Shitty homemade Christmas Gifts

[justilou1]

I’m really loving the homemade Christmas gifts thread, and am watching it for inspiration. Can we start one for ideas for things to avoid - ie glitter-encrusted his&hers champagne flutes.

Hamma bead Christmas decorations.

Aw Jensen, you could just smile, say thanks and let the DC play with them/throw them in the recycling.

Would you not feel a little bit pleased that someone went to the trouble to make them for you ?

Mind you, the homemade peanut butter and jam spread last year was a bit .

Sauce jar filled with Sun Pat and a blob of Extra Fruit Preserve. Not even an attempt to swirl.

Homemade stuff is great when it's made with skill and thoughtfully given - eg MIL's homemade booze and hand-knitted jumpers. If it's genuinely thoughtful then great.

But mostly we get absolute stinkers: Breakfast cereal in a kilner jar. Mouldy jams and chutneys. A single tea light with instructions on how to make it scented (by us buying essential oils and dripping it on to the candle). I know people are short of cash, in which case I'd prefer they didn't waste it on stuff which is just as thoughtless as tat from a shop.

Knitted crap. Had a boss who used of knit us awful presents every year. She’d go on for weeks beforehand about how time consuming they were. We’d then get a hideous knitted flower badge in some gaudy colour. Nobody ever wore them and we all suspect she did this out of her own constant need to virtue signal rather than true Christmas spirit.
Jam, sloe gin, cake on the other hand - yes please!

I did make fudge for everyone one year. It was bloody delicious though.

@Holymosquito Tesco sell bramble preserve, is that the same thing?

So. Better to buy Bramble Preserve, contributing to the profits of big business, to food miles, to damaging the environment than to make it, because home made stuff is shit. Right.

Wondering how you get the cakes out of the baked bean tins. They all seem to be ring pull cans these days which leaves a lip around the opening. Surely the cakes are going to get stuck or slightly mashed if you force them out.

Would tuna tins work?

Tuna tins? Surely you mean tractor wheel tins?

No those little John West ones. Otherwise I will have to go back to tinned beans

I love any handmade gifts. It's the thought that counts and it's more effort than something you can grab at a shop. I have had a few from people and really appreciate it.

It's exhausting trying to be thoughtful, and often misfires.

I once made the horrendous mistake of getting first editions (not hugely expensive ones!) of books that seemed appropriate for dh's family. The message came back as to why I'd given them old charity shop books... (in spite of explanation).

I got a framed picture of place I'd been with dsis and we'd enjoyed (I thought!). She stared at it and put it aside and it has never graced a wall in her house

Handmade stuff makes me nervous.

I'm always conscious of the effort someone went to and feel I have to over-thank them or get them to tell me how they made it.

Foody things are fine, because if they are not to my taste, I'll take them into the office, where there is always someone who'll eat anything.

But the crafty things are difficult, because I feel like I should keep it and end up with piles of tat.

I was once given an embroidered hanky holder, which i felt obliged to admire. I'm not really a hanky kind of a person, so never had occasion to whip out my specially embroidered hanky holder, which I'm guessing is designed to hide your mucus encrusted rag from others. Having admired the first, I've received one of these little holders every year for the last 11 years and now have a selection of them that I will NEVER use! I'm secretly hoping that the hanky holder embroiderer is reading this and I never get another one.

Aah, I love a homemade gift, it's sad that so many people don't! Even if it's not something to my taste it makes me feel happy that someone cares enough to spend time and effort making something for me rather than buying bath salts or whatever (although I do love a bath bomb/nice toiletries too).

I don't make gifts myself because I have fuck-all spare time and zero creative ability, but I admire those who do!

I'm also puzzled by the hygiene worriers. If you'd eat a meal or even drink a cup of tea made by a person, why wouldn't you eat jam they'd made?

The hygiene thing is just normal human irrationality.

@greyspottedgoose. Bought bramble preserve is never as good. Mind you when I have sold mine it goes for far more than Tescos! (I never have much to sell as most of it gets eaten by us).

Perhaps that is the key. If you make something anyway which you eat/love/wear/use yourself and then you make extra for friends and relations then its a lovely thoughful gift. But if you just make something for the sake of gifting it then it verges on the ‘shitty’ side?

I love a homemade gift, but it has to be well made enough to be useful to the person recieving it. I know it's also meant to be saving air miles and packaging, but people buy loads of new stuff for these gifts: that kilner jar you just packed the cereal into probably was probably made in China, so it makes me sad when people are conned by the internet into spending lots of time and money on making things that aren't actually much use to the recipient. ”Meaningful” to the giver sometimes doesn't equal ”thoughtful” if it's poorly made or the recipient can't use it.

Bertrand well that's the thing. I struggle immensely to eat food prepared by others (apart from my DH) and also to eat in places which I haven't cleaned myself.

I don't have a diagnoses of OCD but have struggled with this all my life. I would no more eat a fairy cake at a fete than I'd lick a toilet seat.

It's awful. I have to turn down a lot of invitations or sit, being the weird one who doesn't eat.

Do you never have a meal out or go to a cafe AjasLipstick?

Someone made my mum crocheted cutlery draw insert liners once.
Mum is a very lovely person and did try and put them to use but the forks catching in the holes did her nut in.😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 amazing

@Imogen I hate fudge but I’d be really pleased to be given some that someone had gone to the trouble of making. I’d definitely have a taste because you made it. I wouldn’t do that with bought fudge. If it wasn’t my cup of tea, the DCs, DH, DM, and DSis could duke it out. Or I could swap with my sweet toothed friend who (inexplicably) hates cheese. Does anyone get given homemade cheese for Xmas? I need to get myself into that place.