Holiday Gifts for Six Kids – Homemade Style

Holiday Gifts for  Six kids  – Homemade Style. It is that time of year again and I am trying to get my kids to think on the cheap for presents this Christmas. I also want them to get in the spirit of thinking of others vs. themselves. There has to be a way for the kids to make each other presents without costing a fortune and ones they that they will actually like and use. So here is what the kids thought would be fun that also works with each of their personalities. Taylor 16: The Teenager: she is going to make knotted fleece blankets. She is self-described as “not-crafty” but even she can whip up a cute blanket or 5. It’s pretty easy. For specific instructions go to: http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Make-a-Blanket. Our challenge on this is where to find inexpensive yards of fleece. Haley: 11: She is a bit more “crafty” than the teenager. For some reason my kids all love to have a journal handy and they never can find them. I swear that they each have at least 10 journals, but every year they put it on the Christmas list yet again. We are going to go to the Dollar Store and buy blank journals and decorate them for each kid. Seems easy enough. Wait! Another idea just in, homemade sugar body scrubs. All of my kids love scrubs in the shower and we are currently out. Perfect! We just found a great recipe that seems super simple and easy. I am excited! http://www.treehuggingfamily.com/homemade-sugar-body-scrub Freddy-9: The in –house tech guy. He loves his computer and anything that relates to technology. He is going to create a collection of songs and burn some CD’s specific to each sibling and music they like. He also loves Project Runway, so he wants to make something on the sewing machine too. Since everyone swims, he is going to make swim/tote bags. We are going to see what is in the scrap bin at the local fabric store. I really hope they have something not horrible in a print for cheap. Georgia; 7: She is my resident artist. Her idea is to make individual paintings. She and I will go buy mini square canvases so she can paint them. I love this idea. You just never know if someday she might be a recognized artist, and we will all have a Georgia Original! Piper who is 5; with some prompting and a bit of laziness on my end, because she is the most difficult of my children to make to do anything and currently she does not want to do this “fun” thing.; we (me again) thought of going to the plant nursery. I am sure we can find some inexpensive small, hearty seasonal plants and decorate the pot they come in. Seems like a good idea. I guess we will have to see on this one. Seriously, wish me luck on #5. Rowan-2: Ok, I am not going to try and make him make some gifts. Being that he is only 2 he gets a pass this year. That means I get a pass too! Yippee! Stay tuned for a follow-up blog on this whole experience. I will do an accounting of how cheap (or not) this exercise was. Including time. (mine) Man, I hope it all works out in time for the holidays. Wish us (me) luck. Jennifer and mom of 6 (including a teenager) Happy Holidays