Call us crazy, but summer is a great time to start thinking about Christmas. Or, at least the gifts! You may remember that this past Christmas season, we talked about the Advent Conspiracy. One of the things the Advent Conspiracy promotes is a reduced focus on the materialism that generally goes into the Christmas Season, with a greater value being placed on time spent with loved ones and a pure focus on what Christmas stands for. The Advent Conspiracy challenges people to make gifts and then donate the money that otherwise would have gone to department stores or online Christmas shopping to help give fresh, life-giving water to parts of the world that desperately need it. (The Advent Conspiracy is amazing! To be a part of it this year, check out this site and register for free.) So, summer is a great time to start considering your gift list and start crafting some things (out of love) to give.
If you are not "crafty" or "artistic" (such subjective terms anyway), this may be scary to you. Yes, when you give a homemade gift, there can be real feelings of anxiety: Will she like it? Is it "good" enough? Does it look too homemade? If a person doesn't like what you made for them, isn't that worse than if they didn't like something you just bought for them? Even if you are very crafty, you can still experience hurt if someone doesn't like what you made for them. This happened recently to one of us. One of us spend an entire afternoon making something handmade for a person we care about. It was a painstaking project, but so much love and thought went into it. And time. LOTS of time. The gift wrapped carefully and given. And then, it got back to us that the person wanted something different (as if it was an order that had been put in!). It hurt to think that the gift was not appreciated. It made us mad that the time had been spent on something special for a person who obviously had no idea what went into the project. And it made us not want to make anything for that person again.
BUT...that's a wrong attitude. We have put so much focus on giving something that a person wants. But that's not really what gift-giving is all about. Sometimes, you give something because you want to give it. Sure, you take into consideration that person's tastes, but the act of giving should be a joy all it's own and should not hinge on the receiver's reaction. Another thing is that you rarely will find someone who is boorish enough to complain about receiving a homemade gift. Most people are gracious and so very grateful that love was poured into the object. If you run across a person who complains about the homemade item they have received, chances are that person has never made anything special and homemade for another person and, therefore, they don't understand the time and care that goes into something lovingly homemade. If you change your attitude about giving homemade from nervous to joyful, you'll not worry about whether or not the receiver of the gift is as gracious as they ought to be. In turn, if you receive something homemade from a loved one, be gracious. Understand that effort and time and love and care and smiles when into the project just for you. Enjoy the imperfections because they are beautiful, too. (And don't ever, ever say rude things about the gift to anyone else. Gossip has a nasty way of getting back to people and you will look like an absolute heel.) It is so, so easy to give a gift that came from a store where it can be returned later on, but it takes thought and time to make a gift for a person.
This summer, we will begin on our homemade items for Christmas. We are going to do our best to look at each project with joy instead of worrying about how the receiver might look at it. We are going to think carefully about the people on our Christmas list and what they need or might enjoy, and then we are going to dive into those projects with gusto. No fear or trepidation. We encourage you to join the Advent Conspiracy come Christmas time, and we encourage you to start on those little gift projects now! Happy crafting/sewing/stitching/knitting/quilting/painting/drawing/building/etc.!
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