Homemade Christmas- Idea Sharing

[ImmortalNowBabyDoll]

In the interests of being a bit more intentional about gifting this year, we've decided for our adult friends and family we're going to do homemade gift baskets as a family for Christmas. We've pre-warned them and said there is no pressure to reciprocate (everyone is busy) but if they do want to make instead of buy a gift that's lovely. So far, we are planning:

Me:
Needlefelt Christmas decorations (a nativity set for our religious friend, baubles for everyone else)
Felted soaps
Lavender sugar scrub
Summer berry jam (frozen berries)
Winter spice coffee syrup

Husband:
Caramelised onion chutney
"Abbey crunch" dupe cookies
Beeswax wraps
(He's currently trying to come up with some more ideas)

6 yo daughter (with help ofc!):
Salt dough ornaments
Gingerbread people

Who else is doing homemade Christmas gifts this year? Or has done it previously and has ideas for things that were well-received? Disaster stories also welcome, I'm sure we will encounter some on the way!

🤣

"Regular" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. I could never get her a custom made Enid scarf. It is a regular gift. It's a gift she likes, it was a suprise, and it's not something you can get even remotely the same quality in the shops. I don't make my DCs gifts as well as buying them. It's one or the other.
I'm just glad I'm not related to you if you'd expect an (inferior) gift made by machine AS WELL AS a custom made gift. Luckily I have relatives who appreciate having unique well made things.

I hope you don't get any - shock horror - PLEASURE out of buying machine made gifts for your friends. Or gifts from craft fairs (though as the people who sell at craft fairs usually like making them, that's probably taboo as well).

My Mum knitted my husband a Tom Baker Dr Who scarf last year and it's his favourite gift he's ever received. It's bizarre that if I went to a craft fair and bought all the things I'm making, that would be ok, but because I'm making them myself, it's not. I sell my things at craft fairs so maybe if I went to the craft fair and bought my own things that would be ok? 😂

You have made several personal attacks on me.

I have, on the other hand been perfectly polite to you, whilst calling out your bad behaviour. You aren't reporting my posts, because there's nothing to report. I'm not personally attacking you.

It's not a crime to point out that many people don't like the output of other people's crafting hobbies as gifts.

Not me reporting.

You seem incredibly defensive.

Many people don't like and don't want the output of other people's crafting activities as gifts. That's all.

Enjoy your hobbies, do your crafts, that's great! But recognise that you are doing it for your own enjoyment. It's not a great gift.

I think it's lovely, love homemade gifts, they feel a lot more thoughtful than a lot of shop bought things and less waste. My family did homemade gifts a lot.

You could do some jars of cake or hot chocolate mix with a handwritten label with instructions? Homemade jam?

I also made friends of ours a hamper with all locally sourced products and no plastic, they loved it.

Edit: we made candles as kids. I don't think wax melts are too difficult?

This year I think I'll do books again and recyclable wrapping paper, might get DS to help decorate it. I keep intending to make everyone vanilla extract but you need about 6 months' notice!

That's so nice. Pp is right, I do feel defensive, mostly on behalf of my family and friends. They are not the type of people to turn their nose up and gifts made with love. We don't believe Christmas has to come from a store in our home. PP has been rude about me but she's also assumed my family to be a kind of person they'd not want to be associated with. Your family sounds a lot like mine and I'm so glad of it.

@Cyclingmummy1 your journals are absolutely BEAUTIFUL 🤩

I tend to make chocolates - some simple, some more complex. Candy cane bark is genuinely the easiest of them all, and probably goes down the best

I tend to make them as first footing gifts

Wow, they’re looking good! I’m sure they will be appreciated, and I really hope you finish all hampers/baskets ahead of your expected schedule as I’m sure that’s what will make the most difference. I’m sure I’d not have been half as stressed as I was had I’d not completely underestimated the time it would take. Most of my homemade stuff was food items, and I had to take into account different dietary needs (which, in itself, is no problem - or difficult - for me, as I’m very used to pretty much most diets and can easily adapt), but it just made everything sooo much longer. I did not make a felt nativity, and the closest I’ve come to that was having certain felt figures made out of felt for me that I was given for Xmas a couple of years ago! 😂 but good luck and hope all goes well, would love to see progress and completed pics though (just genuinely interested but obviously completely cheeky if me to ask!) ☺️

You started the thread on a discussion forum for people to discuss. You invited opinions. I'm entitled to mine, and I've put it across politely and respectfully without resorting to personal attacks.

You don't agree with it, that's fine we're all entitled to our own opinions. But it's not OK to throw around personal attacks and nasty digs at people as you have been doing. And you don't get to tell people their opinion isn't wanted on a thread.

Enjoy your day and enjoy your crafting.

Not cheeky at all, I am a little wary as I'm sure someone will be along to tell me my work is rubbish and I will take it heart as I already find fault with it. I'm always shocked when people buy it! But when I've finished I will post a photo anyway.

Hi everyone.

We can see that this thread has veered off track and descended into personal digs, which is a real shame. Not only does this derail the original discussion, but it also makes it difficult for others to follow the conversation and contribute constructively.

We appreciate that people will have differing opinions, and robust debate is absolutely fine, but we do ask everyone to keep things civil and focus on the topic rather than each other.

We're now going to take a closer look through the thread and remove any posts that breach our Talk Guidelines. So, if you notice posts disappearing, that'll be why.

Thanks to everyone who's helping to keep the discussion on track.

Best wishes,
MNHQ.