Gift Ideas
From AFSWiki
Photo collage
Collect pictures you have taken with you and your host family and/or friends, maybe some magazine or newpaper clippings, stickers, anything that has to do with jokes or memories you share with your family/friends. Then buy a big picture frame. Put everything all together in a creative way (like using colored paper to make lines and shapes forming "windows", etc.) and wrap it up! Maybe you can even ask host siblings for help.
Cookbook from your country
In the bookstores in the States, there is usually a wide selection of cook books from all over the world, so probably there's one from your country. Next to your favorite recipes you can write a note, add pictures of you and your family and friends back in your country, draw in it, etc. By personalizing the cookbook, you're giving your host family/friends something they could not possibly buy for themselves!
T-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.
At the places where you develop photos, they usually offer a service where you can print one of your photos on a t-shirt, coffee mug, etc. If you choose to make a t-shirt for each member of your family, you can sign it with a Sharpie pen if you want to make it even more personal. If you choose to make a coffee mug, perhaps you can fill it with sweets from your country if you brought some with you, or maybe you can find some at a local supermarket, or if you know how to bake something or whatever...
Special meal
You could simply offer to cook a special meal from your country for them. Maybe make a coupon and put it in an envelope...also it was nice, I remember one exchange student loved his host mom's apple pie from Thanksgiving so much that he made it for her for Christmas to show he had learned something from her and that he appreciated it.
Flower pot
Paint it, even with the flag of your country or something simple but thoughtful. You don't have to be sooo good at painting to make it look cool, and you can buy some flowers to go with it. (Just remember, in different countries, flowers can have different meanings, so if you give flowers, make sure you understand the cultural significance...or else you might accidentally show sympathy for someone who died or something...like I did...)
Homemade comic book
Even using basic stick figures, you can draw funny scenes or little stories with personal significance. There are even ways to get a book professionally bound at a pretty cheap price, if you want to go all out and have time for that. Probably you won't, so of course you can bind it together yourself, or draw in a small sketchbook. Try to plan it out ahead, because otherwise there might be too many blank pages in the end that you don't feel like filling in. You can simply rip those out of course, I'm not going to stop you.
Friend book
Basically a scrapbook with pictures and such. You can even make pages which look like ID cards with attributes of each person (with translations into your language maybe). You can also have pages for "favorite hang out", "favorite pass time", "favorite foods/restaurants", "music that we're tired of but that we liked at first", "most annoying things about...", " 'interesting' moments" etc. You can also make a little calendar that shows. for example, when you met, homecoming, when you got homesick and your friend helped you out, when you saw a movie together, whatever. It's ok to leave blank pages to be filled in and you can even fill them in together as your time in the host country progresses.
Friend bags
Very cheap and you can give this to a lot of people. Go to the dollar store, find some cheap little things that have some sort of use or significance, like candles or whistles or puzzles or whatever. Also you can just go to the grocery store and get some little candies...then buy small gift bags (maybe even at the dollar store), and just put everything all together with little notes and ribbons if you want. It's even better if you have some little items from your country that you can add. Even though this may seem less creative and personal, it doesn't take much effort, and it will still show people that you're thinking of them. It's also good for getting closer to people you don't know so well yet, and you can get creative in personalizing the items (like filling in the speech bubbles of a little comic book and replacing them with a different dialogue or in your native language). There's lots of opportunity for humor.
Puzzle
You can make a puzzle with a picture of you and your host family/friends (maybe the photo place has this option too?). For each member of your family or circle of friends wrap a couple pieces of the puzzle and give it to them and the next time you and your friends get together, or as you're unwrapping presents with your host family, you can all work to put the puzzle together.
Rubik's cube
Look here: http://www.dumpr.net/rubik.php - pretty easy to make yourself and you can make it personal. It's fun and interesting...it's also nice to include information on solving the puzzle incase something should happen...
Photo holiday cards
At the place where you develop photos I forgot to mention that you can also make cards with your picture. Those are also fast, don't take much effort, you can sign them on the back, and maybe even send some to your home country while you're at it.
Bookmarks
Again, you can use photos and stickers. Be creative. This can go well with the friend book and cookbook, or inside the little gift bags.
Finger puppets of you and your friends/family
Cut and paste fabric or paper onto the fingers of some gloves to form different look-alikes of people. Try to find some facial characteristics that stand out to make each one distinguishable (like glasses or curly hair). You can buy the supplies at craft shops. This is especially good for younger host siblings.
Walk a mile in my shoes
Every student has a pair of shoes that they don't plan to take home with them. Our first student had such a pair and he filled them with dirt and planted flowers in them. He said that people would then know that he had walked here and had roots here. It has become a tradition at our house and it is a great conversation piece.
Plants
Purchase a perennial plant for a host family. Each year they will be reminded of your time together. It could be a tree, shrub or any other plant that the family will appreciate.
Make a movie
These days, computers make it easy to put together short videos and slide shows. Take digital photos from your experience and put them to music. Burn them to a disc and present it to your host family or to the student.
