It’s that time of year again, I’m broke, and I don’t particularly feel like getting a holiday job for extra income. So I’m looking for cheap gift ideas and of course, homemade gifts are top on my list.
Obviously, any gift can be tacky, regardless of its price tag. A horribly ugly holiday-themed sweater is tacky whether it’s store-bought or hand-knitted. But what about other kinds of gifts?
Like cookies. I love to bake. I know where I can purchase cute, cardboard Chinese take-out containers that are decorated with holiday designs. What if I bought some of these (total cost: $20), made some cookies and peppermint bark, and gave those out? Is that cheap or tacky?
FWIW, I’m a 26 year-old college student waiting tables part time, and I have a large extended family (2 parents, 3 siblings and 3 in-laws, a grandmother, several neices and nephews and my boyfriend and his sister to buy for, not including my friends I’d like to give gifts to). I remember in the past making gift baskets for my brother and his wife (an engineer and a doctor, quite wealthy and a PITA to buy for) including things like flavored coffees with various related items or flavored oils and sauces (my bro’s a big hot sauce fan), or the time I sewed mini potholders and aprons for my young nieces who were both receiving toy kitchenettes that year, and my mother bitching that it was tacky.
Homemade is always better than storebought, unless it’s hideous. (A hideous handmade item is, however, better than a hideous boughten item. ;)) Homemade means you spent time and care on it, not just money, which means it’s a gift of yourself, or something like that. I’m not eloquent or anything. Your mom knows not of what she speaks, but I guess you’d better buy her something since she won’t appreciate anything better.
Of all the things I ever got for Christmas, my top favourites include a tent and sleeping bag that my Grandma made for my barbies one year. Vote for non-tacky myself.
I try to give stuff that will be useful. Last year I knit several tea cozies for people in my family who drink lots of tea (and making a couple more this year!) and a purse for my younger cousin that the grapevine has her as really liking… and her friend’s wanting one too!
Last year I got several jars of homemade candy from my other cousin, which I adored. I’d rather get homemade candy instead of a box of chocolates.
Personally, I love it. I’m easily bought off by sweets, and I’m ambivalent about anything I can’t eat. I’m asking my (musician) parents for lessons this year, and that’s good enough for me.
That said, ugh. I’ll never forget the year my family, low on money, essentially bought homemade gift baskets of food for our relatives. It was creative and heart-felt. Their reaction, however, was as though we’d simply bought them groceries. To hell with that.
Home made gifts are always appreciated. Everyone in my family looks forward to the present given by whoever happens to be poorest, because it’s always a big can of fudge.
Who wouldn’t love a homemade gift? It shows real caring and ingenuity. If I ever got a home made gift, I’m sure my heart would grow three sizes that day.
One year, I had to buy gifts for some new in-laws (three teenage girls) and didn’t have a clue.
So I bought large plastic containers, put in each a Barbie Doll type doll (not the name brand version) that I bought at the dollar store, then filled the rest of the container with candy and stupid little stuff I also found at the dollar store. Each container probably cost me about $6 tops.
They looked nice, so I quickly made one for some of the adult women in the family.
To give you an idea of what a hit they were…one of the girls (16) was home early and grabbed it as the first thing she opened. She almost cried when she saw the doll and it must have brought back great memories as she just kept pulling stuff out of the container and told me how cool it was with all the little “toys”…
I thought she was just being nice, but she must have texted her siblings as, when they got to the house the one said, “Where are the containers?!”
Both of the other girls grabbed them and the three of them sat there as if they were 8 years old and just had a grand old time.
And the other women who got them? Also a huge hit.
I guess no matter how old you are, sometimes a doll from the past just seems to work, especially around Christmas.
My guess is the same would work for guys…toy trucks, a whiffle ball, slinky, silly putty, gyroscope…all of that stuff you got as a kid and secretly miss now that you are an “adult”.
My philosophy is, if someone gives me a gift then it’s tacky for me to fuss about their selection. Unless it’s a cow pie on fire or something. If it’s something I’ll never use, I smile and act nice anyway. Then it goes in the closet for the obligatory 6 months, then straight to Goodwill. IMHO anyone who sneers at a gift doesn’t deserve any more in the future.
Home made gifts can be really cool. But keep in mind that they are likely to be something that will never get used. So try to keep it small and don’t get upset if it gets donated.
Personally, when I was poor I just explained as much to my family and didn’t buy them anything. Instead I used my pathetic few pennies to bring a dish for Christmas dinner and called it a day. Fortunately nobody had a problem with that. Because it they had, well, it would have been their problem. I don’t do peer pressure.
When I was a kid, my older brother would get a box and fill it with little stuff from gumball machines and most importantly stuff he had cleaned out of his junk drawer. I know that it sounds weird, but it would be the first present I opened looking to see what treasures now belonged to me. I remember stuff like an old boy scout bandana, a little diver thing that goes on the bottom of an aquarium, cow’s teeth, a leather punch, and skateboard tools. Homemade or inexpensive gifts can be very cool.
On my first birthday after their wedding, SiL told me not to get dessert (which I would have had to buy) and brought an apple pie and a peach pie she’d baked herself which were Out. Of. This. World.
Then, while the whole family was still tonguegasming, she started saying that she was sorry she hadn’t been able to buy anything blah blah blah.
Let me tell you, if only she’d let us finish landing naturally, those two pies would still be the best presents she’s ever given me!
If your cookies are anywhere near half as good, they’re a Great Idea.
I started a fashion in my family of doing something similar to what DMark describes. Our Christmas presents include things like “a set of three metal cans, each one filled with candy and placed inside the next-bigger one, all of it from the dollar store.”
Our 50th anniversary present to my grandparents was a picture of all their grandchildren (not so easy to get, as the two sets lived 400km apart). The effect of that was only bested by the dollar-store frames containing pictures of their first grandson
Grandma used to make dresses for my cousin and me. She complained for years (until her eyesight got too bad to sew) that puberty made us different sizes. I loved it then, and I love it even more now that I know how hard it can be to find colors which work for both a redhead and a brunette.
PS: Roses, hadn’t we already discovered that your Mom, while you love her and all that, isn’t particularly good company for you? When she says something you sewed yourself is tacky, she’s the one who’s being a snob.
I love giving and receiving homemade presents. Homogenised, corporatised stuff is usually lame. There’s scarcely much I can purchase that someone I’ve giving a present to can’t. It can take alot of time to make a present though, especially up to a decent standard.
I’m giving a girl a rock for Christmas. I found a nice chunk of fossil coral. Earlier this year I found a very small one on a trail and let her keep it. So one kid will get a rock for Christmas and be happy I hope. She’d get nothing from me otherwise as far as that goes.
The problem with homemade gifts is you count all that hard work as part of the gift, and if they don’t like it, you feel more hurt about it. You can tell if they don’t like it when they open it. even if they are polite about it.
The one time that really pissed me off was when I gave a giant box of cookies and candies to someone. the next time I saw them they were laughing about their dog eating everything. That represented at least 12 hours of preparing time for that portion of what I made that year. I would have been disappointed the dog ruined the gift, but the fact they thought it no big deal to laugh about it when they told me is what pissed me off.
To me- homemade gifts can be tacky- but like everything else- usually because you spend very little time or thought.
It wouldn’t be much different than say- stopping at walmart on the way to the house and picking up a random birthday card and the cheapest sweater you can find. In the end they got a regrets card and a poorly sized ugly sweater.
But, if you put some thought into the gift- a homemade gift can be the greatest; regardless of the $$ spent (or not spent). It is apparant, from the OP, that you do. (the minipotholders idea was cool, IMO) So I say go for it.
There is NOTHING I’d rather get as a gift than spiced nuts and homemade cookies. Seriously. I don’t need a lot of non-consumable stuff, and if I do need something, I don’t trust anybody else’s tastes to pick it out for me.
Furthermore, I hate the idea of my loved ones spending their holidays prowling through malls trying to figure out what I might like. Why subject them to that? I like cookies!
Amen, sister! I love getting and giving homemade cookies and other treats. I try to minimize the amount of stuff in my life. I would much rather have some delicious homebaked bread that will be gone in a week than some tchochtke that I have to find a place for. Last year, my husband and I gave blueberry jam, red pepper jelly, and caramel sauce, all homemade. I heard no complaints.
