One big reason we started Christmased.com a full three months before Christmas is that we’re crafters, and we know it’s time to start working on our projects now if we have any hope of finishing by December 25 (or December 24, for those of us who celebrate Scandinavian-style by opening gifts on Christmas Eve).
If you’re planning to make gifts by hand, what’s your MO? Do you make a list of everything you need to make, then assess realistically and starts ASAP? Do you make a project as it occurs to you, and not plan anything more than you have free time to make? Do you plan too many projects and then stay up all night December 22, 23, and 24 desperately trying to finish them?
Do you stick with crafts you already know? Or do you use the gift-giving season as an excuse to learn new things?
What media do you work in? Knitting, crocheting, stamping, decoupage, woodworking, jewelry-making, papier mache, quilting, sewing, hot-gluing, candle-making? Something we haven’t even heard of?
Tell us what you’re planning to do, and how you do it. The feedback we get will help determine what craft-related posts to put up in the next few weeks, so let us know what you need.
I’m planning out my Christmas gift crafting… I’ll start as soon as I finish the 2 (non-Christmas) projects that are already in progress! I’ve made a list of everything I want to make, but I have no idea how realistic it is. I have a couple of knitted items on there (felted stockings for my husband and me – I did our son’s last year), some woven items (Christmas table runners, coasters), and some sewn items (a play kitchen for my kiddo is the most exciting thing in this category).
The table runners are actually gifts from last year that I didn’t get to because I got sick. I think I’ve planned a little better this year, and left some time to flex for the inevitable cold/flu/whatnot. We’ll see how it goes!
DS is now 3, and last year I finally realised I needed to plan some flex time for cold/flu/whatever. DH thinks I’m crazy for starting so early, but something always comes up.
I knit a few gifts each year, but this year it’s going to be tough because my friends keep having babies and that means baby hats have taken over my knitting time. However, I do plan to knit a scarf for my kid’s daycare teacher. And, the other side of my crafting has to do with the wrapping. Each year, I pick out a paper and either paint or stamp, or do something inventive with decorating the package via ribbons, bows or personalized ornaments. I tend to buy my supplies in advance and wait until two days before I need to give the gifts to make myself crazy actually doing the wrapping. So, I’m SUPER organized.
I used to craft. And I dropped it around Xmas, except for baking, and it has improved my life immensely. I wish you all really well with it though. But for me, balance only came by divorcing Xmas from my crafting.
Ohhhh, does baking count? I do a ton of baking, then I arrange the baked items in decorative tins (recycling!) or onto festive paper plates and hand them to whoever will feed me a real meal.
Shandra, you’re blowing my mind. Seriously.
SarcastiCarrie, that counts. And yes.
I used to aim to make all the gifts for my immediate family. I even bought the fabric & yarn in an annual haze of optimism, but usually only finished 30%. (My stash remains huge to this day because of this.)
Now I make canned goods and edibles for most adults – sister-in-law loves hazelnuts, so she gets hazelnut plum conserves. My dad loves nuts so he gets candied nuts four ways. Other requests for chutneys, savory fruit toppings to be served with meat, and pickled things also get filled.
This means I can be done with most holiday gifting by Halloween, and make the last few things I want to. Needle felting this year, since I can do it while sitting under a sleeping baby and it is faster than knitting.
As a serious needlepointer I’ve learned to plan ahead.
My goddaughter’s mini stockings for the next 4 years are done. I did five at the same time last year, had then finished, gave her one and tucked away the rest. Yes, I know where I put them. I even stitched in the dates: ’10,’11, etc.
I stitched my sons’ little stockings last winter during the dull months.
Tomorrow I have an appointment at the finisher’s where I’ll drop off the little ones I made for the boys as well as a pillow to be made up and some cording for the pillows she’s had to make up for months.
So I guess my trick to plan ahead, stitch in binges and then take a year or two off.
The secret for me is to do some things early, so they’re just waiting for the holidays. I recently made this great tomato jam from our insane tomato crop and canned a bunch of it for holiday gifts – http://gotitma.blogspot.com/2011/09/i-blame-tomatoes.html
I’ve also been knitting cotton chenille wash cloths in between other knitting projects. Then I can pair them with a pretty handmade soap from a craft fair. Tie a ribbon around them, and you have an instant gift. I like to use this bulky cotton chenille from Halcyon Yarn – http://halcyonyarn.com/products/yarn/007.html . It’s affordable, washable, and comes in great colors. I can dig up the pattern I figured out if anyone is interested.
When it gets close to Christmas I always make white chocolate peppermint bark – http://www.marthastewart.com/339680/peppermint-bark. I’ve tried more complicated stuff, but frankly, people go crazy over this and it is so absurdly easy that it really makes no sense NOT to do it.
I’ve definitely scaled back my holiday crafts over the years. I used to take on a lot more and find myself totally stressed out about finishing everything. Now I have whatever I manage to amass throughout the year, a bit of holiday baking, and maybe one other project like a Christmas stocking for a new baby. Less is more, at least in terms of me being able to enjoy the holidays!
i usually make one quilt for someone on my list of family or super close friends per year, if i haven’t had a baby and am not in school. otherwise most crafting i do gets to people as spontaneous gifts around the year. oh! unless i am really motivated and do something with freezer paper stencils. it is super easy and quick and a nice way to make a storebought thing into a personal handmade type thing and makes me feel terribly accomplished. occasionally i’ll embroider on something to the same result.
For the 2008, 2009 and 2010 holiday season, my craftiness around the holiday season was all channeled into my reasonably successful Etsy shop, making handstamped metal things like keychains, bookmarks and jewelry. WHich means I had no time to make anything for people in my family. It also made me crazy because I was also working a full time job (or on mat leave). Sure, I made some extra cash, but the stress was not worth it. So this year I am VERY unlikely to take custom orders around the holidays, and just sell what I have on hand, which will drastically reduce the crafting frenzy.
It also means I can focus on my own projects. I just started making my Xmas cards (from a kit) last night. Papercrafting is my new love
I made a photobook for my parents (not sure if a computer-designed photobook counts as crafty?), and plan to make calendars for both sets of grandparents.
My daughter and I will DEFINITELY bake and decorate sugar cookies – we did it for her 2nd birthday party and she loved it. I’ll probably try to find some other Xmas crafts we can do. And that, for me is what the season is all about.
I make jam and applesauce, which I give to teachers, friends and the adult siblings (we have a huge family, so the gift giving had to get cut back a few years ago when the kids started arriving). I’m hoping to get started on the canning in the next couple weeks, NOT because I’m in a hurry to get to Christmas, but because my babysitter will be away for 10 days in October and we have a vacation planned starting December 7th, so I’m concerned about being rushed.
The other crafty thing I do for the holidays is making a photo book for the grandparents (I definitely count a computer designed photo book as crafty, ARC!), and I’ll need to start looking at 2011 pictures in November if I want to get that done on time.
Seriously, doesn’t the photobook take 4x as much time as you expect? Even when I let it “autoarrange” the photos for me, I have to go in a tweak everything for several hours. But they always LOVE it. I also get myself a copy since I’ll probably never get around to actually making real scrapbooks.
YES! That is exactly how it goes here, too.
I’m definitely in the “plan too many projects and then stay up all night December 22, 23, and 24 desperately trying to finish them?” camp. Though, truthfully, I just start cutting things out on Dec 22nd that I think I can’t realistically get done. Too tired now to pull many late nights. And, too many ideas. Not enough time (or enough editing perhaps).
I have some hold over projects for this year. Making DS’ stocking (ran out of time in the past 3 years) is one of them. Finishing the photo books for each year of his life (to be printed for us and grandparents) is the other. To be honest, I’m still in Hallowe’en mode (making DS’ costume), so I haven’t started my Xmas list of things to make. My motto lately is ‘finish what you start’ and I know if I start thinking of Xmas ideas, that Hallowe’en costume will get put off and I’ll be up late the weekend before finishing it.
In the end though, I do some sewing projects, make Christmas cards, we definitely cook and I usually do one or two nights of blitz baking. I also try to do something new in terms of technique or something I’ve wanted to try. I’ll definitely bake with DS this year as he loves it and likes using cookie cutters & sprinkles. And I’ll find a few Xmas crafts to do with DS as well.
I am a paper crafter. I do enjoy making gifts for those who appreciate them, but my crafting doesn’t always seem to be present when I need it to be!! I tend to come up with last-minute crafty gift ideas which stress me out but please the receiver. I’m just not organized enough to plan these things in advance.
I love crafting for the holidays and will do so again this year. Usually I sew but I’ve taken up knitting this year so perhaps some small knitted items. My sister will get canned stuff (chutney and jalapeno jelly). I’m also the only person in my in laws family who takes many photos so I tend to give framed (or not) prints of the kids to my MIL and SIL.
My crafty holiday challenge this year is that my nearly six year old daughter wants to make gifts. I’m all for it but not sure she can complete what she has in mind. She’s trying to embroider some tea towels and has a plan to knit coasters (despite not really knowing how to knit….) Should be interesting. Maybe I’ll channel her energy toward baking…
When I was nineish I became obsessed with embroidery. I made a pillow for my then baby cousin — basically a head and her name on a square of muslin. My mom helped sew it together.
Years later I had a fancy job in NYC and babycousin was a freshman at Pratt in Bklyn. I visited her dorm room and was THRILLED to see the pillow I’d made for her displayed proudly on her bed. Twelve years later and her fiancé in LA told me it still lives on their bed.
Best. Thing. Ever.
I sew and knit and have grand aspirations that usually involve bit $$ trips to the craft store and boxes of supplies that are stacked in my garage. But I can say my 3 year old boy has a mama made stocking (that i finished the night before Xmas his first year), and gets a mama made knit hat every year. One year I knit 5 scarves for my sisters in law, another I made personalized capes for the kids. This year I have nothing on the list except stuff for my own house — a new tree skirt maybe, maybe new stockings, and some pillows for my sofa.
As a child we always made tree ornaments to give to our relatives. I’ve done some Christmas crafting off and on as an adult, but not much since having kids. I think they might be old enough to bring back the ornament tradition this year.
When we moved to Maine I was blown away by all my crafty contemporaries! Frankly, if I can actually purchase the present in time (and by “in time,” I mean before I see that person in the holiday season), there is only a scant possibility that it will be wrapped. No one in my extended family, nor my husband’s, crafts gifts either. I wonder how much of that is coming from families that had *just* made it into the middle-class – if it was more prestigious in some way to buy things in the store to show that you could.
Anyway – now that I’m older and have my own child, I wish I could teach her how to make some sort of craft gift. Maybe we can learn together – until then, there’s Amazon Prime.
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