The Truth About Homemade Gifts

'Tis the Christmas Season and with the lack of funds available this holiday to spend on loved ones I do not know what to do.  My artistic instinct wants to create homemade gifts but then the Ghost of Christmas Past enters my studio...

"Remember the year that you made a painting for a family member?  It was huge, and took a lot of long hours to create.  You thought it was perfect for that person.  A gift that would be loved immediately and treasured forever?  Instead, the painting was stared at in silence for a half hour with the person not understanding what it was exactly.  Then after the thirty minutes finally a response- 'Oh, I see it now!'  It was painful, awkward, and embarrassing."

"Do you remember the year when you learned how to knit?  You thought it would be a great idea to make scarves for all of those near and dear.  Instead of spending a nice cozy Christmas Eve snuggled up with your boyfriend, you were both knitting until 3:00 in the morning.  Your fingers hurt, your hands were shaking, but you managed to get all of them done.  What a proud accomplishment!  You thought that this gift was especially warm with love.  Instead, the scarves were greeted with a wide range of 'thank you's that all read 'Kind of you, but this will never be put on my body- '.  You never saw those scarves again and know that they are buried in the back of closets or on a table at Goodwill."

"And do not forget the altered books that you made that took months to create.  They are collecting dust and probably have not been looked at since Christmas."

Not everyone has poo-pooed my handmade gifts, but I have learned my lesson.  (...Kind of-  I'm making handmade distasteful funny Christmas cards for friends.)  I am seriously thinking about having an anti-Christmas Christmas.  It shouldn't be about gifts anyways.  I want it to be about love, and communication.  Laughing together.  Being thankful for eachother.  But then of course, I will be considered 'cheap' by not spending, or they will think I do not appreciate them in my life.  Have I become a poor version of Scrooge this year?