A Home Made Christmas

Each Wednesday from now until Christmas I will be blogging about a gift idea that can be made at home and I would love it if you would join in each week with your own contribution to "A Home Made Christmas".
I am sure that there are great projects to make, goodies to make, bake and bottle and ideas that you all have to share. I look forward to reading all about the things you make and being inspired by your ideas.

If you are worried about ruining the surprise feel free to post about something you have made in the past, something you saw or something you have received.

When planning home made gifts you need to consider a number of things:
How long the item will take to make? How far ahead do I need to plan?
How long will it keep?  What is the shelf life?
Does it need time to mature like Christmas Cakes/Puddings?
Can I make more than one at a time and give them to a number of people?

This week I want to talk about giving your time and skills.
And so that you can hand something over on the day you can make up vouchers either on your computer or by hand.  Staple a few together or pop them in an envelope and your gift is ready to go

So what will your voucher be for?  Well think of what skills you have and the things your could do for your friends and family that would be of benefit to them.

Do something for someone who cannot do it themselves. Some examples are cleaning windows or the outside of the house for an elderly person.  Clean out their gutters or offer to mow their lawn once a month for the coming year

For parents you can offer to babysit or have their kids stay over at your house for a weekend so their parents can have a holiday at home.

Share your skills.
If you are a good sewer offer up some of your time to give sewing lessons.
You could teach a teenager to cook a meal a month and send them off with the recipe so that when they move out in the future they have a few good meals up their sleeve.
If you have the patience you could offer to give driving lessons, or if you are mechanically minded teach someone to change a car tyre or the oil in their car.
Maybe you are a wizz on the computer.  Do you know an older person who would like to learn some basic computer skills.

Do you have a farm with animals?  You could collect up bags of animal manure to give to a keen gardener who would otherwise be buying manure for their garden.  Offer to provide them with with a bag a month for the rest of the year.

Do you give a good massage or manicure?

For some people the gift of you time may be all they want  perhaps you could offer too do share an experience that you do not really enjoy and would normally avoid (fishing/golf with your husband/son/brother).  Just think how special it will make them feel to know that you are happy to put their likes before your own.

Think about what you are good at and who could benefit from your skills.

What other skills can you think of that would make good gifts to give?