This holiday season, and for good reason, many people are electing to forgo gift giving, crying ‘too much materialism, too much stuff!!!’ I couldn’t agree more. Buying and giving gifts out of a sense of obligation, competitiveness or plain old habit isn’t exactly harmonizing with the true purpose of the holidays. Enough is enough.
However, it’s also important to not to lose site of the spirit of the season. There’s true joy in watching someone opening a gift you've carefully selected just for them, or in receiving something that’s exactly what you need right now.
Giving and receiving are powerful teachers, and when we engage wholeheartedly with either one, we are expressing our generosity and gratitude, appreciation and love. (Now these are things we really need!) So the question becomes not whether we should by gifts this holiday, but how do we give and why. What are we trying to express?
The kitchen is a perfect place to explore this. Homemade jams and jellies, cookies and cakes, sweets and savories are gifts that give several times over: the delight in making them, the joy in receiving them and, often, the pleasure passing them around and sharing with others.
These homemade treats say a lot. They are tokens of our time and talents, our patience, passion and vision. They come from ideas in our heads and the efforts of our hands and the feelings in our hearts. When you give a homemade gift, you are literally giving a part of yourself.
Here's a few ideas from The Kitchn and other sources. I'm sure there will be more in the weeks to come!
What are your plans for gifts this holiday? Do they involve the kitchen? Do you feel connected and excited or bored or obligated about your holiday traditions?
(Image: Dana)
My boyfriend and I made jam this summer, then pickled carrots in the fall. I'll be making caramels, too, to round out the gifts.
view brittanykate's profile
I have made my parents home-made TV dinners for the past couple of years. This year, I'm opting not to, though. My sister requested them from me for this Christmas, but I'm taking this year off. To put 12 dinners together (what I've done for my parents), and then into the freezer (which requires a half empty freezer), all at once...and to do it again for my sister and her husband...I just don't have the time, this year, unfortunately.
view cara_mia's profile
I'm going to mail some Trader Joe's treats, some homemade jam and an ornament I know she'll love to some friends who live in Alabama. She told me they don't have a TJ's and miss it terribly. And come on, California strawberry jam made with love is unbeatable. ^_^
Cookie weekend (get together with my Mom and sister) is coming up and after that I bring cookies in to my office and I might give some to my upstairs neighbors when I ask if they could please, please try to walk a little softer after 10pm.
view Tiamat_the_Red's profile
I've usually baked things up for local friends, but this year, I made it my mission to bake up goodie boxes for all my family members, too. I see it as a way to celebrate my abilities and talents, my friends and family, and what prosperity I've had this year; I'm not rich by any means, but I get by with some room to spare, so, uh . . . I guess that means room to share. (I tried really hard to avoid that cheesy rhyme).
view OneWallKitchen's profile