One of the best ways to save money at Christmas time is to make presents for friends and family - is this something you like to do? Now I work from home I have the time to do this and I love to make jams and chutneys to give as gifts. Chilli jam has been my most successful venture and people are already begging me to make some again this year... will just have to see how I get on in my tiny kitchen! Do you like to make gifts and how do you feel about receiving home made presents?
I plan to make some gifts this year for the friends and family I have in this area. I plan to make things like baked goods and body scrubs. Nice little luxuries that get used up and don't take up space forever. I enjoy the personal touch of being creative in my gifts like that. It's not practical to mail those kinds of things though, so my family that lives far away will not get home made gifts.
No I usually don't make any special gifts when Christmas comes because I usually do those for individual holidays and occasions like birthdays due to the fact that it's just way too much work to do a lot for everyone and Christmas shopping is already stressful enough as it is. At least with birthdays I could just focus on one and I'll have ample time to make them.
I find it's more convenient to buy gifts instead of trying to make them myself. In any case the sort of gifts I can make, beautiful greeting cards for example, may be accepted by the recipients but they'd still want something more. So I save myself the time and get their stuff from the store. Home-made gifts can be great. One of our neighbors who is a great cook always makes us a little something each year.
