Holiday Gifts

Before I get in to today's post, I want to thank you for the well wishes. I'm not dead after all...in fact, I feel a lot better today. Unfortunately for the childebeasts, their plan was foiled. Muwahahaha

Today, let's talk about holiday gifts. As someone who absolutely despises the holidays, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this. In fact, I'm not even going to say anything more about it...probably until December. By then, even those of us who don't get all "warm and fuzzy" about the holidays can't resist the pressure of it all, and are forced to submit. Leave me alone about it the other 11 months - and I'll do my best to pretend I like it the last month of the year. (Maybe I'll write some schleppy post about why I dislike Christmas so much...but maybe not. It's not interesting, no one thing made me start hating it, and it just brings up more holiday talk.)

While pondering the possible end of my life yesterday, I was continually interrupted by commercials of happy families getting their holiday groove on. Especially by KMart and their lay-a-way plan. (I think those commercials started like a 4-6 weeks ago.) Irritating as it was, I know it's going to get a whole lot worse - much like the political commercials do right before a presidential election. Then I found out that Santa will be arriving at area malls this Friday. November 6. A full FORTY-NINE days before Christmas. It's a record - and the malls say they're doing it to help "parents get in the mood, and realize Christmas is just around the corner". As if parents - who have children of any age - can forget? Really?? I find it hard to believe the 'beasts are the only children who, all year long, say they want _______ for Christmas. Even the day after Christmas, while half the crap is still in its packaging, the 'beasts are watching TV and commenting they want _____ for next Christmas. Thanks, KMart - I don't need a reminder that I can put everything on lay-a-way. And a huge THANK YOU to the Denver Post - for letting me know Santa will be at the mall from tomorrow til Christmas. You just cemented the fact I will not be going to the mall - for any reason - til after the first of the year.* The last thing I want or need is to get the childebeasts all riled up about Christmas...while they are still hyped up on their Halloween candy.

Hello...can you say tangents? Maybe we'll get to what my point is. So the post is a little convoluted and confusing. So am I.

Crafting and holiday gifts. This will be old news to some of you - but still important things to remember, nonetheless. There are some very specific rules to making things for others as holidays gifts, lest you land on Homemade Hilarity. Fantastic site - if you, or something you've made, aren't on it. In an effort to help all of you - craftista or not - here is some important information to keep in mind if you are going to make gifts this year, rather than buying everything. Let's face it - rollin' with these economic times means everyone needs to save a few Benjamen's (or in my case, Washington's), so many people who haven't necessarily considered giving a handmade gift before, are seriously considering it this year. Which is awesome - I'm all about forwarding the handmade movement - as long as it's well thought out and not just thrown together.

There are several points I want to make about crafting a gift for the holidays - especially those who are new to making gifts. I truly believe anyone can make something really nice - whether they have experience or not - and I'd like to give you some pointers so you can be as successful as possible. I'm not going to focus on what you can make - doing a search on Google will net you more results than you could use in 100 holidays - but I do want to give you some things to think about before plunging in, headfirst.

Unless you'd rather do things the Queen Katherine way...don't think about it, just start making something. Don't worry about how many you need to make - just start on one. After finishing that first one, realize it took you six hours to make it, you've use all your supplies for that particular project, it's ten o'clock at night so the stores are closed, the gift exchange event is in two days, and you need to make 109 more. Sadly, that's how I do things...so I'm trying to save you and spare you a lot of frustration. Tune in tomorrow for the stuff I was going to post today, until I got off on other subjects.

* In all fairness, it should be noted that I haven't been to the mall since...it's been so long that I can't even remember the last time I went to the mall. So it isn't like they'll be missing out on my I-don't-have-two-nickels-to-rub-together-food-stamp-getting-I-hate-Christmas self.

xx,