Crafting Xmas Gifts

For years, my extended family of my 3 sisters and my parents have had a homemade xmas. We had all reached the point where we had our homes, most of us had children, and really, none of us needed your standard xmas presents. Plus when you counted everyone up, it totaled a lot of people.

• 4 children and each of their spouses = 8
• 1 sister has 3 children = 3
• I have 4 children then = 4
  
• 1 sister has 2 children = 2
• 1 sister has 2 children = 2
• Our parents = 2

• Grand total = 21 people

It's hard enough to find a restaurant who can fit all of us, much less buy a gift for everyone. Since all of us, as a family, are creative, we decided that this was a good thing to try.

And what a successful thing for us to do!! Over the years I've received a hand painted holiday plate with our names, a set of stockings for everyone in our family, a calendar with a collage of family photos, homemade soaps, jams, no-bake chocolate chip cookie dough, a wooden hope chest, and many more things.

Over time it has not mattered how perfect anything was, just that you planned and thought about the gift and made it thinking about your family.

Now is the time for everyone to think about how their own family can start such a wonderful tradition. It doesn't matter if everything isn't perfect, it's about the love and time taken to think about each of the members of your family.