Would you be mortally offended if your sister made your Christmas gift?

And we spent ages looking for suitable boxes to give chocolates in - eventually got some from here: https://www.swiftbox.co.uk/

And in the past have used some from Ikea, they have done them a few times in the past, a set of nesting circular cardboard boxes, one year they were gold and silver, another year lots of bright colours, very cool.

No, I'd be very pleased. In your shoes, though, I'd probably mention something in advance if you normally give her an extravagant present- just something nting that you're not spending a fortune on presents this year- to avoid the situation where you give her PSc and she gives you a new ipod. But if that's unlikely to be an issue, I wouldn't give it a second thought.

To be honest, yes I would be offended... in fact really offended........... but that's because it's well known in our family that chocolate gives me migraines LOL

I think it's a lovely idea - and the fact that you've explained to your sister beforehand makes it quite exciting for her too!

I think its a lovely idea?

In fact, after reading through this thread i have been inspired to make a few homemade gifts this year.

I agree with those who said it shows a lot of thought. Im sure your sister will be delighted.

Thanks again, you lot, for making me feel good about this ?

It's a great idea Lilly, I'm now thinking about doing it too.

I know on MoneySavingExpert they usually have a homemade christmas gift thread.I've never really read it before but I need some ideas.

I'd think it was lovely and those chocolate moulds are too cool for school.

homemade presents are a norm for me, or rather from me, things i've sewn- tree decorations, hairclips etc, things i've made- jewellery, food, chocolate, preserves damson gin, it's nice that the teeny basket of fimo flowers i made at 5 is still out on display at my grandmothers.

I think in a way if i want to buy a cd or something then i could buy them, making handmade things even more special x

my mum has made laptrays in the past, edging around mdf, then painted, a fabric bag underneath stuffed with those foamy balls, then she cut out flowers and applied to painted top, then varnished 5 times.

I think the point of presents is to give the person something that they want and will like. So, if my sister gave me home-made chocs (and hell was freezing over at the time ?) I'd be a bit vexed, because, a. her chocolates would be a bit C3, and b. I just don't want loads of chocolate. That said, she works for a hairdressing magazine, and has often given every woman in the family hair products that she's received as feebies over the year, and we've been thrilled. Cost isn't the issue, at all.

C3?

God no, I'd be delighted. Except if my sister made something it'd probably look like something that had been made by a child in reception class (not that there's anything wrong with that when it HAS been made by a five year old.)

Last year I gave miniature Christmas cakes to a lot of people. They were very well received and I'm planning to make gingerbread this year. AS far as I'm concerned there should be more of this sort of thing.

I did a homemade Christmas a couple of years ago - I knitted a variety of hats, scarves and mitts, made some chutney and supplemented it all with charity gifts (a goat for a family in Africa and similar). It went down an absolute treat, and it was the least stressful Christmas I've ever had, even though I was finishing my Dad's socks minutes before we left to go to their house!

Sadly, my knitting skills haven't progressed past the accessories stage, so I'll have to think of an alternative thing to make - maybe I'll have another crack at chutney and try my hand at some choccies too!

C3 = sub-optimal ?

My MIL made homemade chocs as gifts last year. She packaged them in pretty blue jars and ribbon. The chocs were scrummy, and we still have the pretty jar ( currently hosting jelly tots ? )

I think it's a lovely idea. I've made home made jam this year and bought baskets off ebay and made up little hampers.

TBH it really depends - I wouldn't be offended as such but if H's Sister (for example) did it I'd be quite pissed off but that's because she has a habit of claiming to be poverty striken and unable to buy presents for people (but still expecting presents herself) and then somehow finding money for holidays a couple of weeks later ?

If it was another member of the family I wouldn't be offended at all - times are hard and something with a personal touch is always well received here. We're broker than a broken thing this year and so are cutting back - as with the last few years H and I won't be buying presents for each other and we were planning to spend less on family / cut back on friends this year. I hadn't thought of making little edible gifts for people, it's actually a lovely idea and I can think of a couple of people we could do that for who I think would really appreciate it. H's Grandparents for one. Last year they asked for no gifts as they didn't need or want anything so we bought Oxfam unwrapped gifts and I expect they will ask for the same this year. It felt to strange not giving them an actual gift so it would be lovely to send them some chocolates or fudge for themselves - hmmm, I'm off to Google little jars and so on and some recipes ?

I think it's a lovely idea. I am intending to make some bits as part of people's presents this year, not just because of funds being low but because I think it will be nice and a more personal

Would it not cost you more to make them than to buy, I've looked into this on a few occasions and by the time you've bought all the ingrediants, nice packaging etc you could have bought 2 boxes in Asda.

It's a lovely idea and I'm sure she'd love them, but I'm not sure you actually save anything.

If I'm going to give my sister nothing but sweets for Christmas, then they will be sweets I have made an effort with ?

besides which, peppermint creams cost feck all to make. And I can get my kids to do it for me ?

Fair enough, if it was me It'd buy them, sling them in a box, tie a bit of ribbon around them and call them home made, but then I buy mince pies, bash them up a bit and pass Tesco's finest off as my own at the school fayre, I have no shame.

I am making Christmas presents this year too - I enjoy crafty things and it gives me something to aim towards. Also, like everyone else, we're skint.

I have knitted two chunky wool scarves so far, with tassles. Have nearly finished a knitted handbag - hope to crochet some flowers for it (although I need to teach myself to crochet ?)

I plan to make necklaces and bracelets from recycled glass beads and leather thongs (this sort of thing: https://www.thebeadstore.co.uk/ViewCategories.aspx?CatID=34ee452c-5228-4500-86fe-461342915f02), keyrings, wine glass charms etc.

We're also going to make flavoured oils with the chilli and garlic we've grown in the garden. H keeps bees, so we'll give away honey too.

A couple of years ago I did a hamper of chutneys and jams - it was expensive by the time you added packaging, was stressful and bloooming hard work. Everyone appreciated them apart from my Mum who thought I was being outrageous. MIL always says how much she loved them, but most are still unopened in her cupboard ?

Bollocks. This is what I want to give, and I'd be delighted with something similar back. I don't really care if they get the hump.

I would be thrilled to recieve a home-made Christmas gift. I think making gifts shows you put time and effort into it, rather than, possibly, just popping into a shop and grabbing something off the shelf in an "Oh, this'll do" kind of way, which is what I suspect one particular aunt of mine used to do.

Having said that, I shan't be making any Christmas gifts this year. A domestic goddess I am not.

I love the idea of giving and recieving homemade gifts.

I plan to make some chutneys and jams for people this year rather than buying them tings whihc get lost amongst other gifts.

I think your sister would be very chuffed.

I wouldn't be offended at all - with your baking skills LTP, I'm sure you'll produce some stunning looking things. Pictures please!

I always do home-made gifts for Christmas - usually little packs of Christmas cake, home-made apple sauce and cranberry sauce - and instead of expensive packaging I buy cellophane from the florists for about 50p a metre. I cut up cereal boxes for bases and buy beautiful ribbon from www.ribbonoasis.co.uk (very reasonable) to secure everything (cake gets an extra layer of cellophane). I keep jars all year for the sauces and sterilise them, then print off labels I just stick on.

Love the idea of apple and cranberry sauce GWTW - and those ideas for cellophane etc.

I was a bit daft when I did mine - bought the jars from Lakeland and the cellophane from Hobbycraft ?

Puss had a great idea on BT about getting some plain shopping bags and getting the kids to paint them with fabric paint. They'll enjoy it and as most shops don't give away carriers anymore, I think it's very timely. I think a pack of 5 bags was about £6 on Ebay.

I think it's a lovely idea. I don't think it's something only to be done if funds are low, either - it's a nice personal gift!

I would love to receive home made gifts (especially ones you can eat!). I'm thinking of doing some bits to go along with the main presents to bulk them up a bit.

Here's the link for the money saving expert thread . Its been going since June! Lots of good ideas. Some are quite advanced (well for me anyway) but there's lots of beginner stuff too.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=968525

So let me see - would I prefer something bought in a shop during a last-minute Christmas panic (so about five seconds' thought going into the entire process) or something that actually took a bit of thought and effort?

?

Every year I try to make a lavishly personalised present for at least one person - whether it's a souvenir album of a friend's ill-advised appearance on Blind Date consisting of image grabs and a complete written transcript, plus a flick-book version of her even more ill-advised dance in the bottom right-hand corner of the pages (I was playing with fire, but it went down an absolute storm: in fact, she asked for more copies for her family!), a lovingly edited and curated DVD of home movies going back decades, interspersed with TV appearances by relatives (my dad's 70th), or anything else that takes my fancy.

In fact, at the moment I'm killing two birds with one stone by compiling a single printed edition of all my published writing since turning professional in 2002, which is well worth doing anyway (and a weirdly nostalgic experience re-reading stuff I'd barely even thought about since submitting it to my various editors), but since my ex's 50th birthday is coming up next month, it's a perfect present for her as well.

What a great thread!

I hadn't even thought of doing this, but having read this I've now decided to make Carrot Cakes for all the teachers that I would normally buy decidedly average chocolates for... 8 in total.

I'm going to make the cakes and wrap them... I've ordered some of this Cellophane from ebay, along with some gold ribbon, and I'm going to cover cardboard circles with gold foil. Job done!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/10-Metres-White-Dot-Cellophane-FREE-5M-CLEAR-ROLL_W0QQitemZ380071962018QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item380071962018&_trkparms=72%3A1298%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Thanks for the inspiration😎😃!

I am doing home made pressies this year. I did it a few years back (jams, jellies, shortbread, flavoured oils etc, all done at home), and they went down really well. This is probably the first year since then that I've felt I have the time to do it again.

I have 4 sisters, all married with kids, as well as my sil and her family, and both sets of parents. Our son has 12 first cousins. So Christmas gets really expensive if you're not careful.

This year I'm planning on doing a hamper for each family group, with some yummy homemade food things (including those chocs Flowery), with some individual bits in there as well for the kids. I'm thinking of buying a few bits (have found some great cookie cutters which will do beautifully as a gift for 3 of the nephews, along with flour, sugar etc to make cookies with). I'm brushing up on my knitting too, so I can hopefully knit a few bits for some of them too.

Personally I would far rather receive a gift that someone had thought about, and put some time and effort in, than something that was bought at the last minute in a panic. I really don't care what gifts cost. And I REALLY hate the idea of someone worrying about how they'll afford to buy me something for christmas.

Lilly do you have a recipe for the peppermint creams? And how far in advance will you be making them? Thanks