Gifts of Christmas – what would you love to receive?

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas ~ Calvin Coolidge

 

Yesterday morning, I listened avidly to a discussion on Radio 5 Live about giving gifts at Christmas. One young mum was determined to give her young daughters a Christmas to remember, even if that meant taking out a loan to cover what her little ones had put on their list for Santa … other guests on the show chimed in offering their ideas on frugal gift ideas.  I particularly loved this one – a plain white t-shirt, a pack of coloured sequins and your precious time to show a youngster how to make their own sparkly t-shirt, while sharing skills.

Handmade gifts, they decided, are not always the best way to save money: for example, if you followed Kirstie Allsop’s “Handmade Britain” programme ideas and gathered together all the materials you needed, it would cost you a small fortune! Of course, not everyone has the time or energy to sit for hours making something that may, or may not be, much-loved by the lucky recipient … but that said, I still love the programme even if can never hope to achieve such high levels of competence.  After all, this is the girl who has failed to learn to crochet and knit and is on the verge of giving up after 30 years of trying!

(That said, I will go to our local WI’s Knit & Stitch meeting in January and see whether they can offer any glimmer of hope for me …)

So this conversation yesterday morning really got me thinking.  Even moreso since I had attended Lynn Serafinn’s book launch party for The 7 Graces of Marketing on Saturday afternoon and firmly believe that this book, when it’s launched tomorrow, will play a revolutationary role when it comes to shaping our habits, both as consumers and as business-owners.

Now, I’ve had a little bit of time on my hands over the last few months whilst the daddy of all treatment plans took on a life of it’s own.  So quite a few of my loved ones will be receiving hand-made gifts from me this year! Hmmmm … I do hope they aren’t going to be disappointed with my offerings which have been made with much love!  However, in all seriousness, I would far rather receive a handmade gift – no matter what it is – because I know that a lot of time, love and effort would have gone into it to make it really personal to me.

How could you not love a gift that contained all of that wrapped up in it?

I am also a huge supporter of people who, like me, have spent their time and energy making beautiful products by hand – so do take a look at what you can find at Folksy, Etsy and Coriandr (for example) and support the small-biz creative entrepreneurs who do what they love to share their passion, as well as earn an income.  I have found some amazing gift ideas (not just for Christmas!) over at these stores recently and been delighted with every single item I have brought from these individual sellers.

I have been thinking about what gifts we could offer to our loved ones at Christmas that didn’t require labour-intensive methods of preparing.  Gifts that showed how much we truly valued and appreciated them – and because of those feelings, how much effort and thought had gone in to giving them a wonderful gift  they would really appreciate.

So what I would love to know is …

What gifts would YOU love to receive this Christmas, that come from the heart rather than just the wallet?

Please do share your thoughts with us here … thank you for sharing and I hope you get all that you wish for this year!