Is it Gift Giving or....Gift-Card Giving??

Last night at book club, after we finished discussing our book, our discussion turned to the coming Holiday season and the rituals we all have for gift giving.

In our discussion, many of my book buddies were lamenting the fact that their family gift exchanges have turned into gift-card exchanges rather than gift exchanges Gift cards are less risky...they're a safer bet for a present and are certainly easier to purchase than the old-fashioned present. As a result, there seems to be this cosmic shift toward gift cards as gifts. Ugh.

I suppose that gift cards have their place, but the proliferation of their existence makes me wax poetic for the old-fashioned, hand-selected or handmade, gift from the heart.

My sister reminded me of a childhood memory when my bachelor Uncle bought a fancy negligee for his spinster Aunt and how the whole family hooted and hollered when she opened the slinky nighty. Or, when my Dad painted us each old wooden Army lockers and put locks on them all so we could hide our stuff from our siblings...

What happened to the gift from the heart? Have we gotten too busy to just stop and think for a few minutes what we could do for someone else that would be meaningful? One of the best gifts I ever got was a dinner party from my sister and her husband...they cooked, they cleaned up, we invited the friends and we had a ball!

And for me, after ten years, I still treasure the handmade buttons my niece Carolyn made for me out of fimo clay and sewed to a button card when she was about six years old because she knew I loved buttons...


AND the blue wrap that Carolyn knitted for me 9 years later that I wear all winter long.

Or the sign that Jack made from discarded "treasures" found on the floor of Home Depot that he made for Jim one year to hang in his garage...


He found the objects, he painted, he wrote, he nailed and then twisted the wire and I know Jim loves it.

Or two years ago when Jack made this Duct Tape Wallet from the Family Fun website...


Jack made one for his grandfather too and my Dad still loves to pull it out when he's out to lunch with his guy friends.

Personally, this Santa scarf is one of my absolute faves and it came from The Caroll Duvall Show on HGTV...


We must have made many of these scarves over the years and, the only change I would make, is to sew down rather than glue down the pieces if you really want it to last year to year. I wish I had a better picture of my Mom wearing it but blurry is better than nothing.


Which reminds me...One thing I wish I had remembered to do more of is to take pictures of the present-making process...and make those part of the present as well...


And then, of course, I wish I had more pictures of the giver and the receiver together like this one...


This blanket was made from two yards of fleece. The funniest part of this gift was trying to make the eye shades to block out the light...Believe it or not those spidery looking things were Jack's versions of Jim's eyeballs that we printed on fabric and cut out to sew on the outside of the eye shades...


So, I don't know about you, but I am re-committed to the idea of the personalized, hand-made gift. And lucky for me, I stumbled upon the STC Craft|Melanie Falick site where she is making available 20 different free patterns from her different publications. Thank you Melanie! And thanks to Betz White for telling us about it.

I have downloaded the PDF for these...for free!!!


And I've always admired these flower washcloths made from cotton chenille. I think they make a great gift along with some special bars of soap...


And if those ideas aren't enough, Betz White is hosting an online Felt + Stitch Holiday Online workshop beginning October 12. So check it out. I first found Betz through her book, Warm Fuzzies, which is chock-full of felted and accomplish-able projects which would make perfect gifts. I'm also a huge fan of her Cup O'Joe pincushions which she will be teaching to our Guild next Monday.

I'd love to hear about some of your most special gifts, whether given or received.