handmade christmas

in my desire to embrace more with less, our family is planning on having a handmade christmas. what i mean is we are giving gifts that are either made by ourselves or handcrafted by another. this could include wooden toys, poetry, books, stories, sewn items, food, paintings/pictures etc. i am so excited. now i just have to find a cheap sewing machine on craig's list and i am golden.

reasons why:

1. encourage better use of our time (ie do i really need to watch another bad tv show on our one channel?)
2. encourage family sharing of talents, ideas and creativity - thus leading to more family time together
3. learning new skills ie sewing etc.
4. no more plastic and noisy children's toys - we have intentionally put a limit on these particular toys to keep our house uncluttered and relatively noise free (of toys that is!). anytime we recieved noisy toys, batteries were never used - the kids don't know that the toys make noise!! (shhhh our little secret)
5. avoid the aweful lead poisoning scares from the toys made in china
6. the potential reuse or recycling of objects to be made into gifts

i am really looking forward to this fall's preparation for our first ever handmade christmas (which we will be having here in rhode island!)