I hadn't a clue what to get my boyfriend for Christmas.

Whenever I asked him what he wanted, he'd tell me "nothing" because I'm not allowed to spend money on him.

So I got him a nice present - for virtually nothing.

To do something similar, all you need is a blank audio tape, a tape recorder, a notebook and coloured pens.

There are two two ways in which you can do this: you can record songs off CDs or you can sing them yourself.

I sang all the songs. Even if you can't sing very well your recording will make a beautiful gift because it comes from the heart.

Here's what I did. I took the tape and recorded enough songs to fill both sides.

I chose songs that mean something to us, or that resemble how I feel about him.

In the book, I wrote the lyrics to each song on its own page, then on the opposite page I wrote why I picked that song and why it was special to me.

I included notes and other items of interest.

I also drew some pictures to make it look nicer. - Submitted by Brenda on the African Christmas website