I’m looking forward to Christmas especially this year. I think having this blog to work on adds to the sparkle and the fun. Gina and I went to see Cinderella at the 5th Avenue is Seattle yesterday – incredible, and today is Great Grandson Tristin’s eighth birthday. We are blessed. I am trying so desperately to get packages in the mail, made three kinds of candy today. All very easy. What I’ve found is that you can make almost anything into candy if you melt vanilla almond bark in the microwave and stir in broken pieces of candy canes (take off the plastic wrapper first.) Last year I took the peppermint bark to a nice couple at Patriot’s Landing down the street, and then I realized I’d left pieces of plastic in the candy. Had to run and snatch it back to him. I could just see this lovely couple waking up Christmas morning in the hospital with plastic wrapping tying up their tummy. Not good.
I found an interesting Christmas article from the money blog in The Guardian in Great Britain. They talk about whether home made gifts really save money. I’m pretty sure they don’t, but I don’t think it matters.
How do you feel about Home made gifts? Good idea or not?
Britons are slashing the amount they spend on Christmas this year, but are planning to make and bake more presents than ever, according to a survey by Good Food magazine.
The magazine found that 31% of us are planning to cut present spending this year, with just 11% planning to spend more. But instead of cutting friends and relatives off the gift list altogether, 33% are planning to make and give homemade presents – up from 8% last year.
The first part of this contradicts other surveys, which have indicated that people don’t intend to cut back at all. But the second part definitely rings bells with me at least.
In the past couple of months I have made jars of quince jelly and bottles of chilli sherry to give away as Christmas presents – partly because I love these two things myself, so can’t imagine anyone not wanting to get them as a gift, but also, I admit, to make use of the autumn glut in the garden and save money.
But there’s the rub. Does making or baking a gift actually save money?
One colleague who shall remain nameless moaned that making coconut ice for her uncle last year cost more than she would normally spend on him. She admits, somewhat grudgingly, that she did benefit from a fair amount of tasting during production, but adds: “I had to buy a bag of desiccated coconut (88p for 250g), two tins of condensed milk (£1.44 for a 397g tin) and a jar to put it in (£4), so altogether it came to about £7.”
Another colleague, who is intending to make pickled ginger and chilli oil for the second year running as gifts, says it does save him money: “I’m so lazy about buying presents, it’s just easier to buy expensive ones – never less than £10 and often up to £30. So even though I buy the jars and bottles it does save me money.”
Not all homemade gifts work. One relative knits jumpers or other garments for my daughter every year. When my daughter was little I could get her to wear them, especially if they had a horse or cat on the front. Now she’s a teenager, they are instantly discarded.
But personally, I would rather receive a homemade jar of pickled ginger than a box of Thorntons chocolates, which seems to be the default present of choice in my family. Much better for the waistline, and apparently better than fresh ginger when used in cooking (according to the colleague who makes it).
So does this make my colleagues and I look like cheapskates? What homemade gifts would you be happy to receive, if any?
More on this debate tomorrow. How do you feel?