anyone else making some of their gifts this year?

[miss fortune]

I have a lot of aunts and uncles and cousins... and it's only polite for me to give them something since I only show up to christmas eve (christmas day is with the man's family)...

for the past few years I've made them gifts because I have no clue how else to duck the imposed gift value limit in the family and figure out what to do for all of them... there's so many of them

I've made them soap for the past few years as part of their gift and will be doing so again since they seem to like it and they ask if they can have some... this year making scarves and peanut brittle as well for the add ons. I don't go with homemade for the price (soap making supplies aren't cheap if you like to make good soap ... and neither is that much yarn!)

this year doing the same again for the man's multitudinous family as well... so many people that need presents

anyone else taking the homemade route?

 

[ceecee]

Over the year I've made several gifts...

Vanilla extract
Homemade Limoncello
Apple Pie Moonshine
Cocktail Cherries (if they don't get eaten first - so good)
Fudge
Containers of rich hot chocolate mix w/chocolate dipped spoons

I usually make baskets of stuff for my brother and his wife, my parents, mother in law, sister and brother in laws..etc. They love these things and give me ideas all the time of thing they would like in their baskets for the next year. I love to make them, they aren't difficult but they do take some planning (like the liquor and vanilla).

 

[HongDou]

Not me, but my ESFP friend is doing a lot of crafts. She sewed me a winter beanie and also made me a Pokemon doll - I'm really excited. She's also knitting scarves and sewing various accessories for other people too. She's making her older brother a sleeping mask hehe.

 

[kyuuei]

I definitely did hot cocoa one year when I was super poor.

This year I'm doing vanilla extract (expensive but easy and classy-sounding when you talk it up in the card) + small 2 serving satchets of oatmeal with pre-measured sugar, cocoa powder, and coconut flakes to make german chocolate cake (aka fancy sounding chocolate flavored) oatmeal with instructions on how to doctor it up more with fridge ingredients.

The only presents I didn't do like this were two people who have helped my family tremendously this year, my secret santa for the family, and my boyfriend (though I'm giving him one of these too).

 

[Codex]

I think it is absurd when really really large families all get each other gifts. Not only is it really impractical for your savings/budget to take such a hit, but its also a large amount of stress. Setting limits would probably be good for everyone, unfortunately that doesnt happen. Home making gifts is a good way to deal wtih the budget part, but it is still too stressful. You should probably suggest Secret santa, where you pull out a name from each family.

Good luck home making!

 

[EJCC]

I used to knit things for my friends, but that gets old quickly, haha. Knitting a Christmas stocking for my dad, though.