I have taken on a challenge. I took on this challenge by accident, really. Last March, one of my son's friends was turning five. He, like many kids his age, has tons of toys and many of these toys get played with for five minutes before being shoved away in a dark, damp, corner to be forgotten about. I did not want that to happen. I wanted to get him a present that would stand out, that would actually mean something to him (whatever that means for a five year old).This kid loves space. No, not loves, is passionate about it. At five, he knows more about space than I know in my late 20's. I figured with his love of space and my slightly adequate quilting abilities I could tackle a space quilt with little difficulty.
I did some shopping around. Holy moly, have you seen fabric prices recently? This quilt was going to cost a fortune! I almost lost hope of making a gift that had meaning and opting for the cheaper, impersonal, plastic toy. But nay! I could not do that. I got thrifty. I checked around on-line (craigslist, etc), scoped out clearance racks at the local fabric store, and spread the word around all the crafty people I know that I needed space fabric. Word of mouth worked wonders and a few fabulous crafters I knew helped me with my mission by donating some space fabric taking up room in their stash. This made the project waaaay more affordable.
Since then I have figured out how the fabric stores work. You need to sign up for their coupons. Jo-Anne's fabrics almost always has a 40%-50% coupon floating around and if you watch their sales you can snag some great fabric for an affordable price. For example, tulle was 50% off the other day. SCORE! I was able to pick up tons of tulle for next to nothing. This will allow me to make tutus for two birthday parties for a few future ballerinas in my life.
Anyway, I digress. Back to the space quilt. The bio boys enjoyed the process of getting the fabric, cutting it, watching (and helping) sewing together. Instead of going to the store and spending 10 minutes picking out a present, we spent a month or two looking for fabric (the boys loved when they were able to pick out the fabric to include), cutting out pieces, putting it together. A lot of love and time went into this present. When we had completely finished it, I wrapped the boys in the blanket and had them say something they loved about the birthday boy and a birthday wish they had for him (corny, I know).
I was giddy with excitement when his birthday party rolled around and he was finally able to open his present. The response sealed the deal on the homemade present challenge. One parent asked me where I bought his quilt and I was able to proudly say, "Oh, we made it". That felt really good. It also feels good to know that he sleeps with his blanket every night and is one his favorite presents he got. My homemade present made more impact than a toy.
Because of this experience, I decided I did not want to buy toys for birthday presents. I wanted to break the cycle of un-thoughtful plastic toys. I no longer wanted to contribute to the overpopulation of toys in a child's room. I want my gifts to stand out, to mean something to the child. The challenge was born. I have not bought a child's birthday present since (we are going ton 6 months). For the bio boy's birthdays, their present was their parties. We have two birthday parties coming up and I am making tutu's for the girls in their favorite colors, as well as scarves.
Husband and I were talking about this challenge a few days ago and I am tempted to push the challenge further and no longer buy any pre-made gifts at all (this includes Christmas, people). I was unsure how our children would respond to this but husband told that a lot of hobby stores sell kits for making different toys (derby cars, remote control cars, etc). This way, the kids are still getting a toy they will like to play with but it is handmade and they can help make it. The benefit to this is that the kids get a project to work on and are learning.
I think the challenge for no store bought presents has been accepted. Who is with me?
Edited 10-1-12: Dear faithful readers, As I was sitting at 7am folding laundry I realized I had made a mistake! I have not only crafted handmade thoughtful presents since March. I bought my nephews books for their birthday in August :0 I completely forgot.
PS. This post was apart of frugally sustainable Wednesday blog hop: http://frugallysustainable.com/2012/10/frugal-days-sustainable-ways-47/
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