Santa’s Workshop
I absolutely love to give homemade gifts for Christmas. It makes me learn new skills. It gives me a creative outlet. And, it is a way to put my heart into the gift. When a gift is made with love, I think it makes it that much more special.
Since two weeks before Thanksgiving, I have been working away at different homemade gifts. I did not write at all last week because my hands were so busy making gifts. Now I am almost done and it is only December 6th. Not bad if I say so.
Some gifts are easy to make. Some gifts require much more time and skill. I have learned many different skills this gift-making season. I wish I could reveal what they are, but posting them would ruin the fun for some of my family/readers.
In an article, “An Economical Time to be Creative,” for My Creativity Blog, I reveal one gift that I made for my little nephew. I felt confident that he would not find out about it since he is so young. I learned how to crochet around the edges of a polar fleece blanket. This weekend I embroidered his name on the blanket and it is complete. I am proud of how it turned out.
My daughter, Kyla, and I spent most of Saturday at my dad’s cabin working on and finishing up our homemade gifts with my step-mom. She is an incredibly talented woman and also likes to make homemade gifts. She taught Kyla and I how to use her embroidery machine.
Kyla and I were finishing five different projects at the cabin. My step-mom was working on a stocking for her granddaughter. One of us was on the sewing machine. Another was using the embroidery machine. And another was pinning, cutting, and/or drawing out a pattern. We were busy little elves.
I joked that we needed to put a sign on the door that read, “Santa’s Workshop.” I don’t know how long the elves work at the North Pole, but we got everything we needed to get done that day. We all felt a great sense of accomplishment.
It is not too late to decide to make someone a homemade gift. It is a rewarding project. There is just something special about it. If you want to learn a skill like crocheting around a fleece blanket, you seriously only need to search YouTube. There is a wealth of information available on the internet; you just have to find it.
Last year I posted “Homemade Gifts, Part One,” “Homemade Gifts, Part Two,” and “Homemade Gifts, Part Three.” For additional fun while creating your homemade masterpieces, create your own version of Santa’s workshop. I really enjoyed my day at the cabin with two other hard-working ladies. Their fellowship made the time fly.
Get the entire family involved. Teach your children skills so that they can help you and learn at the same time. Treat it as part of their schooling. It does not have to only be sewing skills. Welding, construction, painting, etc. can turn out excellent and original gifts.
I hope that my children don’t just remember getting gifts for Christmas. I hope they remember the times that we worked together to make a special gift for someone else. Seeing the smiles on their faces and how excited they are about giving our gifts this year, I know they are learning that giving is better than receiving. They are happy, hard-working elves in Santa’s Workshop.
