I love Christmas. I adore Hugh Grant, I vibe with Mariah Carey and I am weirdly passionate about Carols By Candlelight. What I don’t love about Christmas is the expense. The sheer AUDACITY of Christmas to be so expensive, honestly.
Gone are the days of the $25 buck Kris Kringle. My family KK is now at a $150 price point. One hundred and fifty big ones, I tells ya. It’s enough to make me wanna go full Scrooge. I totally understand why Jim Carrey stays up in his cave.
That said, there is one big Christmas financial loophole, and it’s called DIY presents. That’s right, folks. If you can commit to making even just one of the many gifts you’re expected to hand out this year like the happy little elf you are, then your bank account will thank you. It will be a blessing on your manger, I promise.
Anyway, if you’re feeling crafty here are our top DIY prezzie ideas that won’t get you blacklisted from your work Secret Santa:
Create a custom Guess Who? Game
Remember Guess Who? I know you do. It’s a board game classic. So why not make your own super custom, totally personalised Guess Who? board featuring all the people you and your mates love/hate/gossip about.
Get macrame-ing
That’s a verb, right? Making macrame things, whether it’s a plant holder or a key ring, is not only easy but it’s guaranteed to look pretty and give the impression you spent a great deal of time and effort putting it together. You could even go one step further and add the actual real life plant to the macrame plant holder – now that’s a gift and a half.
Sew some gifts
Look, you don’t have to be a seamstress to get around a sewing machine. Start off small – make your mates a few scrunchies (scrunchies are back in FYI) or some frilly socks. Cute, yes? Who doesn’t want some lace sticking out of the top of their Blundstones?
Make a Christmas wreath with some extra spice
Give your mates a chance at winning some delightful Christmas cash. You see, your handmade wreath is made out of Instant Scratch-Its. It’s a game of Instant Santa. Personally, if I was gifting this to a m8 I’d be putting down a hard disclaimer stating that if they win big, you get a cut simply for your generosity.
Infuse something, anything
What do I mean by this? I’m talkin’ different kinds of infused oils, essentially. Like, how good is chilli oil? You can make chilli oil at home easy peasy. You can then gift it to a friend who can enjoy said chilli on their pan-fried pork dumplings.
Make candles, boo
Or soap, soap is good too. Both are fairly easy to DIY. They involve some sort of wax/lye situation and a heap of essential oils to get them smelling bueno. Then, voila! you’ve got yourself some soap and candles, brah. If you want to get really fancy, hunt down a cool jar and pour the candle into that. Very beautiful, very professional.
Get Christmas hampering
Everybody, and I mean literally everybody, gets excited over a good hamper. Spend a day in the kitchen baking cookies and truffles and pie, oh my! Then chuck them in cute jars, wrap a ribbon around them and display in some sort of box. Hell, you could even chuck in some of those leftover Instant Scratch-Its for good measure. Hey presto you’ve MADE a Chrissy hamper. You’re aunt Janice would be proud.
So before you go full Scrooge and pronounce Christmas D-E-D this year, grab your keys and hit the craft aisle. It’ll bring a bitta joy to your world.
