5 Tips for a Stress-Free Handmade Holiday Gift Season

October is the perfect time to start planning holiday gifts and I’ve got 5 tips to share with you to make this your most successful handmade holiday yet!

1. Start Small

When we start dreaming of making handmade toys it’s easy to get carried away and to make a looong list of toys to make! Which feels thrilling at first – but quickly shifts into overwhelm and inaction.

The truth is that just one handmade gift could feel really sweet and special. So choose ONE handmade gift to make. And once you have completed it – check in with yourself to see if you feel fired up to make another one.

2. Start Now

Depending on your style this could literally mean: start making the gifts now or it could mean start thinking about what is that ONE toy that would feel really special to make as a Christmas gift. And once you have decided on it – start gathering the tools and materials you’ll need to make it.

3. Break Projects Down Into Itty Bitty Steps

I’m not suggesting that you create a detailed list of every itty bitty step involved – but instead view your project in terms of itty bitty steps and focus on them one at a time.

For example: Let’s say you want to make some felt play food… The first itty bitty step is just to print out the pattern. Maybe that’s all you have time for today – great!

Then perhaps the next day you’ll cut out the pattern pieces! Perfect!

And the next day you cut out the felt and set out your embroidery floss so you can start sewing as soon as you find a minute. Check! Done! Success! You’re making progress!

You’ll be amazed at how much sooner you complete a project when you take this approach.

4. Work in Small Chunks

This goes hand in hand with the itty bitty steps. Work in short little chunks of time – don’t wait for a big chunk of free time to get started – because it literally might never happen.

Embrace making 10 minutes of progress here and there. If all you can do today is sew a few stitches – do it – and call it progress.

5. Consider this…

Consider making gifts in front of your kids. When you try to make gifts in secret you limit the time you’ll be able to work on them greatly.

This idea came directly from a mama in Toymaking Magic. She shared with us that she had made her daughter a set of Farm Animals for Christmas and her daughter looooooved getting to watch her make them!

As soon as each animal was finished she allowed her daughter a few short minutes to play with it and then she would say, “ok… now this is going away until Christmas!”
And to all our surprise her daughter blissfully handed it back and replied, “I’m so excited for this for Christmas!!”

It didn’t need to be a surprise – it was about the anticipation. Beautiful.

So what gifts to choose??

I would say choose something doable! It doesn’t have to be “impressive” like a doll or a big collection of play food. It could literally be as simple as a basket of 24 bean bags.

Why 24? I’d love to tell you! When it comes to simple playthings, kids get really creative when they have lots! They can come up with endless uses for a big ol’ basket of bean bags, whereas a little stack of 5 or 6 won’t inspire quite as much play.

If you like the idea of play food – how about 24 strawberries!

If you have the energy to dedicate to a doll or full set of Farm Animals – Amazing. More power to you!

Another idea could be a little set of toys that go together like this little Mushroom House and Cozy Peg Doll Gnomes and the Playmat Drawstring Bag.

Check out the video I made to go along with this post:

Wishing you nuggets of toymaking time,