Do you buy or make your Christmas gifts?
I started finding my creative self when I was in my twenties. I am what I call artsy fartsy!
Since discovering this love and passion and needing to feed my creative side regularly, I started making gifts for people throughout the year - birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, and especially Christmas.
Once I had children, I started including them in this tradition. We enjoyed having time together, the crafts were geared around their capabilities, yet were still useful and pretty for the people receiving them.
We utilize the craft section at the different dollar stores around to keep the costs down. I have been very impressed with the selection, quality and different, unique things they bring into the stores annually. We have been able to purchase different items every year to keep this tradition alive.
One year in particular always sticks in my mind this time of year. When my youngest was 10 years old, it would just be her and me doing it this year, I asked her if she wanted to continue in this tradition, take a break from it or stop doing it all together. Her response to this day amazes me - she said "Mom, I would rather do the crafts and make the gifts for people than receive anything myself".
Every time I think of that little comment that came straight from her heart, it shows me just how much doing this tradition has meant to her. I think it is a combination of many things: deciding what to make that year as we come up with it together, once we have all the supplies, customizing each individual gift per person so that each one is a bit different and unique, sharing time together doing something we both enjoy, making memories, wrapping the gifts together, and then the enjoyment we get out of watching each person discover what we created for them and seeing their reaction to our creation.
Every year we make one for ourselves as well, so that we each have a craft from the year and every time we look at them, we remember the memories we have made, the blooper moments, when something went wrong and we had to fix it, when something turned out better than what we expected. I make one for her and she makes one for me. We wrap them and put them under the tree as well. I have found doing this is also important because of the thought, time and effort that went into the whole process, it is important to have one for yourself at the end of it all. I didn't do this in the beginning and I wish I had.
As we work on them again this year, I am thankful and grateful for the new memories we are making and about to make.
Making your gifts, does take thought, time and effort, however I believe at the end of the day, it is well worth it.
If you have never done this before, I advise you to try it, start with a couple of people and see where it goes, what it turns into. You might be pleasantly surprised.
Questions to Ponder:
Do we go overboard at Christmas?
Have you ever adopted a family at Christmas to help them have a good Christmas? There are different charities and associations that offer this act of kindness.
Would you consider making your Christmas gifts this year or at least some?
