A Year of Homemade Gifts

Happy new year, everyone!

Now that we’ve come to the beginning of a new year, I can reveal some of the fun things we’ve made this past year as I attempted a year of all homemade gifts!

As some of you may have noticed (those people being friends and family who have received gifts from us this year), I have tried to make most of our gifts this year. Although my primary love language is not gifts, I enjoy making gifts for others and receiving homemade gifts from others. I think it has to do with the fact my love language is time. In a way, by giving me a homemade gift you’re giving me the gift of your time. When I make a gift, I put time and love into it so really you’re getting more than an upcycled picture frame, you’re getting my gift of time, which frankly is worth quite a lot these days!

So in general this year, I tried to stick to three rules:

1. It should be handmade or thrifted (more on this later).
2. It should cost me less than a bought gift (because like most SAHM families, we’re tight on money).
3. It should be something the kids can help make (I’ve tried to involve my 2-year-old and 1-year-old in the process where possible).

Now, don’t get me wrong. Sometimes I do not have time (I am a SAHM after all!), or I forgot about the event until the last minute, and that’s where the thrifted gifts come in. All year long—that’s right: ALL YEAR LONG—I shop at thrift stores and yard sales and pick up anything that makes me think of someone who I might give a gift to. Which means even if your birthday is in October, I might have picked up your gift in May—I was thinking of you even then!

I do realize some people don’t view homemade gifts this way. Instead, they look at the monetary value of a gift and think, “Well, she just made me something, didn’t even spend anything on it, I bet, so why would I buy something for her?” And that’s fine, because without you the economy would collapse. 😉 For some people, it really is important that they’re spending money on someone. And I love gift cards! They’re one of the best gifts out there for parents who need a date night (hint, hint), so that’s why I said MOST of my gifts were handmade this year, not ALL. I am just a Real Mom trying to teach my kids the value of their gifts, that they should mean more than money, and have some heart in them, too.

And again, some of the best gifts we’ve received were actually “experience gifts” from museums to date nights to days at the beach—you can’t trade that in! So thank you, to those who have made us some incredible things and thought about us all year long!

Now here are some examples of things we made this year:

• Silhouette artwork for decorating bedrooms

• Banner for nursery

• T-shirt art for bedroom

• Homemade cards

• Art

• Block art

• Mason jar cookie mix and jelly bean prayer jar for friends for Easter
• Homemade Easter baskets for cousins

• Easter baskets for kids

• Handprint pot holders

• “What to eat” laminated menus with dry-erase markers for Mothers’ Day 
• Homemade vanilla, mint extracts, mixes

• Scrabble picture hanger

• Star Trek container

• Anniversary picture with map hearts of everywhere we’ve lived

• Framed pictures of family with Bean and Bird
• Turkey toes container (candy corn)

• Make your own melted crayon art gift in a box (with instructions)

• Harry Potter coloring book 

• Dry-erase activity books 

• Build your own fort kit 
• Books about Bean and Bird

As the years go by our homemade gifts will get better as I learn how to do more (like sew!) and the kids get older and more capable. But for a first year’s attempt we sure had fun!

God bless you all and good luck as you head into this next year! It’s going to be a good one!