Holiday Gift Giving

Tis the Season to Be Creative

Does your idea of holiday gift giving involve handmade gifts? If you’re an artist, then chances are good. At least for some of the folks on your list. The holidays provide the perfect time to gift your art to those who would appreciate it.

Birthday gifts

I’ve gifted drawings on numerous occasions, both during the holidays and birthdays. I gifted my auntie who passed earlier this year, two portraits of her felines for Christmas. I’ve gifted my roommate two portraits of her felines for her birthday (one more kitty to go). The list goes on. For me obviously, it’s fully rendered portraits. For others it might be paintings, jewelry, pottery, sculpture. The question is, do you utilize your talents and abilities to gift something special to an unexpecting recipient?

More often than not these days people rely on store-bought items for gift giving. The internet makes the whole agonizing process of Christmas shopping worlds easier, too. Amazon allows buyers access to just about anything. And if you’re an Amazon Prime member, you’ll have it on your doorstep in two days! You can’t get much more convenient than that.

Christmas gifts

But with all the new and trending items out there, has the magic of a handmade gift lost its shine or its charm and meaning? Is it something of a bygone era? Have handmade gifts become outdated, old-fashioned, and hokey? Or has quite the opposite happened? With all the stuff that money can buy, have the heartfelt handmade gifts become even more special?

I certainly think so! Having been on both sides, the giver and receiver of handmade gifts, I think that the gift that someone put their heart and soul into has a bit more meaning than that which took a few mouse clicks to order. And don’t get me wrong! I’m not saying that store-bought gifts are any less appreciated. Absolutely not! Because any gift given means that someone was thinking about you. And let’s be real here…not everyone out there was bestowed with artistic talents.

It’s just that sometimes I think that handmade gift giving went out of style or somehow lost its charm. With the holidays being such a commercial time of year, it seems like a lot of talented people have also gone the way of Amazon shopping rather than bestow something they created with love. Has it gone out of style with the likes of Leave it to Beaver or The Brady Bunch?

I certainly hope not!