Handmade Gifts for Boys (and a Girl)

For Christmas last year my sisters and I agreed that the next generation was expanding a little too quickly for us to purchase Christmas presents for all the nephews and niece (yes there is a girl in there.) We've had three new additions in the last eighteen months alone (all male, of course). We also agreed that Christmas was getting a little too commercial for our liking, where the children were spending most of the day opening gifts and not really focusing on what they were receiving or who they were receiving it from. The solution we came up with was a type of Kris Kringle with a twist. We put all the kids names in a hat then each Aunty drew out as many names as she had children. The twist... we were going to make the gifts ourselves, with a $20 limit on supplies needed.
So, I, having two children with me for Christmas, would be making two gifts as would our younger sister who also has two children (one of which is the rarest of the rare in our family... a daughter). Our youngest sister having no children got off scot free. Lucky Sonshine and Lollypops, having four kids would have to provide four presents (that's what you get for your dedication to expanding the male population.)

We started preparing way back in October. I started keeping an eye out for supplies in early November but I must say I was still frantically working away at my sewing machine two days before Christmas.

On the day we handed out the presents to each child in ascending age order. We all watched as each child opened their very own, handmade gift before moving on to the next recipient.

Master 7 months received a beautiful handmade animal picture book with each of his and his cousin's animal motifs in it.






















Master 15 months (Little F) received a fire engine cushion(one of his many nick names is Little F the Fire Engine.) He also recieved a car track roll (not pictured) because as if Sonshine didn't have her work cut out for her making gifts for FOUR nephews and niece (yes, still only one), she had to make them TWO EACH! I don't know how she does it.






















Master 15 months received an 'op-shopped' playdough kit with homemade playdough. Little D and I really enjoyed making this together and I loved the utensils we chose so much that I want to make another for our house. Garlic presses, potato mashers and playdough were made for each other.























Young Miss 2 and a bit received a lovely cushion in the shape of an elephant (another nick name nod).It was made from an upcycled jumper found at the op-shop. I love the colours. She also recieved one of the beautiful dresses that Sonshine has been working on. On a side note, between you and me, I think our Sonshine was absolutely thrilled to have picked our only niece's name out of the Kris Kringle hat and with all those boys it is great that she does have one little girl in the mix to give her a little XX chromosome fix every now and then.






















Master 2 and a half received the same car track roll as his brother which is a blessing for me. Having two boys with similar interests so close together in age means duplicates of everything is an absolute must in the Frogs and Snails household.
I love the photo on the right. Master 8 is showing Little D the car he personally chose for his track. It was so beautiful seeing his pride and joy in giving a gift to another.
Little D also received a handmade t'shirt (not pictured) made by Master 8 with an orange and red print on it. He calls it his sunset shirt.






















Master 3 received a personalised alphabet book. I just love that cheeky face.






















Master 5 received a letter writing kit in a handmade bag. This is the piece that I left until the very last minute but I was super pleased with the final result.






















Master 8 received every 8 year old's dream, a huge bag of slimey slime! He also received some yummy homemade macaroons (his favourite gluten free treat)

The great thing about opening one handmade present each, one at a time is that even a month later, the kids still know where their gifts came from and who made some of their cousins gifts too. Another great thing (for my boys at least) is that these lovely individual gifts, made for them by people who know and love them, are shaping up to be some of their favourite possessions of 2012 and possibly of all time.