Holiday Gifts: Doing it Yourself

It’s that time of year again in which holiday catalogs are stacking up. Since I’m in the desert, I don’t get leaves piling up to tell me autumn is here and that winter is fast approaching. Instead I have gift catalogs. And the fact that fewer are showing up, and those that do are a bit slimmer, I guess the economy hasn’t gotten into the swing of things.

In the past, because I am contrary and have a credit card, I’ve done most of my gift shopping from home over the Internet. I have it shipped to Vermont, usually have it wrapped, so things arrive ready to go under the tree. Saves me a lot of time and lugging of stuff when I travel at the holiday season.

This year I’m going to do things a bit differently. In a previous post I mentioned Blurb.com. It’s a site that provides some book design software that lets you create photobooks or chapbooks very economically. Years ago the fantasy author Charles de Lint used to write a short story, print it up and distribute it to friends. I always thought that was a great idea, but I never seemed to have the time or the scratch to put that sort of project together. Now, with a service like Blurb.com, the software and the pricing make it pretty easy to do. You could do up a story, or collect some poems, or write down your favorite holiday memories and compile them into a book you can hand out.

IPhoto for the Mac has a function that makes it really easy to make photobooks. I put together a small book about the fishing trips I’ve taken with my family to Cobb’s Camps at Pierce Pond, Maine. I combined pictures and text to make a nice little souvenir of our time up there. I’ll be able to add those to gift packages for the folks who have gone. Blurb.com also allows you to do the same sort of thing.

I also recently snagged a copy of a book called Making Soap by Paola Romanelli. I got it for research for the Crown Colonies books. But here’s the interesting thing: making soap or bath salts isn’t that hard. And a quick search on the internet showed that ordering the supplies to do it is very economical. (If you’re buying this stuff in a store for a loved-one in your life, you’re being taken to the cleaners.) I’m thinking that spending an afternoon mixing up some of this stuff will be a lot of fun and will really be appreciated because it’s homemade.

Of course the idea of making gifts at the holidays isn’t something that originated with me. For as long as I can remember my father has made Rum Cakes to give out to friends. My brother and I have done that as well. (The cakes are to die for.) My best friend, Kat Klaybourne, makes her own gifts, as do her children. And my sister has taken recently to making photo albums and family calendars; and those are the kinds of gifts that stick with you. (And they don’t require batteries.)

I’m sure I will purchase a number of gifts from retailers, but I like the idea of staying home and making things a lot more than I like elbowing my way through a crowd.

If you’ve got ideas for easy DIY gifts, please leave links or descriptions in the comments. I’ll be very happy to see them.