Christmas, thread 2!

[anais]

Ok, so is anyone planning to make their pressies this year? I want to, but some original ideas would be great - especially for adults.

Thanks.

anais, Here are ones I've done:

• The year before last we made personalised calendars for my family and they went down really well. Dp is brilliant at layout and design though and was responsible for all that - he chose great colours and framing for each month etc. I chose all the best family photos, some of which hadn't seen the light of day for 20 years and we tried to make each person's birth month one where there was a photo of them, i.e. October was a picture of me and ds together since we're both October born. I'm sure there's a website (or maybe even in Word) where you can download calendars for next year.

• Last year one sister gave me a lovely framed picture of all 3 of us together when we were very small children and I really loved that too.

• One year I made individual olive oil for everyone - bought nice bottles (they were cheap), put olive oil in them and added different things for each person - one sister had garlic and herbs, another chillis etc. I made personalised labels on the PC for each one with the ingredients and their names.

• We've made a planted flower pot decorated with ds's handprints and the dates for various people. (I know I'm always suggesting this, sorry if it's getting very boring!)

• For my mum's 60th birthday I made her a personalised cook book - I trawled through all my cook books and scraps of recipes and chose my favourite 60. We then scanned them (but you could re-type if there were fewer recipes), added photos of all of us with food (ds with a banana for a smile, that kind of thing) I wrote a commentary for each recipe about why I liked it or why I thought she would like it or how I'd adapted it and we then indexed it and bound it. There were 10 starters, 10 veggie mains, etc etc. Warning though, it took ages and ages since every single recipe had to be checked for measurements etc since the scannner didn't reliably read oz/lb etc. So it was a LOT of work. But it would be better if you only chose a few favourites and a lot less than 60. Or you could handwrite them and make it a work of art?

• We made up a compilation CD of all my adoptive sister's favourite songs for her birthday one year (she's 6) and dp Photoshopped a picture of S Club 7 so it looked like she was in the band for the cover.

• I also did the experience thing as suggested by someone here: got a pretty box and put a book inside, with a note saying it was to be used to write down 27 things the recipient wanted to do in the coming year. The box also contained a disposable camera to record the 27 things.

• One of dp's christmas presents was a book of vouchers from me. The vouchers were for things like "you may come home and have a 2 hour nap even if we're in" and "even if it's your turn to wash up, I'll do it", that kind of thing. Thank goodness he hasn't used most of them!

Anyway, can you see we've been poor for a while?!

Wow, www, lots of ideas, fab thank you.

www that's such a useful list. My dh's father has a big birthday coming up and we need to do something special for it, and by special I don't mean spending lots of money. He really isn't in need of much. The recipients of your gifts are very lucky people.