Teaching and Visit Teaching families. Thank you!!!!
What a wonderful picture of President Monson. I watched the little video clip too, and now I’m sniffling. Thank you so much for sharing it Christie!
=) Gayle P Jackson
like the idea…I appreciate you share it.
Send Gifts To Pakistan From Australia.