I’m not sure how you feel, but I have been so overwhelmed this holiday season and the constant push towards consumerism on social media. I want to take a moment to do something with my hands, to make something creative and thoughtful that also doesn’t leave me penniless. This year it’ll be DIY gifts galore. Here are five beginner friendly ideas for this holiday season.
keychain
You can get really creative with this. You can make a beaded key chain, a braided key chain, a clay charm, or something with shrinky dink paper. The options are endless. A really easy, low effort option is to get a small plushie and sew a key chain loop onto it. I did this recently with some small baby Fugglers that I found at Five Below, for five dollars each. I took them home, grabbed embroidery thread, a lobster claw, and a needle, looked up a tutorial on TikTok, and made three easy stitches.
clay / pottery
We all know clay and pottery have been all over social media lately. This is your time to shine. Get some air dry clay from the store, and you can be as creative and practical as you want with this DIY. You can make a trinket dish, a page holder, a Polaroid holder, a tea light holder, an incense holder, a cup, a glasses holder, or an ashtray. When you finish your piece, there are several ways to seal it. You can use Mod Podge, sealant spray, UV resin if you want to get fancy with it.
beaded jewelry
The cool thing about this is that you can get a beaded jewelry kit online that comes with enough beads to make a lot of pieces. You can make bracelets, earrings, anklets, waist beads, and necklaces. There are so many different types of beads, and if you want to get creative, you can use wire to form small flowers that you can incorporate into the jewelry or turn into a little bouquet.
painted tote bag
This one is pretty straightforward. Get any tote bag and paint it with whatever your friend or family member loves. Scrolling through Pinterest is a good way to get ideas.
baked goods
Maybe you don’t have to bake, but you can definitely make some sort of food to give away. You can make bread, a seasonal drink, a seasoning blend, or chocolate bark! Once again, you can make this as complicated or as simplified as you want with. The cool thing about this option is that you can make lots of batches and give them to multiple people.
There are so many more ideas out there of things that you can make from scratch or by hand to give to your friends and family this holiday season. I think these five options are some of the easiest and most beginner friendly out there. Have a happy holiday season!