Christmas is only a few weeks away, and the economy is not making gift purchases easy. If you are wondering how you can afford all the gifts you want to give, you may want to consider making your own gifts. Making homemade gifts can be rewarding and fun! While some people just don’t feel crafty enough for such a feat, there are literally hundreds—nay, thousands—of ideas that can be custom-tailored to fit your skills and own forms of creativity. It is possible to not only create something homemade for everyone on your list this year, but to create something that they’ll each love and treasure. By keeping a few simple things in mind as you plan, you really can’t go wrong!
Channeling Your Creative Strengths
While not everyone is craftily inclined, everyone has strengths and skills and hobbies that they enjoy. The first trick in homemade gift giving is establishing something that you can do well. Maybe you are terrible with sewing but have a knack for painting. You might crumple paper crafts but have finesse with wood saws and building. Whether you craft pottery, crochet, knit, or snap amazing photos, there is something you can create that others will appreciate.
If you’re not sure, take some time to explore the hobbies you’re drawn to and discover those secret skills waiting to be revealed. Combining any number of these can be a fun and creative way to make masterpiece gifts that your friends and family will love and appreciate.
Make It Personal
Once you have an idea of the type of project(s) you would like to work on, you then have to consider your individual recipients. While more generic gifts will work for colleagues, teachers, and neighbors, for your friends and family you will want to delve a little deeper. Take some time to consider:
- What is your relationship with your recipient? Often times the answer to this question will get you started on the right foot. When you consider the personal aspect of your relationship, you may think of inside jokes, deeper meanings, or feelings that you want to convey in your gift. This is an ideal place to start.
- What does your recipient do for fun? The answer to this question will narrow down your expansive list of possibilities, because by focusing on something that you know they already love, you can’t go wrong!
- What does your recipient do for a living? This question is especially helpful for recipients who love what they do for work or spend a lot of time at the office or traveling. More than likely, if their job requires their presence for many hours of the day, they will greatly appreciate a little homemade goodness to keep close while they’re away.
Made With Love
This step is to connect what you excel at with what your recipient loves. Merge the two together for an incredible gift-giving result. There are limitless options in the type of gift you can create and an even greater amount of the ways in which you can create them.
Gifts For Neighbors and Coworkers
Perfect homemade gifts for neighbors and coworkers can include less personalized items. Kitchen goodies [1] like mixes, candies, and baked goods paired with great packaging and fun tags can be perfect for this type of gift giving. Handmade gift sets, such as this teabag set [2], are also a great option!
Gifts For Teachers
Finding the right gift for your kids’ teachers can be difficult, especially if you have several on your list. While many of the above options for neighbors and coworkers would work well for teachers, you can also take teacher gifts to that next level of personalization. A cute note set [3] like this accompanied with a small gift card is a fantastic holiday treat to share. With so many great teacher gift ideas [4], there’s a perfect match for every teacher on your list. The great thing about doing a homemade gift is recruiting your kiddos to help you complete them!
Gifts For Kids
When it comes to making gifts for my kids, I always have too many ideas and not nearly enough time to complete even half of them! You can find a plethora of options, from homemade play-dough [5] (always a must-have stocking stuffer in my house) to felt food. You can also make caddies for crayons and cars, dolls, and books. You can find online tutorials for literally anything you want to create.
You can also really dig deep with some non-traditional ideas. This bowling set [6] project is on my list of gifts to make this year! How about a barn [7] for all of those little farm animals? You can also break out the power tools and create a fantastic tool bench [8] that any little man would love.
Gifts For Her
For those friends, moms, sisters, grandmas, and all of the other women in your life, these will probably be the easiest to plan for. Lets be honest, we’re just easier to please. While gifting some of the generic types of gifts are often a great hit among female relatives and friends, there are also a number of fantastic options that go a little deeper.
You can easily create a basket full of homemade spa and pampering items [9] that any woman would love. These items can be made quickly, easily and often on a small budget…perfect for making multiple baskets! There are a variety of other options from jewelry and scarves to coffee cozies [10] and everything in between [11].
Gifts For Him
Just as we may find it easy to make gifts for women, guys can be that much more difficult to find ideas for. However, with a little bit of extra digging and a pinch more of creativity, there are a bunch of great ideas [12] for the men in your life, too. Make a tie [13] or take a photo of something he cares about. For dads and grandpas, make collages of your kids or even get the kids involved to create a fantastic photo art project. The ideas are limitless!
Play around with ideas, and have some fun researching different tutorials and products. With a world of ideas, projects and how-to instructions at your fingertips, you’re armed with everything you need to make an incredible homemade Christmas!
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