You have a lot of choices for making holiday gifts. Think of your choices in these categories:

1. Get a bunch of something and ladle it out. For instance, a big tub of honey from the local honey dealer can be ladled into jars, decorated, and given away.

2. Everybody gets the same thing. This would apply to homemade tree decorations (knitted, food, papier mache , etc.) as well as cross stitch or paintings. Do the thing that you can do quickly and easily. This is not the time to try out a new hobby. People often do the cookie- recipe -in-a-Mason-Jar thing.

3. I saw a ... and thought of you. This category would include poems written for the person (print it on fancy paper with fancy font so they can frame it), a picture for a shared memory, a corn-husk doll with specific features that relate to the recipient, etc.

4. Sweets. Make homemade chocolates, decorated Ginger cookies, popcorn balls, fruit baskets (re-use baskets you received gifts in or visit Ikea ), or a huge batch of fudge.

5. I remade your drink. Buy a bottle of vodka and turn it into a liqueur or stuff it with fresh mint leaves to make it an extract. To do either of these, you have to start in September.

6. You love to cook. For your cooking friends, use olive oil stuffed with something to make herbed oil. Carve them a wooden spoon. Write up your favorite recipes and give them a copy.

7. I can knit/crochet. If you can knit or crochet, you're in the catbird seat. Knit scarves, mittens, hats, something simple. Crochet hot pads (careful of the yarn you use), potholders, dishtowels (use cotton). Also, Iif you can weave weave some place mats for a couple of your friends.

8. I can cut or mold. If you can cut wood well, make little decorations and paint them (or get a good painting friend to help). If you can shape things, try pottery or clay figures that would be special to your recipient. Don't worry about not having a potter's wheel - use the method of making thin ropes and forming shapes with them, followed by rubbing the ropes away. Hope Indians use this method for pottery.

9. Nature is My Shopping Mall. Take walks in the woods and by the stream and pick up feathers, smooth rocks, interesting wood fragments. Frame them or cut some cute word into them, like "faith." People are making money off this nonsense, so you should be able to pawn them off as gifts.

10. Coupons. I have sometimes created coupons for family members that they could use once. An example was: "Coupon entitles bearer to one uninterrupted hour of listening to bearer go on and on about her husband. Limited to daylight hours. Subject to ear availability."

Learn more about this author, Marianne Pelletier.
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