What's the creative fun going on at your house?
How will GIVING figure into your crafting? Will you assembly-line some small gifts, ornaments, or jarred/preserved items? Will you pour your best creative efforts into a keepsake for a loved one? Will you have fun noticing all the newly available choices of cards, stamps and stickers for correspondence, or the coordination of wrappings this year? Will you decorate with a certain dear one in mind?
Have you ever thought that we are showing good manners when we hand-craft a present for another person? It's something we may all know in our hearts but haven't seen stated in print quite this way:
Etiquette expert Amy Riestenberg says that although the 2009 trend toward more homemade gifts for the holidays may be fueled by thrift, the homemade gift is always a hallmark of good manners.
"There should never be a question about giving a homemade gift," says Riestenberg. "It is totally appropriate."
She said the handmade present reveals the giver's good wishes.
"Because that gift comes from your heart and not from the store, when you make it with your hands it shows that you have taken that extra time for someone else."
- Glen Evans, Presents from the Heart, November, 2009