I don't out and out hate the holidays themselves. However, I despise what they have become since my youth. They are now all signposts for the shilling of merchandise both before and after. Even worse is the fact that the marketing assault starts at least a month and a half before the actual date, and that gap "seems" to be expanding with each passing year.
As someone who has quite the collection of objects (hoarder), I often find perfect gifts to give others that are way outside of the commercial realm of gifts.
Sometimes the perfect gift is an antique that was hand selected for the recipient.
Second hand stores are a regular stop for me, so once again, an idea that is pretty much opposite of going full-on commercial.
The males in my family are fairly easy, and often are gifted tools or that perfect part for one of their prized possession vehicles they needed but weren't ready to part with the cash for one.
As a creative type, more often than not, the females are given hand made jewelry.
A favorite tactic of mine for the pre 1965ers was to gather a silver coin from their birthdate and fashion an item out of it.
I can remember taking dimes and making silver rings out of them there the entire process could take weeks of spare time to complete.
A ring made out of a dime takes quite a while to make as you start by piercing it, then the enlarging process begins.
A smaller tapered mandrel is then used for the bore and is opened up by rapping the coin with a common spoon.
Every so often, you have to anneal the metal over a gas flame in order to soften it.
When finished, the goal is to use nearly all of the original metal except for the tiny amount that needs removed to polish it.
Nothing says love more than spending huge amounts of time making special gifts that can never be duplicated, and it does cut the retailers out of the picture.
The entire time I am making them, I get to reflect of how they touched my life.
Oh, and the gift boxes are always special.
I do go retail for those, but they are generally small wooden ones that I gather out of craft shops for a dollar, then add a special printed image to them under the clear coat finishes tailored to the receiver of the gifts.
One year, I gave my sister a set of exotic wooden drink coasters I made out of flooring scraps I picked up off the floor of a neighbor's home they were working on.
It took me nearly a week of evenings to cut, carve and finish them, but now she has an heirloom she can later pass to someone else.
Her daughter now has a ring I made for my Mom.
I gave it to her when she turned 16, so when she wants to, she can wear it knowing that her grandmother once wore it with pride
