Homemade Christmas Time

We've all been there. Christmas time has come and we don't have enough money to get gifts for everyone we'd like to. 

When money is tight, you can either go for cheap dollar store gifts, or use your creativity.

Creating your own gift for someone can fulfilling and, usually, is a far more meaningful gift than something bought at the store.

We at Patch want to know what the best gift you made was and why you did it. Were you tight on funds for the holidays, so you had to knit mittens? Did you have to give a gift to a very crafty person and didn't want to see generic? Whatever the reason, we want to know!

When I was in my second year of college, I had the typical student's budget of absolutely nothing. Instead, I had taken a bit of Japanese and knew how to make kanji, Japanese symbols that represent whole words, so I decided to put that to use.

I gathered up a lot of river stones, cleaned them, polished them and got to work. For each family member, I chose a specific trait that I think defined them well and wrote that on the stone. When everyone opened their gifts on Christmas day, I had to explain what each one meant. To this day, I still see the stones at my various family member's households.

Whatever you've made in the past, we want to hear about it. Let us know in the comments.