Make your own Christmas gift

The recipient will appreciate the time and effort you have put into their gift.

Create a secret hollow book. Find a cheap musty old classic at your nearby charity or used bookstore. Glue the pages together, use a knife to hollow out the center of the book. Now the recipient can store his treasures.

Martha Stewart has a great idea: create a recipe booklet containing a collection of your favourite holiday recipes, and then include it with a small assortment of samples.

Make a personalised calendar: You can use a template from a programme and add pictures of things or people meaningful to the recipient. Add in important dates such as birthdays and anniversaries of family and friends and maybe a special note or quote every once in a while.

Personal gift certificates also make great gifts. In essence, these are gifts of time. Give new parents a gift certificate for a night of baby-sitting so that they can enjoy a night on the town. Are you good with computers?

Give your brother-in-law a gift certificate for free computer repairs.
If you’re artistic try giving memory drawings. Draw a very simple black-and-white picture of a memory that you have of you and the person.