All I Want For Christmas... (Homemade Christmas Presents)

Member Name: raehippychick

Product:	Homemade Christmas Presents
Date:	08/04/05 (1205 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, Make people happy, Keeps kids amused

Disadvantages: Takes time and effort, Have to plan ahead, Frustrating if it all goes wrong!

When my younger sister was at college I was a very hard up new mum. For Christmas one year I planned ahead and each week when I did my family shopping I would add an extra tin of food or a small treat to the shop. By the time Christmas had arrived I had amassed a nice little collection which I put in a big cardboard box wrapped in brightly coloured paper. I packaged the goodies up by using shredded tissue paper saved from various sources

Some items I would suggest are:
~ tins of basics e.g. beans, vegetables, spaghetti hoops – it all depends on the recipients tastes; obviously you won’t want to include a tin of meatballs for a vegetarian!
~ Bags of rice or pasta
~ Toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, ‘feminine hygiene products’, or if a the hamper is for a young man, then shaving foam, razors, body spray
~ Small treats such as a book, chocolate, a posh piece of indulgence from Lush

My sister was very pleased with her hamper especially as it meant that at a time when students are particularly impoverished after buying presents and financing their Christmas social lives her January grant went further because of the amount of basic non-perishable food I had included. The little treats made the dull winter months and longs days of studying (ahem!) more pleasurable too

If you are fairly good at cooking a box of homemade biscuits, sweets or a cake will go down a treat presented in a handmade box with tissue paper and decorations. This is another thing that children can join in. let them loose in the kitchen to make some garish messy buns and sweets then they can make a mess of another room while they create boxes and bags – I guarantee any grandparent will love the result. Of course you’ll have to cope with the clearing up – getting flour and eggs out of hair, and glue and tinsel out of the furnishings, but that is just part of the true sprit of Christmas

Of course homemade cards are popular too – messy to make certainly but very pleasurable to receive. This is an ideal pastime for your offspring, you can while away many a dull afternoon in autumn manufacturing cards and decorations. The kids will be happy sticking, pasting, cutting and generally getting very messy and you’ll be able to feel very smug as they are not glued to the goggle box or Playstation – just glued to each other and the furniture! Get a pile of cheap card, tinsel, glitter, felt pens, glue, sweetie wrappings (Roses and Quality Street are good), scraps of material, tin foil and any ting else that catches your eye. Round up any stray kids put them around a newspaper covered table in their old clothes and sit back and enjoy the spectacle with a relaxing glass of wine in your hand. By the end of a couple of hours you can shove the kids in the bath, clear up the devastation and (hopefully) survey a small mound of cards destined for adoring Grannies!

Think about your wrapping style – this can turn a small gift into something personal and fun. As a teenager my friends and I could really only afford to buy a cheap but appropriate mug for each other; I wrapped mine so that the paper went inside and through the held – it looked just like a mug, the opposite of disguising the contents and I added a gift label that had very clear instructions that the present should not be prodded or handled so that the contents would be a surprise on opening. Loo roll tubes are ideal for making cracker to hold small items such as jewellery or perhaps from children a handful of sweets. A bottle of wine can be swathed in paper so that it looks almost like a bouquet if you use masses of crepe paper and tie a big bow, or add a cheap Christmas decoration above the top of the bottle and leave plenty of paper spare above to fan out. Boxes enfolded with paper and topped off with a big bow look delightful no matter how small a token the contents are. Save all the wrapping accoutrements over the years and you will have a fine collection to turn a cheap piece of tat into an object of beauty.

One last little touch I add to my offerings is the label – I save Christmas cards each year and the following year use the Christmas card I was given as the gift tag – a glass, a pen and scissors make this the cheapest gift tags I know of! And personal too – people get their own cards back! Ok, they might not realise it but it makes me smile!


[PS - sorry this so early, but I have already started hoarding bits for Christmas pressies!]

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