Self-Made vs Store-Bought Gifts

With Christmas approaching, it’s almost time to start thinking about what you want to give to your relatives and friends as a Christmas present. Many of us don’t have to think twice when it comes to presents. We either know exactly what our recipients want or we don’t have a clue and by them generic gifts such as a box of chocolates or some socks. These are the typical, generic gifts that everyone buys and it can get pretty boring after a few years. However, unless you spend a lot of time with the people that you plan to buy presents with, it’s hard to think of something to buy them.

If you want to narrow it down, then there are only two types of presents that you should be thinking about: self-made and store-bought. If you have some time on your hands and you’re good with DIY crafts, then making your own presents and Christmas cards can be a fun and unique way to send a message. However, it is time-consuming and you’ll need to set aside some time well before Christmas day if you want to get your gift prepared. To help you out, we’ve listed some of the biggest pros and cons with both self-made and store-bought gifts, so you can have an easier time picking between the two.

Source: Pexels

Store-Bought Gifts

Store-bought gifts are simple. You head into a store, hand over the money and receive your present. Next, you’ll want to wrap it up and then send it to your recipient through the post or wait until Christmas day to personally hand it to them. Here are the pros and cons of using a store-bought approach.

Pros

• No hassle with purchasing. You simply go into a store, buy a gift then wrap it up. There’s no hassle beyond asking your recipient what size they are (in a sneaky way, of course) if you plan to buy clothes.
• Can be delivered directly from a store. Thanks to the internet, you can send gifts to friends and family far away by just entering their address and picking the gift wrap option.
• Lots of choices to pick from. The internet is full of weird, wonderful and whacky presents to pick from.

Cons

• Can get quite expensive. You’re going to be spending a lot of money with store-bought gifts.
• Doesn’t feel personalised or meaningful. A store-bought gift won’t carry the same sentimentality as something you personally made.
• Could get generic. Chocolates, socks, scarves and toiletry sets are far too common and make for bland gifts.

You can find more ideas here if you plan to purchase a gift for a friend instead of making your own. The difficult part of store-bought gifts is finding a store or a gift to purchase for your recipient.

Source: Pexels

Self-Made Gifts

Self-made gifts take a lot of planning. You need to think what materials to buy, you need to think of designs or recipes and you also need to consider the overall cost of the project especially if you have to buy certain tools for it.

Pros

• Meaningful presents with sentimental value. Making something with your own two hands adds a lot of meaning and sentimental value to your present, so it’s sure to be a hit with your recipient.
• Create something that you can’t buy.  With the DIY route, you can choose to make something that no one can buy. Whether it’s a shirt with a unique design or a personalised pair of shoes, it’s going to be priceless.
• Can be much cheaper. If you’re good with your hands then DIY can be a cheaper alternative to buying presents.

Cons

• Requires a lot of effort. Absolutely no DIY crafting experience? You’ll need to study a lot, practice and invest a lot of effort just to make a gift for Christmas.
• Might turn out bad. Your first few tries are going to be horrible, so get ready to fail a bunch of times and possibly feel depressed because you aren’t getting good results.
• Can be more expensive. You’ll need materials to practice on, you might make mistakes and the crafts you do might require specialised tools. This all costs money, so if you’re not careful you’ll end up using more money than you’d expect.

It’ll take a lot of work to make your own gifts, but there’s no doubt that they’d make fantastic presents for anyone that is close to you. If you have the time and dedication for DIY crafts, then you’ll be able to make it work.