It is beginning to look a lot like a “hand-made” Christmas.
October 18th, 2007
The kids and I are gong to be making and giving as many hand made gifts as possible this year. The glitz and glam of Christmas, not to mention this whole toy thing with China is a bit sickening. The goal is to make Christmas special and instill that since of “wonder” without it being about the gifts. Tricky I know but I am going to give it my best shot.
I have found some cute and inexpensive things online to make and give to neighbors and will be using ETSY as a resource for anything I don’t want to do myself. If you haven’t been to this site, you should go right now and look around. It is like eBay but with all independent business owners from all over who sell handmade items.
When Mike and I first got married we decided we wanted to make sure we purchased hand made art in every country we visited. It was a simple way of blessing some-one’s craft and supporting independent business owners in poor places. Over the years, that has grown to simple things like buying items form those we know who are just starting a business or are in business for themselves. When we get bagels on the weekends we go to the local Mom and Pop shop instead of Einstein Brothers. For us, it is a symbolic way of sowing our resources in a life giving way into people instead of machines. We can’t do it all the time. Home Depot and Wal-Mart are unfortunate evils but at least we try.
I am not sure how to make things for the boys though. Our oldest wants a Transformer or a Bionicle. He doesn’t watch commercials or movies with these things on them but somehow he knows they are the “it” thing this year. Isn’t it strange? Does anyone have any thoughts on a hand made Christmas gift for a 6 yr old boy?
Entry Filed under: kiddie fun, Life
9 Comments
Add your own1. southerngirlmusings | October 18th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Love, love, love the ideas. I have seen some books in the library on making wood/folk toys that with pulleys and the like could be like the Transformers and Bionicles. Hopefully some other creative minds will chime in with some thoughts.
2. truevyne | October 18th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
I have never committed to make everything handmade for my children, but our children and I make something hand made gifts for our family. I have some terrific ideas if you ever need any.
On giving to my children. They begged for certain toys they’ve played with or seen at other places. One year, many years ago, I told them, “No more Christmas lists. I want to give to you from my heart.” I do not give Bionicles or Transformers, rarely toys. I give useful presnts which I know will touch their hearts. For example, I bought 100 Adventures in Odessey audio tapes (don’t care for the videos) on ebay for one son who loves them. I gave my oldest son a camelback (water/backpack combo). I gave my middle son a banjo. They’d never asked for any of these, but I knew they’s treasure them. I’m going to start buying or making things for my six year old’s hope chest this year.
Here are some andmade ideas. I might make a chess set (stained checks on a square of beautiful wood) with fabulous handmade figures of sculpey or paper clay. How about swords or sheilds cut from wood and painted with a family symbol? How about a pirate’s treasure box? A tree house? How about assembling an art chest or early tool chest? What about a Robin Hood sculpey set with a forest? Or make a teepee? That sounds cool.
3. Heather | October 18th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
Our oldest son announced “all I want is football guys.” At the time, we couldn’t find anything but these horrid looking statuettes of real-life players on pedestals for $50 each. Hello? We made a football field with plywood, green felt, and white fabric paint, then found a used NFL chess set that had the players in positions. I know that part is not handmade, but you could make simple wooden figures and let him paint them any team color he wanted later. We don’t actually watch much football (just some college games each fall) but this son appears to have been born with a mind that creates playbooks in his sleep. It was great fun to make him something that he really, really wanted.
4. amanda | October 19th, 2007 at 10:12 am
Homeade gifts are the best. Not only does the person receive a gift, but also the time you have invested in that gift. Somehow the time makes the gift extremely precious.
We’ve been doing homeade gifts for years. Sometimes they turn out great, sometimes not, but we always have fun making them.
I also don’t like buying fad gifts for kids. The ones they want the most seem to be the ones they play with the least, but I did purchase Bionicles because my son loves to build things. He had several and made his own figures. If they can be creative with a store-bought gift, then I am more likely to buy it.
amanda
5. admin | October 19th, 2007 at 10:40 am
Great tips and thoughts ladies. Our oldest was given a whole slew of Bionicles from a family whose kids had grown out of them. He has made tons of them and is wanting to collect and display them. His idea not mine.
We have also inherited, Lego’s and Lincoln logs and lots of wooden “Montessori” style interactive things. They get so much from everyone else, that I want what we do to be special and limited. Anyway, I will keep you all posted on my progress:-)
Latah~ a
6. Tina Wells | October 19th, 2007 at 11:43 am
Wow! Awesome tips and creative ideas. Of course me being a crafter and making hand made hand bags, diaper bags, hairbows, etc. I love the ideas. I sell on ebay and etsy and it seems like people really are out to buy handmade items these days. I totally agree with doing what we can to support American businesses.
Tina
7. Tonia | October 22nd, 2007 at 4:22 pm
I haven’t done all handmade for the kids yet, either, but we do make gifts for others. I’m in total agreement with your post about Christmas.
Just a note on some of the comments about never buying “trendy” toys: I think it’s wise to pick your battles. Buy/make them lovely handmade or thrifted open-ended toys as much as you possibly can, but if a 6 yr old develops an insatiable passion for Bionicles or little green army men or Spiderman or what have you….I would indulge it (within boundaries of course.)
I have found, almost without exception, that my children will come to the conclusions I want them to (e.g. trendy toys are a waste of money) if I let them alone a bit to make the discovery themselves; but if I make a rule that we “never buy movie toys/Pokemon cards/etc.” then all they can think about is movie toys/Pokemon cards/etc.
There’s plenty of battles that I am willing to fight - plastic toys are the least of my worries! *smile*
There you go…my free 2 cents for today.
Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for the little guy!
8. It is beginning to look a&hellip | October 22nd, 2007 at 8:51 pm
[…] - so I have taken your thoughtful comments to mind and have been […]
9. admin | October 25th, 2007 at 7:29 am
Tonia,
Thanks so much for your free 2 scents. What a good reminder to chose battles wisely and give your children enough room to figure things out for themselves.
I have been wondering about this with candy. I was thinking about letting my kids sit down and eat as much candy as they wanted without stopping and then let them deal with the consequences of the tummy ache. Then I thought better of it because I am sure in some weird way, our kids could eat 100 pieces each and feel fine and then think they could do it all the time.
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