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It’s bedazzling, lopsided, and made with love. But what exactly is it? No matter. As soon as a child utters that magical phrase
“I made it myself,” it is accepted and displayed on the fridge.
Although handmade gifts are cherished when they are
from children, there can be a bit of a stigma attached to them when
they’re made by adults. Michael Scott, the chronically inappropriate boss on
the television’s The Office, portrayed by Steve Carell, sums up this prejudice well: “Presents are the best way to show someone how
much you care,” Scott said during last season’s Christmas
episode. “It is like this tangible thing that you can point to and
say, ‘Hey man, I love you this many dollars’ worth.’
”
So when The Office does a secret-Santa exchange, Scott is disgusted by the
knitted gift he receives. “I only care about you an oven mitt’s
worth,” he mused over its meaning. “I gave Ryan an iPod!”
Erin Schroeder, a student at the University of
Illinois at Springfield, says that receiving a handmade gift can lead to a
moment of awkwardness, but she is a bit more diplomatic than Michael Scott.
“You get a weird-looking sculpture
thing,” Schroeder says, and all you can say is “Oh man,
thanks!”
Still, Schroeder says, there is a sweetness in the
strangeness of such gifts. She describes the “gonks” her mother
made as a teenager. The gonks were stuffed creatures that had the
flexibility of a Gumby doll. Some were round, others spindly. They were
made from fabric from the 1960s and ’70s, and every gonk had its own
personality. “They were like primitive creatures from the
cartoon world,” Schroeder says. Some people never grow out of that childhood desire
to create. Stephen Parfitt took his mother’s jewelry apart
at the age of 7 out of curiosity. He made friendship pins during his
grade-school recesses. Now, at 33, he teaches “Metal Madness,”
a metal-jewelry class at La Bead Oh! in Springfield. “Just about every holiday I make my wife a
different piece of jewelry — plus real gifts, store-bought,”
Parfitt says. Parfitt also makes pen-and-ink drawings as gifts. A
few years ago, a friend had problems with coyotes harassing his cattle.
Parfitt made him a comical drawing of a cow with a coyote head. “You can personalize,” Parfitt said of
his handmade gifts. “Where else can you find specific things like
that?”
Kathy Anane, owner of La Bead Oh!, learned how to
knit when she was 8. Throughout her childhood, her parents encouraged her
to make things. Anane, in turn, instilled the joy of creating in her own
children. Anane wears a bracelet her teenage daughter made last
Christmas. It is constructed of copper and glass beads that her daughter
created with a blowtorch. The individuality of the bracelet is what makes
it so special to Anane. “You’re giving yourself not something
that came over the boat from China,” Anane says. Although she never got into jewelry-making, Rosemary
Swofford has
given many handmade items over the years. She makes candles, soaps, and
flavored vinegars from the herbs in her garden. This year she is assembling
baskets with mortar and pestles, miniature nutmeg grinders and dried herbs,
which she puts into Ziploc bags. “They look like drug bags,” she jokes. Making these gifts is also a time for Swofford to
connect with her daughter. They will include lunch and a movie in the deal.
“Sharing food, projects, and time — that is what Christmas
is,” she says.
Swofford is so accustomed to making her gifts that
she never buys them at the mall and discourages her friends from buying her
expensive gifts. “I don’t want to spend the money or make
others feel obligated to go in debt,” she says. Still, making gifts takes more effort than buying
them, Swofford says, and when pressed for time, she admits, she will just
give money as a gift. The notion that handmade gifts are cheap to make is
sometimes inaccurate, anyway. For instance, a blanket that Schroeder
knitted for a gift last Christmas took $60 worth of yarn. At the artisan-made supplier Anthropologie and the
craft buying-and-selling community at Etsy.com, gifts are pretty but
pricey. A small stitchwork throw that looks like something
your grandmother made costs $198 in the Anthropologie catalog. At Etsy.com,
colorful, folk-style jumpers for small girls, made by member
“Humblebea,” start at $25. Whether it is created or commissioned, a handmade
item makes a great gift, says Humblebea, and she encourages others to take
up a craft.
“I would say to beginners, just start small and
do something you enjoy doing,” she says. “If you choose a
project that you don’t enjoy it will show in your work.”
Besides the pleasure it brings to the giver and the
receiver, a handmade gift signifies the real meaning behind the season,
Schroeder says. “The whole reason of Christmas is because God
was our gift to us and we give gifts to remind us of that,” Schroeder
says. “Giving something you made is giving a gift of yourself, just
like Jesus gave the gift of himself.”
And even you can’t tell whether it’s a
paperweight or a doorstop or a sculpture, it really doesn’t matter,
Schroeder says. “You can’t really give a bad gift if you
are really trying.”
Greta Myers is a senior at the University of Illinois
at Springfield. Her favorite handmade gifts have includes a watercolor from
her sister, a photo collage from a friend, and miniquilts from her
95-year-old grandmother.
This article appears in Nov 15-21, 2007.
