...of Meaningful
Gift Giving
CTC Readers'/Website Visitors Poll:
Handmade Gifts of Love
In the November 15, 2002 issue of the e-zine, we
asked
our readers and website visitors: "Do you plan to
give any homemade Christmas gifts this year? If so, what will you make?"
Responses:
| "This year I am
making the self-tying scarves (taken from 'Sewing with Nancy’ show) and embroidering dresser scarves for my mom and
mother-in-law. My daughter is making cute little bird magnets: two small pompoms glued
one on top the other, glued to a small twig. She then puts on google
eyes and a small feather down the back to resemble his little tail. Two
on a stick can be love birds or you make red as cardinals or yellow for
canaries. The possibilities are almost endless. Just have fun." ~
Lisa |
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"We try to make gifts every
year for our family. We have been doing this since I attended midnight mass in a small town 5 years ago and I
was touched by what the priest said. He said that God didn't expect us
to ‘buy’ gifts for our loved ones at Christmas, that we have been
given gifts which is what we really should be giving as gifts. I really took
this message to heart and decided that I would spend the rest of the
new year making gifts all throughout the year to give away next Christmas.
The first Christmas my gifts went over like a lead balloon. I guess
the quality just wasn't that great. But I hung in there, and as always
happens when we use our gifts, we get better and better. Practice
makes perfect. Nowadays, I have a sneaking suspicion that most of our family
members actually look forward to seeing what they'll get from us. And all throughout the year I'm thinking of Christmas and thinking of new
ideas for things I can make. Also, if you persist with this, and
people realize you actually enjoy living this way, and they aren't going to
get from you the latest $19.95 gizmo that was made by some poor factory
worker in China who got paid 30c a day, I reckon it frees them up to look around at more creative ways of giving (eventually).
This year, my 7 year old daughter is right into it. Even she has a
gift box of things she has been gathering all year, and I know she has
taken a lot of pleasure in getting it out and touching the things she has
made. She goes to a Waldorf (Rudolf Steiner) school where handwork is an important part of the curriculum.
Some of the things I have made in the past are:
* One-off copies of three children's story I have written with painted
illustrations
* A book of customized ‘Roses are Red’ poems, illustrated with
photographs which I took of my daughter on a couple of occasions when we were
having picnics at public gardens.
* The List - My list of ‘important’ wisdom artistically presented,
SARK style, in book form
* Illustrated quote books - My favorite quotes handwritten on art
paper with small paintings on the opposite pages (a small 12-page book)
* My short stories as a chapbook, printed out from the computer
* A family history book called Love Stories - What I know of how my parents, grandparents, and great grandparents met and fell in love, in
story form and including wedding photographs
* Three Poems - a handwritten book with simple pen illustrations which
contained three poems I selected from a book which my grandfather gave
my grandmother on their first Christmas as a married couple
* Heirloom seeds in handmade packets
* ‘Sunflowers are Yellow’ and ‘Marigolds are Orange’ - 2 wee
books with heirloom seeds attached in a little felt pouch and a simple 'roses are
red' style series of poems about planting the seeds (except in this
case Sunflowers are Yellow for the first book and Marigolds are Orange for
the second book)
* Little felt figurines
* A Steiner doll stuffed with fleece for my daughter, which she treasures to this day
* Flax kete - Kete are maori-style baskets. Last year I learned
weaving so that I could vary my gifts
* Compilation of my daughter's artwork, on good quality paper painted with top quality watercolor paint stuck onto pages of a homemade book
(made from art paper) with verses written over top.
Other ideas I have are for handmade books of
* Favorite Bible verses
* Family recipes
* If I could cook or make preserves or natural cleaning products I
would create some pretty labels and present those nicely.
When my dad was alive, he used to pick up hitchhikers and give them a piece of paper with his famous pikelet recipe on one side and his
testimonial and favorite Bible verses on the other.
My daughter, Felicity, has made:
* woolen pot stands
* felt needle books
* felt pin cushions
* scarves
* knitted gnomes and various simple knitted toys
* She also made a double finger-knitted skipping rope and some wooden knitting needles with macrame beads on one end and the other ends of
dowel sanded to a point, but she had decided to keep these.
I find with handmade gifts that the presenting, (i.e. the wrapping) is
all-important and this must be done as stylishly as possible. Because
we save all the gift wrap and ribbons we receive, we have a nice
assortment. Our gifts are generally small, so we can cut the paper down so that it
looks new, or screw it up so that its wrinkliness is a feature. We sometimes
use two contrasting gift wraps on the one gift which feels luxurious. Nowadays I make the simplicity-ness (simpleness?) of the gift a
feature of its beauty, so over-the- top wrapping can balance things in case
you're nervous of people thinking you're being mean at Christmas.
By November, we usually have a nice collection of gifts. If I am
making books, I usually write ‘Limited edition, ten copies’ or whatever.
I always keep one for myself and one for my daughter to treasure. All we
need to do then is write our list, decide who's getting what, make any
extras that need to be made and wrap them and post them overseas if
needed.
We have a family rule that we stay at the table until the last person
has finished eating. I find that I finish first, so I do my mending at the
table, or if I am up to date on it, I do some gift work. It just gets done. No problem, no stress, and truly appreciating my
God-given
gifts." ~ Julianne of New Zealand
PS Hope this is not too long.
PPS Using my gifts has gone on to help me as I am now studying children's literature and intend getting at least one of my children's
books eventually published.
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| "I do genealogy and have given (to the
family members who are interested in it) a collage frame (I bought the
frame on sale) with photos of ancestors. I also make a ‘tree’ and
include it in the gift so they can see how they are related to the various
photos. If you are artistic you could draw the tree yourself on some stiff
card stock, then put the photos where they belong and put it all in an
inexpensive frame. I scanned the photos and printed them out on my
computer so they were fairly inexpensive. You can go back as far as you
have photos of ancestors for. Even kids seemed to enjoy looking at their
ancestors." ~ Anita |
| "One of the neatest things my daughter and I do at
Christmas time is to make our Christmas cards and envelopes. We use an old
card and envelope from a card received earlier in the year as our pattern
for envelope and card size. We use construction paper and cutout forms
from scraps of Christmas paper and write a personal wish for each person.
We use glue for the envelope and usually I go through my old costume
jewelry box and find something with an interesting design to apply the
stamp into the back of the sealing wax we use to officially seal the card
(after using glue). We've had several comments about how neat this idea is
and I've found it's also a great way to have quality time with my
daughter." ~ Maria |
| "I will be making and bottling Irish Cream just as I
do every year!" |
|
"We plan on making three gifts:
Knitted Ear Bands--like ear muffs only they are bands.
Flower Presses--out of 1/2 inch plywood.
Marble Game Board--a marble and dice game, where you roll the dice and
move the marbles around the board till they get home."
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"Since we have a family of six, money is always tight. This year I
will be making tote bags out of tapestry material, homemade mixes in
baskets with jelly or muffins, bean soup mix, fleece blankets with a
blanket stitch around the edges, ‘dogbone’ pillows, fleece robes,
fleece caftans, a tapestry table topper, long boxers and aprons. When my
children were young, I made fancy hairbows, smocked night gowns, doll
clothes, ponchos, sock dolls, and stuffed animals…" ~ Beth
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"I am planning to make gift baskets for everyone in my family this
year. My husband is a chef, so he and I will enjoy doing this together.
I've been collecting gift baskets from thrift stores over the past year.
The plan is to make chocolate-coated chocolate chip cookies, chocolate
dipped spoons, muesli (I think you Americans call this 'granola', I'm not
sure), fruit cakes, and white chocolate fudge. We'll also put tea and
coffee in the baskets, as well as a small gift that is personal for the
people receiving it. This will be great fun and I know everyone will love
it." ~ Amanda
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"I am making knitted socks, slippers, and a vest. In the past I've
made mittens, doll clothes, shawls and lace bookmarks. I also saw a cute idea for a little something extra I'm putting with several gifts
this year. Coffee treats made with old silver spoons (from the flea market) polished up and dipped in chocolate, then drizzled with white
chocolate, wrapped in cellophane and tied with curling ribbon. I thought they were much nicer than the ones I've seen with plastic
spoons, and cheaper too." ~ Shawn
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"I will make and give pillow cases and decorated made-from-scratch
chocolate cake."
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"Homemade Banana Nut Bread or other kinds of sweet breads,
homemade chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies, and a crocheted baby
blanket." ~ Anna
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"I'll give handmade gifts including spiced tea mix and zucchini
bread." ~ Carole
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"I make homemade cookies and candies for all neighbors,
teachers, mail carriers, etc. I make cross stitch gifts for
grandparents, and we don't exchange with extended family (cousins etc)
anymore. We just get together and have fun instead!" ~ Tammy
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Editor's Note: Thanks to everyone who took the
time to respond.
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