10 Mindful Handmade Gift Ideas For Christmas

I think at Christmas time you should give at least one handmade present. It could be as simple as a framed piece of your child’s art, or a bunch of flowers out of your garden. You could decoupage a series of old photos and cards into a mural for someone you love. A few years ago I did that for my parents and also wrote them a poem. I used to write a lot of poetry. I think I will start again.

Next week Maxwell and I have plans to bake. We are baking some of my Grandma’s shortbread biscuits and Gingerbread. My Grandma turned 100 this year. Can you believe that- ONE HUNDRED people! She is one of the world’s greatest cooks. Her cakes, pastries, scones and trifles are the things of legend. And we love her dearly.

I suspect we will also make some freestyle cookies with Maxwell’s signature 6 year old approach.Do you know that style? It is the one where their little hands roll the dough just perfectly with those plump fingers and flour ends up all over the room. The one where they eat half the dough and end up with sticky faces and hands. It amazes me how small a 6 year old’s hands still are. Every time I grasp his hand walking to school I am filled with the love for this little boy, his warm fingers curling around my own. Isn’t there something so lovely about that?

We plan to put them into some upcycled jars and give them as gifts – that is if I can make them last! In our house of boys we have to stash things away if we want them to survive more than a day!

I would love them to look like this.

 

But I am not sure they will! However, it is the process of baking the cookies that is the real gift. We will have Christmas music playing and school will be finished for the year, there will be a gentle breeze outside with plenty of Adelaide sunshine. Our fly in Budgie who adopted us recently will be singing and the cats will be stretched out in the sunshine. Maxwell will want to lick the bowl and some of the biscuit mix will never make it to the oven. My hubby will be on holidays too and we will all be filling the house with our chatter and silliness as the smell of the baking cookies gets stronger and stronger in our kitchen.

Don’t you love that. That right there, that is Christmas.

So here are 10 mindful handmade gift ideas for Christmas:

1) Give some home baked goodies

2) Offer to babysit for someone so they can go out together

3) Give a voucher for you to give someone a massage or a pedicure

4) Pick some flowers and style them, then take photos and have these printed and blown up to create a wall hanging

5) Sew some cushion covers from vintage fabrics from the Op Shop

6) Upcycle some jars with paint or fabric for a desk organiser or caddy

7) Use fabric and card scraps to create a pretty plaque that can be hung on the wall or the mantle

8) Write a poem or a story – writing is wonderful and something people can read again, maybe even send it as snail mail!

9) Offer to cook someone a special meal

10) Strike some cuttings from a plant in your garden, get an old terracotta pot and upcycle it with some bright paint in a crazy pattern

And that’s just for starters. There are so many things you can give that don’t involve a totally stressful visit to a multi storey shopping mall.

What are you giving that is handmade this year? I will be back with how our baking turns out next week!

Helen

xx