How I pulled off an all-handmade Christmas.

It’s Sunday, January 4th and I’m slowly coming to grips with the fact that the holidays are officially o-v-e-r and I have to return to work tomorrow. Some people, as much as they say they love the holidays, are kind of ready for them to end when they’re over, and for real life to resume. I am not one of those people.

So I thought I’d stretch out the holidays just a bit longer and share how I pulled off an all-handmade Christmas.

Remember way back in October when I pledged to buy all of my Christmas presents from Etsy? I wasn’t kidding. I rarely give myself an ultimatum that I don’t keep. I swore I’d go all handmade (ahem, or vintage) and I meant it.

But it wasn’t without it’s challenges, the first and most obvious being what to get the guys: my (then)  boyfriend (now fiance, still getting used to that), my Dad, and my boss. Not that all of Etsy is girly stuff but, well, a whole lot of it is.

Luckily, I stumbled on a shop called MyHandboundBooks fairly early on at it was a life saver! From there I got this little notebook for my boss (he keeps them in his car and uses them to jot down thoughts as he’s on the road – safely, of course):

This olive-colored sketchbook for my Dad:

And a custom journal for Andreas, filled with graph paper:

For my Dad, I also found this super-cool, kitschy orange juice pitcher from the 70s. Andreas gave him a nice juicer for Christmas last year and this seemed like the perfect compliment (from a vintage shop called Surrender Dorothy):

For Andreas, I also found a shop that sells hand-engraved pocket knives, carrying on a family tradition of engraving nearly a century old (called DJReigel). Andreas loved loved loved this two-bladed copperhead knife by Rough Rider:

My mom was surprisingly hard to shop for. Though I knew she’d like just about anything from Etsy, I wanted to get her something she’d really love. I settled on this bead necklace from RedChair. The beads were just so eye-catching and juicy-looking, I couldn’t resist:

Also for my mom, these knitted dishcloths that she is a big fan of (from CocoaBeans):

Also on my list was Andreas’ mom. For her I chose these pretty glass bead earrings (from OldMoney) and a vintage tea tin from England (from DomestiKate).

There were some other handmade gifts I gave but those were the main ones. I also wrapped everything in handmade wrapping paper and bags (from SarahMarieDesigns and hellohandmadepaperie, respectively), and labeled them with handmade gift tags (from The Green Daisy):

While it was a fun experiment and I’m glad I could support all these great artists, it wasn’t without it’s challenges (not getting to see and touch everything before buying, shipping worries, etc.) or limitations (wanting to get folks non-handmade stuff, like books and CDs). In the future, I’ll probably do a mix of handmade and non-handmade when it comes to gift giving.

I’ll close with some photos of a few handmade gifts I received. All jewelry, oddly enough:

Hip mustard bakelite necklace from PetitOiseau

Lovely wood and bead “raindrops” necklace from favorite shop marie fly fly

Adorable silver “nest necklace” from mootsie