10 Handmade Christmas Gift Ideas

I really enjoy being able to give handcrafted or homemade gifts for the holidays.  Today I thought I would look back on ten suggestions that I have made in the past for homemade or handcrafted gifts.

1. A Craft Kit – If you’re not super crafty or are running out of time, one idea would be to grab unused supplies that you already have (or go shopping for them) and put together a craft kit for someone who is new to a particular craft.

2. Knit Hats and Gifts – I’m not a knitter at all.  I wouldn’t have any idea what to do with knitting needles.  I was still able to make some hats and a blanket for my kids one year with the help of a Knifty Knitter set.

3. Felt Food – I made felt cookies last year for Molly for Christmas, and she still loves to get them out and put them on a real cookie sheet to play.  These were fun to make, and I love playing with them too.

4. A Christmas Scrapbook - One of my big gifts that I gave to family members last year was a Christmas scrapbook that was ready for them to fill in with their pictures and memories.  While this isn’t a “big” item, it took a lot of time, especially when I was making many of them at a time.

5. A Themed Album – Maybe you don’t want to give everyone the same album, or perhaps you want to use themes specific to each family.  Last year when I found that I accidentally gave out one too many of my Christmas albums, I made a baby album for a family member that was expecting instead of giving them a Christmas album.  (As a bonus – I was able to use materials that my Mom and I had on hand.)

6. Home Baked Goodies – Each year we make home baked goodies for many people (including religious education teachers, therapists, the employees that work under Eric, a neighbor, etc.).  These look a little different each year, and every year I think it will be the last time I do it.  But, it always encourages me to do it again when people at Eric’s work or family members start talking about it in anticipation.  (Here’s the 2009 goodie tins and here are the 2008 goodie platters.)

7. Cupcake in a Jar – Perhaps you don’t have time to make whole platters or tins full of goodies.  You can easily just make a “cupcake” in a jar (it’s really just ruined cake), tie on a pretty ribbon, and include a fork.

8. A Sweater Creature – If you’re handy (or just semi-proficient) with a sewing machine or can hand sew, you could upcycle an old sweater into a stuffed animal or monster.  Leo is pictured here.  We love him.  (He’s also for sale.)

9. Canvas Bag Art – Get some inexpensive canvas bags and paints for your children to create usable works for art for family members.  This is especially great for small children.  Very small children can just have their hands painted and put their handprint on the bags.

We did this craft so long ago that it was at a point in my life where I didn’t grab my camera every time we did something like this, so I don’t even have a picture.

10. Your Photo on Canvas – So this one isn’t really handmade, but if you’re a new customer to Canvas People, you can get a $55 credit, which is enough for a free 8×10 (or you can go larger and just use the $55 toward that).  This is a great Christmas gift for Grandparents!  (One year, we gave a large canvas with pictures of our children on it to my parents and to Eric’s parents.)  Since this one was for a freebie, even though it’s not really handmade, I wanted to add it in.

Need more ideas? Here’s a very old post of mine with 13 handmade Christmas gift ideas.

This post is linked to Top Ten Tuesday, Works for Me Wednesday, Frugal Friday, and Finer Things Friday.

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