To hate home made gifts!

[LendAnEar]

Christmas is approaching and no doubt one of us will end up with some sort of home made crap gift 🙄

Am I the only one who hates anything hand made? They usually look shit and just add to clutter!

I'd love to see any decent homemade gifts anyone has received, if they're brave enough to share a photo? I doubt there's many that will change my opinion.

A friend of mine once painted a portrait of myself and my daughter from a favourite photo I had put up on FB. She is very talented and it is one of my most treasured possessions. But if someone with no talent or practical skills made me something out of cardboard and glitter, I would be less than impressed. Some people really do not realise they are not good at some things though. How on earth do you tell them?

I’ve had some lovely homemade gifts, including a Christmas tree ornament that I have used for several years.

I’m not crafty at all but I made my parents a hamper a couple of years ago with homemade biscuits, jam, chutney and sloe gin. It was well received!

I love homemade gifts, in fact I actually prefer them. The thought of someone spending time on something for me means more to me than spending money.

@PenguinBollard that is beautiful could you possibly share the name if your business, DM if too outing?

Another ungrateful thread .

To you posters with pics can we please exchange gifts? Stripey blanket, knitting, everything in leather - oh I'm so envious.

Granted not everyone is equally skilled. But my dm was a sewing and knitting wizard, she made me some amazing things. Now she is not here anymore, homemade knitting has dried out 😢.

I agree entirely OP but on here people will just leap on their high horse- that is that whether it was made at home or purchased.

You can appreciate the sentiment and the effort without automatically being 'ungrateful', and you can be grateful and not like something. They aren't mutually exclusive.

I will say that I don't really like being bought stuff regardless as I hate waste, and prefer to choose my own home decor, clothing, fragrance etc if and when I want it. Whilst I agree that it's less bad if the person is good at whatever it is, it doesn't automatically mean I want one at the end of the day. That is not the same as being ungrateful.

Making stuff at home is time consuming, mostly costly anyway , and a bit wasteful- I don't subscribe to the notion that a homemade gift is more thoughtful or sentimental either- they often seem to be more about the fact the person fancied doing that 'this year' because it felt homely, they saw it on tv or pinterest or they have a new hobby etc. I usually just wish for everyones sake the person hadn't invested any of the above time and feel vaguely sad they had for something I don't even want. I would feel more comfortable with no gift.

There are some incredibly good handmade items on here! l know how long it takes to make something like that, and you can never recoup your time in any way.
Beautiful things. Just make sure you give them to someone who'll appreciate them.

Wow some great pics of gifts on here! Some people are so clever!
@goldierocks love that calendar!

OP, don’t be such a bah humbug! I’d be thrilled to get a thoughtful gift

Homemade edible gifts are always welcome here. Not keen on crafty stuff tho.

I knit and sew and have had requests for home made gifts. They are of saleable quality.

@stuckinarutwithyou wow that is amazing!!! How do you do it?

For me the distinction is between whether someone has made me something because they know I'll love it, or whether they've made something because they can.

So I'd really hate being given scarf, gloves and hat as I like what I buy. A nice striped blanket or leather bound book would be delightful. A bottle dipped in glitter, a frame with our names in scrabble tiles, a painted wine glass and so on would be awful gifts to me.

I make the meanest strong mustard, perhaps ds is getting a jar, since this is a big no no .

I’m pretty ungrateful about most gifts, by MN standards: I ask people (politely) not to give me things at Christmas, as I don’t like the clash of different people’s expectations and all the potential for misunderstandings and hurt feelings. But some people will forge ahead regardless, and almost inevitably they are the people looking for a home for their tonnes and tonnes of yarn-based craft.

I don’t feel touched that people have spent so much time making my present: it’s their hobby. It’s like an invitation to an amateur play, or a piano recital. If they didn’t give me the scarf they’d just be giving it to someone else. I wish they would - as this thread demonstrates, loads of people do really love a handmade scarf!

l made this little teacosy for a friend's birthday. She was thrilled with it. l've been asked to make another four, three for this Christmas.
l made the rainbow blanket for another friend's birthday. l know she uses it as it's always on the sofa when l go to see her.

Holy shit @katseyes7 your blanket wow.

katseyes I love the tea cosy! I drink proper leaf tea from a pot, just up my street.

Maybe I've just been lucky, I've never had a rubbish homemade present.

I think it depends on what the gift is and how proficient the giver is. I'm not generally a fan of homemade gifts, especially food - even more so if children are involved and sticky, snotty fingers have 'helped' in the making.

Madambee Thank you! l loved making it. The colours are just lovely.

Roussette Thank you! There's quite a lot of work in that, not so much the knitting, but the construction and finishing.
My best friend always makes me a cake for my birthday and Christmas. She knows my favourite, and shop bought just isn't the same!

This has been done to death now with the whole homemade gift threads

So what? If people are interested, they’ll read and comment; if not, they won’t.

I love edibles and drinkables. Craft stuff depends on what it is. One friend enjoys crafting plus she was a SAHM and her husband is tight (despite earning more than me and DH combined). She gave us homemade stuff that wasn’t great quality and looked rushed. I bought her some lovely gifts when her DC1 was born. I got a blanket which was badly sewn together and not washable.

@zaffa

Thank you but I have since used them myself. Every year I make myself a new hats and scarfs and my friend takes the ones I used the previous years, I never offer she always asks so I thought she liked them :-/ This year I thought I'd give her new, she also has reynauds disease so always has freezing cold hands which is why I lined the mittens, this set was made totally with her in mind and wouldn't "just be given to someone else" as someone else as suggested :-( Come Sept/Oct time next year she'll take this set from me so either way she'll get them lol

In the mean time I hope she likes the reduced prices pjs I've got her from Primark, they might be a couple of sizes too small, but she really won't be able to complain as that's what I receive from her every year lol

@katseyes7 that tea cosy is genuinely to die for!!!! How smart and creative are you!!! I’d love to be able to make something like that! Brilliant

The leather work is fab, but in general I hate all homemade gifts. I especially hate anything knitted or crocheted or anything made by children because it's generally fuck ugly and useless and you feel you can't throw it away even though you want to. I also hate having to look grateful for these abominations when really I want to say nope, I hate it please take it back. I can't have wool next to my skin anyway. I hate dolls and toys and as I've got no kids why the fuck would I want them anyway.

Feel,better now . Fed up with certain friends foisting their god forsaken woolly shit on me - which ends up in a cupboard upstairs or in the dogs' beds.

SIL in makes these for when babies arrive & I love it - so thoughtful. Not everything homemade is great but we don't get too many. Two people knitted clothes for when our baby arrived and I loved the hats and jackets.