Welcome back! On this second day of Christmas, we are sharing some DIY Christmas gift ideas with you. Instead of giving you one specific idea, I am thinking a little outside of the box. I would like to share some of the homemade Christmas gifts that we have made over the years for our homemade gift exchange. I will also give you a list of what we and others have received. Hopefully these ideas will be helpful to you if you are making a DIY gift in the future!

You can find our homemade Christmas gift ideas below, and at the bottom of the post check out all the wonderful DIY gift ideas from the many talented bloggers we have joining us for this blog hop.

If you want to see what I have posted for the other days follow these links:

• Day 1 – Finger Knitted Christmas Wreath
• Day 3 – Rustic Christmas Advent Calendar
• Day 4 – Paper Christmas Cookies Kid’s Craft
• Day 5 – Cream Cheese Christmas Tree with Crackers and Pepper Jelly
• Day 6 – DIY Wooden Bead Feather Ornament
• Day 7 – White Village Christmas Mantel
• Day 8 – Christmas Morning Muffins in a Jar
• Day 9 – Simple Hand Embroidered Gift Tags
• Day 10 – Blush and Rose Gold Christmas Tree
• Day 11 – Homemade Snickers Bars
• Day 12 – Knitted Christmas Stockings

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Welcome to Day 2 of the Fourth Annual 12 Days of Christmas Series!

We have teamed up with 50 plus bloggers to bring you a oodles of DIY ideas and recipes to make your holiday season merrier. There are 12 different posts in the series and we have spread them out over a four week period with three posts per week. Now is the time to subscribe!

GO HERE for the complete list of Dates and Topics plus a collection of the most popular holiday ideas including ornaments, games, recipes and more from all 50 plus talented bloggers!

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I have to say that being a creative and crafty couple, we REALLY enjoyed taking part in a homemade gift exchange. I know some of the family members who were not as crafty may not have felt the same way but to us it meant way more to give and receive gifts that were homemade. We have never been so excited to give gifts as we were for this exchange. Apart from spending time with family, this exchange was one of the things I looked forward to most during Christmas. There is something more meaningful when your blood, sweat and tears go into a gift. And we always tried to make the gift relevant to the person who was receiving it as well.

Of course you do not have to go as big or involved as we have for some of these gifts. We drew names for this homemade gift exchange and it was the only gift that was exchanged. We did not get everyone a gift, so since you only had to get one gift, that homemade gift each year was a sizable one. 🙂

I also wanted to mention that this exchange inspired me to try things I had never done before like knitting, sewing, quilting, stained glass, painting and even a little woodworking. I may have tried these things eventually but who knows, I may have not. To have a reason gave me the incentive I needed. I am thankful for all those new experiences that I got to try as a result.

Unfortunately we do not do the homemade Christmas gift exchange anymore as families got bigger and more busy. I do miss it but we still exchange on a smaller scale. We do an ornament exchange now and it can be homemade if you want to. 😉 Now onto the ideas… keep in mind that most of these pictures are older so they may not be the best quality.

30 Homemade Christmas Gift Ideas

1.Quilts

Over the years I have made several quilts and have given them away as Christmas gifts. The (unfinished) quilt top on the top left was actually the first quilt I ever made and was the first homemade gift I gave. I realized when getting these pictures together that I never even got a picture of the finished quilt! I originally was going to knit an afghan but quickly learned how long that was going to actually take. So I switched to quilting. 😉

I think my favorite is the pinwheel quilt on the bottom. I love the multicolored binding on it. My sister was the lucky recipient of that one. 😉 Here is a tutorial for the houndstooth quilt on the bottom if you are interested. I was not the only one to give quilts, others made memory quilts with pictures of loved ones on them, or with fabric specific to interests of the receiving person.

This next quilt is more art than quilt but it is still a quilt. It was made for my step-brother who loves to fish. It was a challenge to find the perfect fabric for the different elements in the picture. I love the dimension you can get from the difference in the values and position of the fabric.

2. Quilt Rack

It only makes sense to go with this idea next. If you follow along with my blog at all, then you know that Mr. Wonderful has some serious skills in the woodworking department. He drew the name of the person who received my first quilt the previous year so he made her a quilt rack. Perfect, huh?

3. Wall Decor

There are several different entries into this category. There were lots of wall decor given over the years to and from everyone. Some ideas I remember were etched mirrors, mosaic tiled mirrors, wood burned clocks, paintings, collage art pieces, wood carvings, outdoor decor etc. I received a painting one year from my older sister, so the next year I painted her this set in return.

I gave this tiled mirror to my sister-in-law. The frame is my first attempt at woodworking with Mr. W’s help of course.

Mr. Wonderful is not only a woodworker, he is also a talented artist! He drew this picture for a huge Nebraska Husker fan. Pretty good, huh?

4. Stained Glass

This is a stained glass piece that I made for my mom. It was lots of fun to make and I would love to do it again in the future.

Mr. Wonderful made this cabinet for my sister with stained glass inserts in the doors. It turned out gorgeous!

I received a stained glass piece from my father-in-law that hangs in our dining room window. You can see it in the background of this post.  My sister made a stained glass decor piece that I used as a backdrop on my Spring mantel one year.

5. Tables

There have been several tables exchanged, some had specific interests on them, like maps if someone liked to travel, favorite sports team logos, or in our case my mom made a mosaic stained glass table for Mr. W with a logo on it that means a lot to us. It is one of our prized possessions. 🙂

While not as intricate, he made a beautiful tile top table for her similar to this one we have in our dining room.

Mr. W also made this end table for my stepbrother. This was also styled after the furniture we have. He was in need of some furniture at the time. Ha!

6. Benches

We saw many benches of different designs made through the years. There were upholstered storage benches, one with a concrete top with tile in it, an outdoor bench with a state name painted on it and others.

This was a storage bench that Mr. Wonderful made for his parents. They were in need of some extra storage but it also doubles as seating! The bins are not attached and are on rollers so it is easy to store things in there.

7. Chests

There were lots of chests given over the years as well. This was Mr. Wonderful’s first homemade gift exchange contribution. 🙂

8. Gaming Table

This was a really awesome gift that Mr. W made for his father who loves to play poker. They did not have the space for a whole table so he made a table top that can fit onto a card table. It is easily stored away against the wall until you want to use it. It also works well for board games. Settlers of Catan anyone?

9. Cornhole Boards

We have made several DIY Cornhole board sets over the years and have a tutorial for it if you want to make your own set. Here are a set we made for my mom and stepdad.

11. Patio Cooler

We have actually made two of these pallet board patio coolers and have given them both as gifts. We still have to make one for ourselves! I have all the pictures to put together a tutorial, and will do that someday. For now here are some pictures. Notice the handle is an actual deer antler. The perfect gift for the ultimate outdoorsman!

12. Terrariums

I gave a terrarium to my stepbrother who loves plants. I etched a saying into the glass jar but it is hard to read it in these pictures. It says “Adopt the pace of Nature, her secret is Patience”. I thought that was such a cool and fitting quote. I liked the terrarium so much that I made one for myself. You can actually see it in the picture above. Unfortunately my lack of a green thumb killed all the plants! Hopefully his did better!

13. Memorabilia Box

I made this for my sister-in-law after their wedding that year. It is a memorabilia box with throwbacks to their wedding. The wedding had a vintage 1940’s/1950’s theme to it so that is what I went with for the box as well. The outside was wrapped in sheet music from the ceremony, the purple flower is made from an actual handkerchief from the wedding party and their wedding picture and date are included. The faces and names have been blurred out for privacy.

14. Picture Frames

Several picture frames were given over the years. This is one we made for Mr. W’s parents. It has all their children and their families displayed in it now. 🙂

15. Snowshoes

My stepdad made several of us hand strung snowshoes over the years. They are amazing! Not only are they functional, I have used them as decor! You can see them on my rustic winter mantel.

16. Planters

Sometimes, we got gifts where the whole piece was not homemade but assembled by the giver. You can see an example of that with this red ceramic planter on my Christmas front porch that I received. It was the perfect gift as we were in desperate need of front porch decor! Ha!

17. Fountains

18. Cat Condos

19. Bedding Sets

20. Adirondack chairs

21. Shadow Boxes/Storage Boxes/Display Boxes

22. Fleece Blankets

23. Sawhorses

24. Homemade Games/Game Boards

25. Family Name Signs

26. Bookshelves

27. Wine Basket

28. Bath Salts

29. Knitted Items – Hats, Scarves, Mittens etc.

30. Wood and Tiled Coasters & Trivets

I hope this gives you some ideas for DIY Christmas gifts or at least gets you brainstorming on ideas that you can make. You do not have to make the exact things that we made but hopefully it inspires you to try something new. After all, that is the whole reason I started blogging. I was inspired by things I saw on other blogs or on Pinterest and wanted to give back the same inspiration I took when learning new hobbies and skills to make these Christmas gifts. 🙂 See you back in a couple days for the 3rd day of Christmas!

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