Every year my father's side of the family exchanges homemade gifts. At the gift exchange you don't want to try to trick anyone with a "store bought" gift — yes they will call you out in front of our very large extended family. It is fun to see where each person's creativity takes them. The men usually build something out of wood, such as a bird feeder, while others use craft supplies for smaller presents. I have always enjoyed the homemade gift exchange tradition because the presents usually end up being more personal.
With the hectic last minute shopping and decorating, it can seem a bit time consuming to make a gift versus just picking up a present or a gift card. However, the DIY gift project can be as easy or as complicated as you make it. Laure recently rounded up a few DIY holiday gift ideas. My favorite is the terrarium in a jar, which if purchased from a store can be expensive.
What are some of your favorite DIY gifts you have given or received?
MORE DIY GIFT IDEAS
• 8 DIY Holiday Gifts to Start Now
• 5 Tips for Making DIY Gifts that People Actually Want
Which Wall Color Gives the Best Sleep?
Ana Creates a Community at Home
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Z2 iPod Dock and Wi...
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
Recipe: Spring Fruit and Nut Tabouli
Sounds like a lot of fun and more meaningful than this commercial nonsense being practiced today. Great idea!
This is awesome.
Our family gift exchange on one side always has a theme - it's been "wine" or "sports" or "outdoors" in the past. This year, if I were to sum it up in one word, it's "recession." No gift can cost more than $25, and reuse or repurposing is highly encouraged.
Gotta love it.
---www.bymaggie.com---
I craft a lot and sometimes sell my jewelry and other things, so this is a common event for me. This year I'm trying something sort of "different". My partner is a software engineer who, as a hobby, developed and maintains an astronomy web site. He liked to have those tissue box cubes that came printed with a "celestial" stars and planaets design for his office. It appears they have moved on to new designs, now, and we can't find that one anywhere. So I'm planning to decoupage a commercial tissue box cover to come as close to that design as I can. I don't think anybody else would appreciate it, but I'm hoping he will.
We made soap and candles this year. Both projects were much easier than I thought they would be!
And don't buy the super expensive candle coloring... you can just use crayons!
Ok, the snowmen are way cute.
My family decided to exchange only homemade gifts last year and it was a huge success. The gifts ran the gamut - bottles of kombucha, a family recipe book, photo calendar, felted bowls, websites, flower pots, cake mix . . . not necessarily crafts, but all made by the giver. It allowed everyone's individual talents to shine and was a lot of fun.
This year I'm making personalized note cards, using letter stamps to spell the family's name or initials.
laurazirbel - I'm itching to try candle and soap making! Do the crayon-colored candles give off a crayon scent when they burn?
@mjs7640 is so right. Those snowpeople are way cute. Good idea for displaying unused yarn, too.
My four-year old and I just made crayon ornaments last night following instructions posted here online. We try to do homemade as much as possible, and this was his favorite so far, and his cousins are going to love them! I'm beginning to make myself a reputation for giving homemade jam/jelly, which my family appreciates and loves. I try to mix it up once in a while with new flavors, but peach jam is most requested. Wish I could say the in-laws appreciated this sort of tradition, but I've learned I better just stick to purchasing gifts like name-brand clothes and iTunes gift cards for them. Sigh...
Though the downside is a lot of gifts made for the holidays are just useless decor...before making it, you better make sure the person actually wants/needs more decor.
I love that your family exchanges homemade gifts. My family specifically told me that my homemade gift of a collection of clay mugs wasn't welcome. Sounds like my family could take some advice from kellystoke's family!
These are adorable!
Every year, we get my mom a Santa... this gives me so many ideas on how to create one!
We LOVE homemade gifts in my house, we're basically all crafters. :)
Every couple of years, my husband and I have made gifts. Last year, we converted several VHS family videos to DVD, with chapters and everything. I also hunted down all the Christmas tunes on a cassette my family listened to, some of which were rather obscure. It took weeks of work and not a little expense, but I felt like some of the recipients thought we were being cheap by not purchasing gifts.
I agree with ChrisGal, when making gifts, try to make them useful and something that fits the taste of the person receiving the gift.
I love giving handmade gifts, but I've always found men (ie: dad, husband, brother) hard to hand make gifts for. But this year, my dad specifically asked me for a gift I could make...a large drawstring bag for his collection of bungee cords! (http://kirascraftylife.blogspot.com/2010/12/handmade-christmas-2010-dads-bungee.html)