Homemade Gifts. AIBU or is he?

[WonderLime]

This evening, whilst stuck under a sleeping baby, I’ve spend the evening browsing Pinterest. I’ve seen some great home made gift ideas and I was feeling really inspired.

DP comes home and I tell him about my idea to make a homemade gift for my Secret Santa present this year, as I think I can do something really cool with a limited budget (I’d been thinking bath bombs and sugar scrubs as they look easy).

DP says that ‘no one appreciates home made gifts unless they are really, really good - and anyway, it will end up costing you more’.

I’d told him just today how I’d been feeling quite low and fed up being on maternity leave, so it was nice to feel excited about something. However now I feel disheartened and don’t see the point anymore.

AIBU thinking about making home made gifts, or was his response unreasonable?

I'd much rather get something like hot chocolate for Christmas - I'd drink it and enjoy it. Edible home made gifts, or things that can be used up are my ideal gifts. I don't want clutter and stuff. GOT on Blue Ray would be an absolutely shit gift for me.

I find as I get older I want less an less by way of Christmas and Birthday presents. If I need something I can get it myself. So home made things, given with love, that don't cost much are lovely.

that is a great gift for not a great deal of cost!

That takes us right back to Know Your Audience hairspray. I don't drink coffee or hot chocolate. I don't eat items with gelatin in. I have plenty of mugs. And yet I've had pretty much that exact gift at least five times from actually a very good friend who I've known nearly 25 years. The reason being she hits upon a hamper being a lovely, thoughtful gift but she's so enamoured with her idea that she gets tunnel vision, starts adding things she loves and completely forgets about me! It's not automatically a shit gift but it is to me.

Of course I'm grateful and enthusiastic, I wouldn't hurt her feelings but there can be no doubt it's dawned on her in restaurants and coffee shops that oops CantSleep doesn't eat/drink that and I got it for her for Christmas...

personally almost any handmade gift would be better than game of thrones stuff which I loathe and detest films box sets DVD you need to know what someone likes and if they like it they probably have alreasdy seen it

I didn't say it was a great gift for every single person on the planet. Just that is is a great gift.

Gingerbread syrup and a bottle of wine would work too with some mulling instructions.... mmmm bet it would be lush on ice-cream or in a cocktail as well!

speakout I would really love to know what you make? Not so I can steal all your business I'm just really interested in what can make so much money! I'm guessing you must either be insanely talented and quick at making something high-value or you do something that is replicable in bulk like drawings & prints... but I'm probably way off!

I love crafting but I do it because I enjoy it, it often does work out more expensive than just buying mass-produced things. I would give homemade things (crochet, sewing things, quilts, home-made chutney etc) as gifts but only to people I know would like them. And I love receiving home-made fudge and the like! Ornaments less so but fortunately my family mainly makes gifts of the edible variety.

palm- My creative and practical skills are not huge, I do have a certain flair.
My products fall within a niche esoteric market, so come with "added value" if you like.

hairspray just like homemade gifts don't suit unless you know the person actually likes it, the same applies with GOT it only works if the receipient actually likes it or is interested

Basically whether a gift is homemade, from Boots (3 for 2) or whatever unless the receiver actually wants it, it is going to be regifted, sold, charity or binned. Office Santas are a minefield for inappropiate presents wrong type of alcohol or alcohol at all, cheap chocolate, smellies which they don't like the smell of because in the end most folks don't know their colleagues well enough to find a £5-10 gift they will truly appreciate

I love handmade stuff. Bring on your bath bombs, your marmalade and your sloe gin. I'll treasure it all!

Make Christmas cards! You don’t need to be creative, just buy some stamps!

I have to disagree with deciding now and teaching yourself - I’ve got good at lots of things in a couple of hours of practice. I taught myself to gild books in an hour. I bought an antique, leather bound book and gilded a quote from the book on it

This isn’t a shit gift is it ? - if the recipient actually likes Dickens and would appreciate a nice version

You don’t have to be expert at something to make something pretty good. (Gilding is easy by the way)

speakout

It’s REALLY starting to sound like you sell used pants on eBay

Only on MN I've come across so many people who'd bin homemade foodstuffs .

I'm a good baker, I frequently bring in homemade stuff to work or groups I attend - people are always pleased and the food invariably gets wolfed down in no time. Over the years I've started taking commissions. I doubt people ask just to be polite.

Definitely give it a go, OP! I'd quite fancy a homemade bath bomb for Christmas (and you could make cute little ingredients tags to go with them).

LaurieFairyCake sorry to disappoint.

Can't sleep clowns will eat me

Cadburys hot chocolate powder is vegan. I've never seen a hot chocolate powder with gelatin in?

Speakout I’d love to know what you do to, will you say?

GardenGeek another good source of wool is Woollywumpkins

@LaurieFairyCake, but why would anyone want a book with crooked gold writing on the front? That’s not a home made gift, nor is a mug with a sachet of hot chocolate in it

@Speakout, why are you being so ridiculous. If you didn’t want to tell people what you do, you shouldn’t have bragged in the first place about how much you make. Being enigmatic now just makes you look like you are bullshitting.

Sorry Laurie but did you just stencil some gold letters onto the front of a beautiful leather-bound book??

wombling you can think I am bullshitting if you like.

I don't want to be too specific because

1. Crafters here may pinch my idea and I already have competitors

2.I don't want any of my customers knowing how much profit I make.

Seems fairly evident.

Not stencilled, gilded. Outlined in glue then real gold brushed on, then dusted off. There’s tutorials for gilding all sorts of things, mirrors/jewellery etc online.

But it’s a book that you bought? With a plain cover?

"Not sure why you are so determined to shit on someone who is trying to put some effort in for people she cares about."

I'm not trying to shit on anyone. We're simply having a discussion about whether generic, low skill handicrafts make great Xmas presents- and to a lot of us, they don't.

And yes, I know GoT S7 isn't a great present for everyone. But it would be a great present for me.

And that's kinda the point. Everyone has different interests, and about 99% of people could give you a list of stuff that they'd actually like to receive over homemade biscuits or Boots 3 for 2 crud.

Yep, a copy from 1895 with nice art nouveau papers inside. It’s for a friend (literature prof) and I’ve also gilded a plain moleskin notebook with her name etc.

There are some real kill joys on this thread.

It’s beautiful! I’d love a gift like that.