There are so many wonderful things you can make with so little skill it hardly seems necessary to venture into the shops at all but the truth is that these gifts cost in other ways – blood, sweat and tears and also that precious commodity psychological articles tell us everyone has so little of – TIME!
One of the really beautiful gifts that can be home made are salt dough figures that can be baked in the oven to harden and then painted with paint and glitter to make gorgeous Christmas decorations – a great gift for grandparents who are baby boomers and annoyingly seem to have everything else. If you have a local market where you can buy wicker tubs or baskets, they are really the most beautiful gifts when filled with not just goodies but FAVORITE goodies, decorated with your little salt dough trims.
Make beautiful gift ties out of old necklace beads and crystals and baby ribbon – they look super expensive and require five extra minutes. Baby boomers always have old costume jewelry hiding in the loft – make use of all that hoarded history and turn it into great gift garnish! If you have run out of ribbon rosettes or bows, cut a sprig of evergreen from somewhere in the garden and tie some brightly wrapped candy with string around the sprigs before taping them to your parcels. For extra effect, sprinkle with glitter.
Home made chocolate truffles taste the best when they are home made and especially if they come in those cute home made gift boxes – you can get patterns free online from craft pages and keep the kids quiet for hours making them. Home made preserves should be finished with brightly colored gingham lid covers and tied with pine cones, cinnamon sticks and bright red or green ribbon to look inviting and delicious.
Psychological articles teach us that the aroma of Christmas food is heady and has associations with childhood. Cakes; tartlets; Christmas mulled wine; fudge; coconut ice; Turkish delight; gingerbread cookies; shortcake; rum and raisin toffee and fruit cake are all things that can make great gifts and appreciated far more than a ‘here today gone tomorrow’ plastic gadget. The gift of your time is so much more precious.
A bottle of wine for older baby boomers is a lovely present but if it is wrapped imaginatively it can look like a work of art – buy and wash some second hand doll’s clothes and dress the bottle – the results are hilarious! A false moustache and a brightly colored scarf on a bottle of Tequila can make a great present!
Bedroom slippers are great to receive as a gift but a little boring – try making homemade soap (recipes found online) and wrap the slippers with a matching towel and face cloth – it’s fragrant, original and different to anything you find in the shops.
Photographs are always useful when making homemade gifts, for collages; gracing home made photo frames; adding to key rings and putting inside new wallets or purses. Grandchildren’s photographs can be added to other presents for baby boomers, as part of the gift tag or something extra to enclose with another gift.
There is something rustic and beautiful about home made gifts clustered beneath a Christmas tree. They need not cost the earth but they mean the World.
Dr Karen Turner, PhD, is a clinical psychologist with an interest in the baby boomer generation as the most successful and resourceful of all generations. Boomeryearbook.com focuses on connecting the baby boomer generation and providing interaction for boomers everywhere. If you are a baby boomer with an interest in the mysteries of the human brain, Boomeryearbook.com is the social network for you.
