Last year’s thread inspired me. I told our families in advance that we planned on only giving homemade consumables for Xmas like candles and cookies, they could reciprocate however they liked, but were not making any Xmas lists for anyone as we had everything we needed. (But in a manner I hope came off nicer/more grateful.) It was pretty successful in reducing the Xmas clutter. Although, I think it helped that I’ve also been trying to avoid “things” for the last few years, talking about Marie Kondo and minimalism year round. F1: oh look at this, wouldn’t that be nice. Me: yes, but we don’t have a lot of room and you know I’m trying to reduce our stuff. F1: (eye roll) oh yes, your minimalism (said as if a dirty word). I find minimalism a great excuse for frugality in general.
DH and I ended up making candles, soap, cookies (pumpkin snickerdoodle, molasses, and banana pecan shortbreads), peanut butter cups, and kaluhua last year. I think it saved us minimal money when adding up materials, but we didn’t plan out that far in advance. More importantly it saved a ton of stress trying figure out what to give everyone and to think up appropriate/varying priced wishlist items to give three sets of parents. (Parents who always demand wishlists and were very displeased Xmas 2016 when I did the unthinkable and made one list for all three.) Plus, something about making gifts put me in the Xmas spirit, more so than I had been since a young kid. So huge thank you to everyone posting ideas on last year’s thread!
The Kaluhua and peanut butter cups went over the best, so I’m doubling those and dropping the molasses cookies. I’m also dropping the candles and soaps and plan on trying out another non-cookie food item. I’m thinking freezer jam or the hot sauce and and brandied pears ideas sound great too! Starting the Kaluhua this weekend. DH got vodka on sale last weekend :)