Never mind. (I couldn’t see featherlou’s mom but I just didn’t wait long enough.)
She’s very pretty! She looks like a nice person too. Sometimes you can just tell.
That’s right.
Homemade gifts are great, of course. I often do them because I love to bake.
One suggestion - if you give a gift of homemade food during the holiday season, it is extra-nice if you give something that freezes well, just because people are likely to be overwhelmed with edibles at this time of year. I usually try to do that, and sometimes even make sure that the gift is freezer-ready (double-wrapped in cling wrap with a bow on top, for example).
It’s also an unexpected pleasure when two or three months later someone says “I just pulled your cookies out of the freezer and ate them last night, boy were they delicious.”
Dissenting opinion here. Really, most of the handmade presents I’ve seen being given and received were those that were given by someone who was “kountry krafty”, and never used by the recipient - things like Comet cleanser cozies, dog sweaters, knitted potholders with no insulation, knitted coasters, and the like. I can understand and appreciate receiving a handmade gift if someone has little to give. I can appreciate the time put into the gift. I’d love to get something like handmade furniture, or really good art, or a nice sweater, but instead the experiences of me and those I know indicate that “handmade” usually means toilet paper cozies with googly eyes, or something else “kountry”.
I’m not afraid to say it: a majority of the time, handmade gifts are crap. That makes the good handmade gifts I get more special and treasured.
On the other hand, the kind of person who thinks a knitted toilet paper cozy makes a great gift is unlikely to pick out something fabulous and exactly to your taste if they hit the stores.
They’d buy you something like this Christmas toilet decoration.
You too can step on Santa’s fat belly.
If you would like this for your bathroom, please don’t tell anybody so we can still respect you.
The problem with those gifts isn’t that they’re handmade, it’s that they were handmade without any thought as to what the recipient would like. (And, Og help us, they’re typically what the maker would like, which makes visiting these people’s homes an adventure at any season.) Thus the caveats in my previous post about something being well-made and tailored to the recipient.
Roses, if you want to make something for the kids, I’ve got tons of patterns for cheap, easy stuff to sew for little girls. The stuffed tea set and the dolly diaper bags were the biggest hits, and also the cheapest.
Money is really tight here at Casa Ujest and this year, the neice and nephews from my SIL’s family are all getting knitted red mittens. Everyone, at one time in their life, should own a pair of red mittens.
My 14 year old nephew ( who is almost 6ft tall.) is getting a pair too. ( And Khet, which he and his severely disabled father should be able to play together. It’s Dorktastic!
I agree 100%. I would be THRILLED if someone made something like that for my daughter.
Homemade gifts, especially homebaked ones, are the furthest thing from tacky I can imagine. I would cherish a gift from either of my (grownup) daughters like Diana G gave to her dad, and I’d have the same reaction her dad had.
For years I’ve wanted to implement a “Homemade or No Gifts” rule for Christmas, but seeing how I’m the only crafty one of the bunch, no one else has wanted to go along with it. I would love a home made gift–potholders, mittens, cookies, FUDGE! (ohmygodIlovefudge), hot chocolate, candy, etc.
Me, I’ve done some home made gifts in the past–funky pillows (one friend still uses them on his sofa nearly 10 years later), quilted lap throws (for cold evenings when you’re on the sofa watching television or reading), breads (my banana nut bread is a huge favorite, even by people who don’t like bananas) and cookies and candies (chocolate dipped pretzles are soooo quick and easy and everyone goes crazy for them).
I did have one friend who is an artist. Every year he’d give me one of his prints because “he was broke”. A few years ago, he got married and his household income went up. Unfortunately, he and his wife had the funds to buy Christmas presents, but they were horrible crap. I wish he’d have continued giving me the prints of his work. I finally convinced them that Christmas gifts weren’t necessary anymore, and we stopped exchanging gifts because I couldn’t do anymore of their horrible storebought crap.
Home made gifts? Anytime.
One year I gave my SO a Ray Bradbury book and a sock monkey that I made for him.
One of his favortie toys as a child was a sock monkey, and the book was also a favorite, filled with stories that used to be read to him as a wee lad.
That gift was given years ago, and he still talks about it as one of the best presents I have ever given him.
Most of the ‘neighbor/friend’-type gits exchanges we get are home-made. You know, cookies, salsa, peanut brittle, jam, etc. I dip my own chocolates, so I am very popular around Christmas-time. Homemade gifts are very popular in my family–we only do gifts for kids and for the past couple of years mine have been minkee stuffed animals, crayon holders, that kind of hand-sewn stuff. This year I was uninspired and the kids all get books, but I’m sewing doll clothes for a niece and my two daughters. My sister is knitting socks for everyone, yay.
IMO homemade gifts are having a big resurgence these days–just check out popular blog series like Sew, Mama, Sew’s Handmade Holidays. Handmade is chic, I tell you.
When I was a kid, my father would give all of his siblings one gallon bags of shelled pecans. We had two pecan trees in the yard, and he’d have all the kids pick them up (you’re bored? Go out in the yard and pick up pecans!) by the grocery bag full, and sit and watch football while he shelled them.
Once all the kids were grown and gone, he tried to give them something else, and oh, the outrage! “How am I supposed to make Christmas candy if you don’t give me pecans!”
He ended up having to buy shelled pecans to give out every year.
As for baked goods, they’re absolutely the greatest gift you can give, as far as I’m concerned.
Thanks for the encouragement everyone. Most of the problem stems from, I believe, my aforementioned wealthy bro and SIL. Competition or jealousy or something. They’ll probably be the only ones in my family this year who can actually afford Christmas.
So it’s done. I was at the craft store earlier, and bought those inexpensive Chinese take-out type containers, and I’m going to fill them with yummy things. If I knew where to find large mason jars for cheap, I might do some hot cocoa too. And to top it all off, I’ll probably make some ornaments to go with each gift. Simple glass ornaments are very inexpensive and in the past I’ve painted them or filled them with fun sparkly things.
The only thing that would be tacky is someone turning their nose up at a homemade gift.
Personally, I consider giving thoughtless, store-bought gifts tacky, those ones where it’s obvious they put no personal thought into it whatsoever…that it was just an obligation.
We’re making candles this year, and also baking cookies. Gift baskets are fun, too, to get and to give; ones with food items or personal items, specially put together for the person.
I say screw all this commercial Christmas shopping crap anyway. Hey, being currently pretty broke, I’m doing MY part, this year:)
I make soap, from scratch.
Home made olive oil soap is a big hit for most people and with some of the recipes I make people ask for more…
yeah not such a big hit with the family for some reason.
you cant let it bother you if your gift isnt such a huge hit, different strokes and all that, but yeah you should keep in mind the effort that went into the gift. I had to point out to one cousin that making soap from scratch involves lye and lye water either of which are potentially life alteringly dangerous.
I think there is one important caveat: if you give homemade gifts, you can’t spend any time at all bitching about how little time you have, how busy you are, etc–it’s like complaining how poor you are after you give someone a pricey gift–it just makes them feel like an asshole for making your burden worse (even unintentionally).
The XMas of '04, and I was struggling to make rent and basic foodstuffs (Ramen for everyday meals, and Hamburger Helper “for special”).
So I scanned hundred of my Mom’s (7/25/33 - 1/4/04) family photos and picked up some small photo albums cheap, and made unique gift photo albums for everyone that I could. I also included data DVDs with Mom’s entire photo collection (she was no photographer, but was an inveterate shutter-bug).
They went over like a lead balloon, even though my family knew I was struggling. Part of the reason I was struggling was that I got stuck, with no help from my family, clearing up my Mom’s estate after her death. Unless they thought there was some “loot” in it, of course; then they showed up to (try to) pick the bones.
XMas of '05, I was doing much better, and purchased actual store-bought gifts. My family’s attitude was, “Well, about !@#$% time!”
Fuck 'em. My family is dead to me.
Almost every year, our cousin gives us a huge tray featuring a variety of homemade cookies. They are out of this WORLD. In fact, Mom, Baby Sis and I have to ration them out, otherwise, we’d fight over who gets what. And her husband-who, actually, is really our cousin and my sister’s godfather-made my sister a beautiful wooden rocking horse when she was a toddler, that can be converted into a sort of “push” horse. We have it sitting in front of the fire place, in fact! (It’s absolutely beautiful-a real work of a art).
Then my mother has the tablecloth that my dad’s grandmother cross-stitched for her as an engagment gift. And another table-cloth that one of my grandmother’s sisters crocheted for Mom. (I can’t remember which one).
Not only are said gifts NOT tacky, but I would say they’re family heirlooms.
(And I’m glad you posted this, RedRosesForMe because I just remembered-I have to get the supplies for the throw pillow I’m making for Baby Sis this year! She has a music degree, so I’m going to make her a decorative pillow, with a big musical note or a clef hand-embroidered on the front-I LOVE to embroider. She knitted me a nice warm scarf last year-which REALLY comes in handy when I’m waiting for the bus during the winter.)