Parenting Australia

Saving Santa with Hand-Made Gifts

As parents many of us will know well how expensive Christmas can be – there’s presents for children, partners, parents, grandparents, nieces, nephews, extended family, friends, friend’s children, teachers, neighbours and the list goes on and on.

With a mortgage, two children and a single income at the moment we don’t have heaps of money to splash out on lavish gifts, so this Christmas I am returning to my fall-back position – hand-made presents. I have made presents for family and friends before and always get such a good reaction I wonder why I don’t do it every year (until I remember I have hardly any time!).

Johanna Baker-Dowdell

Last year I gave all our adult family and friends (and Harvey’s boss and Noah’s day care teachers) a gift box of hand-made treats, which included white chocolate and macadamia truffles, rum balls, cinnamon shortbread and mince tarts. Everyone devoured the boxes in no time and then raved about my abilities in the kitchen. This was a far better result than offering the receipt in case they didn’t like the gift I’d spent hours buying. Instead, I had a fantastic time creating sweet treats in the kitchen and was then thrilled when everyone loved what I produced.

Of course I made extra for our family and any visitors who dropped in to nibble on over the festive season, but with Harvey’s sweet tooth they didn’t last very long at all.

I plan to do something similar again this year, but my recent sewing frenzy which produced curtains for the entire house has inspired me to sew some of the gifts we will be giving this year. I am excitedly looking forward to a trip to Lincraft or Spotlight to be inspired and pick up supplies. I find cooking and sewing quite satisfying and stressless after a week of writing, dealing with the media, client meetings and running a business.

As much as I love writing and public relations, I find a kind of comfort in crafting gifts with my own hands. I think the recipients enjoy my hand-made offerings more too. For me the attraction is that each gift I make is different because it is created with my hands, and not one of thousands of the same item that has been stacked on shelves ready for the Christmas onslaught. Not only have I created something that I know they will enjoy, but I’ve also added a bit of me in there too because hand-made gifts are so personal.

What are your thoughts on hand-made gifts – do you think it’s a cheap way out, or do you treasure them more because someone went to such effort?

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Johanna Baker-Dowdell is mum to two boys – Noah and Ethan – and combines looking after them with her work as a blogger, journalist, writer and public relations consultant. She owns and manages Strawberry Communications which started small in the third bedroom, but has grown into its own office space (in the converted garage).

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