In these days of ultra cool electronics and games, I sometimes wonder if people care about homemade gifts from the heart.
I always try to make a few things for people on my list, but the busier I get with real life, the more I can’t quite pull off my big plans.
I just don’t have enough time to make all the things I want. This year, I’m hurrying to finish some simple cross-stitch Christmas ornaments. Next week I plan to do a lot of baking to take to family dinners. One year I made easy flannel scarves, another year crochet bookmarks.
Yet I always secretly fear that people think homemade gifts are a little tacky or cheap. What about you – what’s your favorite memory of a handmade gift someone gave you?
Comment on this post any time Dec. 16 – 23 to be entered to win a $25 gift certificate to any online book retailer of your choice (B&N, Amazon, ARe, etc.) and any book from my backlist, including a signed print copy of either Dear Sir, I’m Yours or Hurt Me So Good. If you choose print, I’ll mail internationally.
Happy Holidays – let the Mistletoe Madness begin!
I’ve got both Dear Sir, I’m Yours & Hurt Me So Good in ebook format & I loved them. 😛
Thanks so much for the giveaway & Happy Holidays!
Thanks you so much for this giveaway international.
I don’t think handmade gifts are cheap and often they take a lot of time to do ( i love to do some too) but whta i think it’s even better it’s that they are very personalised so the one who receive it know we thought a lot about him ( to choose the present and to make it)
the most great “handmade” gift i received wasn’t really handmade or it was but not the support. My best friend, a chinesse girl, made me a cd with her playing her traditional instrument. She knew i loved to listen to her and her pipa but we live far away so she did a cd just for me when she isn’t there. That was really thoughful of her and i love it.
all the best
isabelle(dot)frisch(at)gmail(dot)com
Great giveaway!
I love homemade gifts, a lot of thought and love goes into the creation and I think that’s really special. My favorite is the socks my grandma knitted for me.
Thanks for the giveaway and for opening it to worldwide entries.
Much appreciated.
I haven’t got a lot of handmade things for Christmas but one my husband and son made for me about 10 years, I loved and it is a constant reminder.
Things were a bit tough that year so they decided to do something about our pine kitchen table that was showing its age and which is often used for family suppers.
They searched the garage and the shed and came up with a lot of old ceramic tiles which they cleaned and decorated with drawings in tile paint. They glued the whole top of the table with the tiles except for right in the center, where they put a set of four new tiles they had bought with a lovely animal scene.
I see and remember this table everyday of course !
Carol T
buddytho {at} gmail DOT com
I like homemade gifts, for the most part it means that the person cares, time is hard to find now a days. I make different kinds of jam though the year that I give out at Christmas time.
I love knitted or crocheted gifts. Shows that the giver put a lot of thought and time into the gift. Thanks for the great giveaway.
Crystal816[at]hotmail[dot]com
I love that you’re hand-making your gifts. I did that last year and had a great time doing it, plus everyone loved the presents!
Thanks for the giveaway.
The best handmade gift I’ve ever received was a crocheted afghan from my grandmother. It was so soft and she had made it in my favorite colors. I used it so often it came unraveled!
Thanks for the giveaway, and Merry Christmas!
adsanders77 at gmail dot com
My favorite homemade gift was a cherry finished dvd shelf (3 shelves) my hubby made years ago . I loved it and its my most cherished gift.
I think homemade gifts are better than store bought. They show thought and care, but I only give them to people who actually appreciate them.
My favorite handmade Christmas gift I remember is a handmade card from my kids.
Happy Holidays thank youfor this great giveaway having a blast with this hop.Hope Santa brings you everything you re wishing for.
flanagan@mebtel.net
Home-made gifts are wonderful. There is so much love put into them. One Christmas years ago, my son went to a craft class and made a plaster of paris kitten. He painted it and put a ribbon around it’s neck, then gave it to me for Christmas. If I lived to be a hundred, I would never get a present I treasured more. He was ten years old then and he is forty-three now.
mom1248(at)att(dot)net
Thanks so much for the giveaway!
😆 I love homemade gifts better than anything you can buy in a store, they mean more to me because they will be the gift that I will use or wear all year long. My oldest daughter always makes me something every year, she made me a knited scarf, some knited coffee coaster, book markers, coffee mugs with kids photos on them, all kinds of stuff. They are treasures to keep forever.
Merry Christmas!
Ronda Tutt
mrsqueentutt@yahoo.com
Well it wasn’t really a gift… My oldest is almost 5 yrs old, and he can’t wait for christmas, so every time he comes back from visiting my in laws he brings me a bag full of his toys that he wrapped just so I can open presents… lol It’s so cute, because he beams like he bought me diamonds, but it’s more like diamonds for the heart
I have no problems with homemade gifts. It really makes it look like there more thought to it sometimes too. I have gotten cd’s and homemade fudge both of which I thought were great.
I think homemade gifts are great and thoughtful.
klmc_37@yahoo.com
I love the homemade goodies for gifts. I had a boss once who would always make us candied pecans. LOVE them. Always looked forward to them and truly miss receiving those tasty treats Thanks for participating in the blog and for offering such wonderful prizes. lisagk(at)(yahoo)(dot)com
homemade gifts are def. the way to go. My husband and I have gotten into the tradition with my sister and brother-in-law of making steampunk gifts for each other. This year we’re doing steampunk gloves
Homemade is not cheap and its definitely not tacky. What many people seem to forget (or the message is sadly lost) is that its the thought not the cost that matters. For example I know that this year I’m getting some homemade gingerbread men decorated by my 4 year old nephew. Yeah OK, the don’t cost much but he remembered that I admired the ones he made with his Gran (my Mum) earlier in the year and he’s decorated them with beards so that everyone knows that they’re “Uncle Gareth’s”
He remembered I like the look of them and for me this is going to be a cool present. So what it didn’t cost the earth but I’m really looking forward to them. Likewise my Mum has made me a Christmas Cake to my Gran’s recipe, its pure memories of Christmas for me. Yes she could have bought one but its not the same, even though it would have been cheaper. So for me homemade is about memories and thought.
I really wish I were crafty–but you’re right, there seems to be fewer moments we can take to actually create things these days. One of my best friends loves to knit and crochet, and she always makes us the neatest little gifts. Once Christmas, she gave me pretty scarf that I wear even now.
Homemade gifts are wonderful and loved the year I got warm mittens and scarf.
skpetal at hotmail dot com
I think there’s something of an age issue between appreciation of a gift and appreciation of a gift from the heart. Kids just want stuff to open. It doesn’t necessarily matter if it’s expensive so long as it’s cool and the latest thing and what they want. However, when they get a little older and are more able to appreciate the thought put into something (sometimes, this mental aging never happens, ha!), homemade gifts are INFINITELY appreciated. To know the time and effort and love put into every stitch or brush stroke or measure of music, etc., is to know exactly how much the maker loves you and thinks about you.
One of my favorite gifts ever was a certain crocheted potholder I used all the time for a good ten years before an unfortunate moving accident made it disappear. I have purchased a replacement, but it’s boring and just not the same. It has no meaning to me, not like the other did. Every time I used the old one, I thought of the person who made it for me. And loved her for making it.
wow i would love hand made gift i have about 6 ornament i got as a trade with my pen pal so i love them and then hand made gift are great 😆 😆 😆
desi the blonde@msn.com
We always made homemade gifts growing up like gingerbread dolls, aprons and most memorable, trees made from nails. We painted nails different Christmas colors and pounded them part way into a stained board. I recall hitting my fingers more than the nails!
books4me67 at ymail dot com
Happy Holidays!
I love homemade gifts. I have made about 1/2 of the gifts I give out each year for members of my family and close friends. As a crafter, I appreciate the thoughtfulness, creativity and time that goes into making gifts. The best homemade gift I ever received was an African American Cookbook that a friend made me that was filled with recipes from her mom and grandmother. I got it about 10 years ago and I use it all the time. I love it.
Thanks for being part of the hop and for the chance to win such a great prize!
reneebennett35 at yahoo dot com
My Aunt Joyce made me a stuffed ballerina bear ornament when I was very little. It even had my name on it. I still have it 30 years later. Thanks for the giveaway!
geishasmom73 AT yahoo DOT com
I love receiving homemade gifts since they are always extra special.
A handmade stoking, it’s wonderful.
the best gift I ever got was a giant cat stuffed animal. my ex bought it for me. he bought it as a gift to make me feel better.
Thank you so much for the giveaway! And for making it international 🙂
I cross-stitched a complicated pattern for my mom. She displays it on the wall of her kitchen. She loves to tell people that it took me a whole year to finish it.
asiancocoa94 at aol dot com
LOL…I had to actually think about that one for a minute. I love homemade gifts. One of my co-workers knitted little stocking ornaments and placed homemade candles inside of them. I hought it was absolutely awesome!!! Thank you for the giveaway!!
viajeradelmar@aol.com
Thanks for participating in the hop. To be honest, I don’t have many positive memories of hand made gifts. They’re usually too small or ugly as sin. (I don’t have kids, I’m sure I’d treasure the pencil holders or mis-shapened ash trays.) I did get a non-practical, yet really pretty scarf in once of those fancy yarns which is a combination of yarn and puffy balls a couple of years ago. Hard to describe.
acm05atjuno.com
I get afghans made by my family quite a bit (we love to crochet) and they’re always cherished…especially on cold winter nights.
I used to make homemade gifts for Christmas, but started noticing the looks on the faces of those I gifted, and realized that they weren’t appreciated, so I quit. My sons and my husband still appreciate a pair of warm wool socks if I will knit them a pair, but I find I am less inclined to do so more and more every year. I’m more interested in reading, lol.
Thank you so much for participating in this hop! I am always so thrilled to find new to me authors, and am so grateful for a chance to win such generous prizes!
Happy Holidays!
Thanks so much for this awesome giveaway and I love handmade gifts too. They just seem to have more thought put into them.
My mom’s a big knitter and cross stitcher so I’ve gotten man handmade gifts. My favorite was probably this larg thick blanket she knit me. It stayed on my dorm bed through the long canadian winters and kept me pretty damn warm. Quite a feat I drafty dorms.
I’m a big fan of handmade cards because then I use them as decorations…
Thanks!
insanityisnormal(at)gmail(dot)com
I think homemade gifts are very special because they take more thought and time than running to a store or ordering something offline, although there is nothing wrong with those. Most of mine are bought but I have crocheted afghans, scarves, hats, etc for various family & friends.This takes a long time (especially for large afghans).
Thank you for the wonderful giveaway. I hope you have a safe & happy holiday season!
June M.
manning_j2004 at yahoo dot com
Well, I do like homemade ornaments or cookies or some other food.
mcv111@hotmail.com
Thanks for the fab giveaway!
A very long time ago when I was still in High School my best friend gave me a sweater for Christmas that she made for me. I loved it not only because it was pretty, but she cared enough to make it for me. I wore that sweater until it became unwearable, and I had to throw it away 🙁 Till this day I still consider her gift as the best gift that I have received.
jmesparza821(at)gmail(dot)com
I love homemade gifts, especially from my kids. I have quite the awesome collection of clay castles and I love each and every one of them. If I had any talent, I’d make something for others but I am seriously lacking in the artistic department lol. Thank you so much for taking part in this hop and for the fantastic giveaway!
Tiffany
jaidahsmommy(at)comcast(dot)net
I love handmade gifts. My favorite one just got here yesterday. My niece made me a panel quilt throw and some pillows with my favorite lighthouse theme. They are gorgeous. I’ve always wanted to learn to quilt. Unfortunately my severe RA does not allow for a lot of sewing or crafting. We used to make ornaments to hang on packages so the person would have a gift and an ornament. We didn’t manage to do that this year. I hope we can do it again next year. I hope you have a joyous and safe holiday season. Thank you for the excellent giveaway.
seriousreader at live dot com
Thanks for the chance to win!!! 😆
brandon_savannah@yahoo.com
I can’t remember ever having received a handmade gift for Christmas, I’m always the one doing the making!
Thanks for the giveaway!
pkbw28(at)gmail(dot)com
I love a homemade gift. There so precious. Theres so much hard work and love put into them. I treasure the ones ive gotten. I also like doing my own homemade gifts from time to time. 😉 Thanks for the wonderful giveaway! Happy holidays!
shadowluvs2read(at)gmail(dot)com
My favorite homemade gift was an afghan my grandma made me, it means so much more to me than anything she could have picked at the store. It tells me she took time making it and thought of me the whole time 🙂 I miss her all the time but I will always have her gift to remember her
meghan_L_P at hotmail dot com
Thanks for the giveaway and Merry Christmas!
The best handmade gift I’ve ever recieved… hmm, must be a Christmas ornament from my niece.
shiderly77@yahoo.com
Merry Christmas!!!