Home Made Christmas Presents - Yes or No?

I love giving and recieving handmade gifts and as far as I am aware they have always been really well recieved. I will always treasure the things that my brother made for me especially since he is no longer with us. The person who has made it for you has put a little bit of themselves into it and made an original piece especially for you - what is not to love about that! This year I am making something for both Mum and my sister and to be honest, I could have bought them cheaper, but they wouldn't be the same.

I'd much rather have home made food or drink I can consume rather than some useless tat.

My brother and his girlfriend hand sewed me a gorgeous owl cushion for my birthday last year. I was actually a bit taken aback by the thoughtfulness and the time it must have taken for them to make it, and because of this it was one of the loveliest gifts I've ever received.

I'd much rather have a homemade gift - having done some myself in the past I'm aware of the time, effort and love that goes into them :)

Some home made wine would be good

I've added a poll to the thread, vote away!

 

When I left my last job I got a few gifts, but the best one was a photo collage someone made for me, using photos from various work nights out, Christmas parties, charity fancy dress days etc.

 

I was grateful for all my gifts because I didn't expect anything, but that one was my favourite because of the time and effort the person had put into it.

Edited December 13, 2011 by Andy

definatly wouldnt mind if it was from a child, from an adult.....like misty says depends what it was, wouldnt be impressed with a bit of thoughtless tat

 

Rather than have someone waste money buying you some thoughtless tat you mean?

...or do you feel like its a bit of a let down?

Depends..... do you mean from children or adults? Do you mean chocolates and cakes, or toilet roll covers? Depends

definatly wouldnt mind if it was from a child, from an adult.....like misty says depends what it was, wouldnt be impressed with a bit of thoughtless tat

That nicely illustrates the little cloud of disappointment that can hang over hand-made gift giving. That's especially the case when spreading the hand-made love beyond your immediate circle of close friends and family, and where care hasn't been taken to carefully match the gift to the recipient. The latter point, of course, might be a cause for disappointment if the gift was shop-bought, but when 'hand-made', for some, is still associated with the cheap, quick and easy 'home-made' option, that disappointment can turn to derision.

 

As some of the threads in the knitting group illustrate, some people really do have minimal appreciation of how much skill, time, effort and money can go in to crafting something hand-made (just to clear it up: having someone hand knit you a Christmas jumper is not a quick or cheap alternative to buying one...)

 

So, if you don't want your gloriously intricate Niebling lace to end up lining the cat's basket, or your painstakingly traditional Fair Isle jumper - knit from that out-of-print pattern you went to the trouble of tracking down - shipped off to Oxfam, be careful who you craft for.

As some of the threads in the knitting group illustrate, some people really do have minimal appreciation of how much skill, time, effort and money can go in to crafting something hand-made (just to clear it up: having someone hand knit you a Christmas jumper is not a quick or cheap alternative to buying one...)

Amen to that, Hecate - my Mrs has been knitting jumpers/pashminas/etc. for many of our family/friends since at least October. Some she has knitted from angora wool, which is really expensive, as it turns out. She's finishing the last jumper at the moment (intricate Xmas thingy with multiple colours, reindeers and whatnot), going to be a close call with the dates.

 

I have made paintings for family and friends, am doing a couple this year. Always highly personal (i) because I generally have very little personal time available to do any of that, and (ii) because I always paint it for the recipient, using the recipient's family as subject-matter (difficult to explain, as quite an abstract style, but each recipient knows the painting is 'their family').

I make as many gifts as I can-which is not that many:

dvds

cds

photos

photos turned into paintings (although not with me painting them-that would be ****e)

 

I have also made a couple of gift bags out of old jeans-they look great, I was impressed with my sewing but took a ridiculous amount of time

 

They have always gone down really well-at least to my face!

 

If anyone made me a gift it would be gratefully received-it takes soooo much effort and time.

 

The worst christmas presents are cheap plastic stocking fillers-straight to the charity shop after christmas they go-usually unopened...and mugs, as a child you don't want a mug and by the time you are an adult you have 20 christmases of gift mugs in your cupboard! bah humbug!

 

The best present has to be homemade wine! Wish I knew how to do it/had room!

Edited December 14, 2011 by llamatron