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Homemade Christmas Gifts

Dec 15, 2008
Christmas Vacation

Stuck for what to gift your ever-growing list of family and friends this Christmas? Homemade Christmas Gifts.jpg
There’s a way out. Make your gifts at home. Homemade Christmas gifts are the flavor of the season. Here are some ideas.

Keeping in the true spirit of the season, more and more people are designing homemade Christmas gifts for their family and friends. Besides saving a pretty bundle, homemade Christmas presents provide the creative and emotional satisfaction of having crafted a givable item yourself, and actually giving something you made with your own hands. Christmas is the season of giving. So, even if you put in effort to make a gift, you will get it back next season.

But there are some things to remember when giving away your homemade Christmas gift. Be sure that the gift you are giving looks worth giving. By making the gift yourself, the idea you want to project is that you really care for the person, and not that you are trying to scrimp money. Sure, you must give away a part of yourself, but you need not come out like El Cheapo. Or Uncle Scrooge for that matter. That is why, you must stick to things you are sure you can do something good out of. Have a talent in you that attracts praise? Use that to make your gift.

Here are four interesting ideas on making homemade Christmas presents. You can use these, but I strongly suggest you search within yourself to get your ideas. My ideas here are only a base to set your own think machine rolling.

Homemade Christmas Gift Idea # 1 - Gift baskets

Gift baskets are easy to make and look sumptuous. You do not have to do much, and there is very little that can go wrong. All you have to do is get a wicker basket (preferable, though other materials would also do), stock it with goodies, and add some basic decorations. However, what is most important is what you will put in the basket. Chocolates are always winners for gift baskets, or you could put in homemade baked stuff for the real personal touch. If your budget is a little higher, then you could also make great tea, coffee, cheese or even wine baskets. The recipient of this gift is going to be one lucky guy!

Homemade Christmas Gift Idea # 2 - Cribs

This is one gift that you will have to give out a little earlier than Christmas so that people can put them up with their other decorations. Take medium sized cardboard boxes, and put all your craft skills to make cribs. You can get the crib statues at most church stores before Christmas. Or you can simply gift an empty crib. Buying and placing statues in cribs is a very joyous thing to do; let the receiver of the gift do it. However, make it a point to come up with a real neat looking crib, using things around the house. Ask the kids in the house to contribute. They will enjoy it.

Homemade Christmas Gift Idea # 3 - Fairytale Books Hamper

If there are kids in the house you are taking the gift to, then they will certainly appreciate a hamper with about half a dozen books full of Christmas stories. Thin Christmas story books are stocked by all bookstores before Christmas, which contain one story each. Make sure you select the books that have a lot of pictures. Use a decent looking hamper. You can also throw in a Santa cap to add to the spirit. Give the gift to the kid in the house. The joy on his or her face upon receiving the gift will be a sight to behold.

Homemade Christmas Gift Idea # 4 - Cookie boxes

Everyone loves cookies throughout the year, but during Christmastime, cookies take on a festive meaning. Learn some cookie recipes and bake them at home. Bake different types of cookies. Use flavors like butterscotch, chocolate and strawberry. You will get different colors and also these are the tastes people love to have during Christmas. Then take cylindrical boxes - you can take the boxes in which you get Pringles potato wafers, and decorate them with gift wrapping paper. Decorate the boxes with some Christmassy things and then put the cookies inside. Your boxes will look really cute when the decorations are done, and look cuter when the aroma of freshly baked homemade cookies wafts out of them.

By Neil Valentine D’Silva
Published: 10/23/2007

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Christmas in Spain

Dec 2, 2008
Best places for Christmas vacations

A quick look into how the Spanish spend the festive period - we take a look at the customs and holidays that define the Christmas break in Spain.Christmas in Spain.jpg

Rather refreshingly, Spain doesn’t seem to start gearing up for Christmas until they get into the month of December. It’s not the huge commercial circus that it is in the US and the UK; the lights and decorations won’t be seen until the start of December and gradually Christmas markets start to appear and trees can be bought in the streets.

It’s also worth noting that Spain is largely a Roman catholic nation so the festivities still hold important religious connotations, the first date of note is December 8th, Immaculada (the Feast of the Immaculate Conception), this really kicks of the start of the religious celebrations. The holiday period really begins on December 22nd when all of Spain tunes into the television or radio to hear the results of “El Gordo”, a huge lottery draw that will see thousands of prizes dished out to winners from across the country.

Christmas Eve is a huge family day in Spain and is known as “Nochebuena”. A massive meal will be prepared for what is the biggest feast of the year and the most important family gathering. Fish and shellfish are usually consumed to start with, followed by a roast such as lamb or a suckling pig and desert is the traditional marzipan or Turrón (an almond based sweet very popular in Spain). Cava is typically the drink of choice at this time of year. It is also customary for adults to exchange their presents on “Nochebuena” and although the kids may get a small gift, they will have to wait until they get their presents. After the dinner the majority of people will then go to midnight mass, known in Spain as “La Misa de gallo” (the Mass of the Rooster).

Every town, church and, very often, home will have a “Belen” (a nativity scene) at this time of year and some are extremely large and impressive. Sometimes they will be set up in a town square with real actors to form a life-sized recreation of the nativity. These scenes form an important part of the Christmas celebrations to Spaniards and are repeated throughout much of Latin America.

Christmas Day itself is one of the quietest of the year in Spain. As in most of the western world it is a public holiday and all shops, banks etc will be shut for the day, more and more families now observe the tradition of going out to a restaurant for a meal. There certainly isn’t a great deal in the way of unbridled celebration as tend to be the case in the UK and US. The kids don’t even receive their presents on this day, for that they have to wait until January 6th, Epiphany, when the three kings brought their gifts to Christ. Rather than Santa, it’s the three Kings who are the heroes and in particular, Balthasar, who is said to leave them their presents. Traditional cakes called “Rosca de Reyes” are typically eaten on this day. Much like putting coins in Christmas pudding in England, the cakes are baked with plastic charms in them and are said to foretell a lucky year for those who find them.

Learn Spanish in Spain
A superb language school, Babylon-idiomas gives you the chance to learn Spanish in Spain or South America

By Mike McDougall
Published: 12/1/2005

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