HomeMade Christmas Gifts

We decided as a family to try to help decommercialize the Christmas season this year by holding a HomeMade Christmas.  It also helped that we were all more than a little broke this year, and it had the potential to be cost effective.

The adults were all stoked.  We loved the idea.  It was widely acknowledged that I was going to steal the show since I have been trying to do a homemade Christmas for at least a portion of my gifts every year.  I guess they all figured I had a head start or something.  (I really did.  I have a pinterest board of gift ideas, and one of crafts I want to do....)

The kids procrastinated until the last week before the scheduled gift exchange.  Luckily I had some ideas in reserve for them to use.  I guess it will be back to the drawing board for ways to get them to think of others instead of just being so caught up in the I wants, and the gimme's.  Is it too much to ask that they think of others instead of themselves and xbox?

This is a clock I made for my sister who is chronically late, to the point that we lie to her about the start time of events just to get her there closer to time.

 For the clock,  I bought a cheapie clock from the dollar store.  I took it apart and covered the back with a circle cut out of scrapbook paper that would match her decor.  I used stickers to make the phrase and the pile of numbers on the bottom.  It took all of 5 minutes to complete.  I then put it back together and back into the box so that I could wrap it easier.  She loved it.  She took it to the VFW hall she works at and her customers got a good chuckle too.

 I made sugar scrubs for my mom and my MIL.  I got some cute containers from the dollar store (just $1!).  I combined melted coconut oil with a few tablespoons of Vitamin E oil, a tablespoon of Vanilla Extract, and a tablespoon of Peppermint Extract.  I added regular sugar until it was the consistancy I wanted.  Then I poured it onto the jars.  Easy Peasy!  And it is very moisturizing.  Just be careful not to get any of the scrub on the outside of the plastic jar, it made it very greasy feeling.

My 15 year old neice got a hollow book.  It was going to go to my 13 year old nephew but we found a kick butt deal on a bad little Airsoft gun and got that instead.  The hollow book was a pain in the butt.  But still easy enough.  I got hand cramps from cutting through the layers of paper, but then I have carpal tunnel syndrome so I ALWAYS get numb hands.  If I did it over, I would use a dremmel tool.  But it was still a cool place to stash notes, money, candy, or whatever.  As a side note, I was sure to tell my sister what the title of the hollow book was so she could find it easily and search it just in case someone decided to attempt to stash something inappropriate

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I made a cut out skull tshirt for the same 15 year old neice.  She is a morbid little thing and I thought this would be right up her alley.  I bought a cheap black tshirt from Michaels, and sketched a rough skull on the back in chalk.  I cut the eyes, nose, and teeth out not being careful at all about the preciceness of the cuts since I think the jagged look was better.  I hacked the neck and sleeves off as well.  This photo is of my extrememly tiny son wearing the shirt to show the cutouts.  It looks better on the girl.  She has been rocking it with neon tanks underneath.  First time she wore it her mom asked her where she got it... what can I say, my little sister is a ditz

 

My Husband kept things simple and made the same gift for everyone (well all the adults at least!)  He made some Apple Pie MoonShine.  He definetly got the award for starting the earliest.  He had to simmer tons of brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon sticks, and apple cider in a crockpot overnight.  Then he added 195 proof Everclear and bottled it into mason jars with a cinnamon stick in each one.  They had to age for 30 days in a cool dark place.  We designed some old timey looking labels with his photo on them and a cute little story on them.  I printed the labels on regular paper and cut them out and used  tape runner to attach them.  They knock a hell of a whallop!

My son and I worked together to make this purse for him to gift to my neice.  It is duct tape and clear packing tape sandwiching candy bar wrappers.  I liked it so much I wanted to keep it.  Best part was eating all the chocolate bars!

Another of my son's creations for his cousin.  He found a cool graphic, printed it on tshirt transfer paper and ironed it onto a tshirt.  Super Simple!

No Christmas would be complete for my dad without his homemade lemon drop candy and cinnamon roasted almonds.  Its a staple that I make for him every year and he hoards them refusing to share with anyone.

There was a few other gifts that I didn't get pictures of, including a comeback can for my 1 year old nephew.  It was wrapped in Spiderman duct tape.  If you don't know what a comeback can is, it is pretty simple.  Its a coffee can or oatmeal container with rubberbands and weights in it.  When assembled, you roll the can away from you and it will roll back when it reaches the end of the path.  There was also a matching shaker toy for him made from an empty plastic spice container filled with rice and covered with spiderman duct tape.  Pretty much a big rattle.

I almost forgot the waterglobe my son made for his 1 year old nephew.  A plastic jar, a Sully figurine, water, glitter, and food coloring.  Sealed up with hot glue.  Another super easy but pretty awesome gift for one kid to give another.