Homemade Christmas Gifts: Girlfriends Get Together

Guest post from Angela Richter

I love to see ideas for making things.  I enjoy seeing them on blogs, magazines and now pinterest.  Making homemade Christmas gifts is one of my favorite things I love to read about, however, I found each year I would get ideas, be so excited about them, and never get around to making them.  I would say, “oh next year maybe” but that usually didn’t happen either.

A couple of years ago that all changed.

I decided in order to get my gifts made I needed to have my girlfriends over; I needed to plan out a day on my calendar and just do it.  I already had a group of girls that I loved to scrapbook with so I invited them.  I let them know they could work on their scrapbooks or any craft/homemade Christmas gifts they wanted.   You could also do this with family that loves to craft.  It quickly became an annual tradition for me.

Some tips I have found that make it successful:

• Get a date on the calendar at least a month ahead if possible.  I send out a few choices and the date most can make is the one I choose.
• Have snacks/hot food. A crockpot is a GREAT thing for this kind of event.  You can make hot chili or soup and have it all day for the girls to eat when they want.  Have chips and dip and maybe some baked cookies too.  (Pre make and bake is fine)  Don’t overdo or it won’t be fun, it will be stressful.
• This is key:  Pick out the gifts you want to make and have the items ready before the day of the event.  When I first started this I would always end up with something missing and then it was too late to buy it (the nearest craft store to me is 30 minutes) my friends learned this the hard way too.  Spend a day ahead that week to prepare.  The more you are prepared the more you will get done.
• Make it an all day event if you can; you can really get a lot done and it is so much fun.  Always let your guests know they can leave when they need to, some will stay the whole time to get more Christmas gifts made.
• Line up babysitting if you can. My husband is great at supporting me in getting things done for the holidays and he is off during the weekend but if not see if you can get a teenager to come over (they love to make extra Christmas money) If you have small children making gifts can really be hard to accomplish.  They will want to “help” which is sweet but it will kill your progress, however older children are great to include, the girls seem to especially like this kind of event.  We have a teenage girl that joins us each year and my 8 yr old daughter is really starting to love crafts.

So get out your pinterest account and start writing down all those wonderful things you want to make for Christmas.  With a little planning, they just might get done this year.