This post is part of a series related to the C+H Handmade Holiday Shopping Challenge. This holiday season, we attempted to purchase all of our family’s gifts from Canadian handmade sources. I had plans to make a few gifts as well, and we allowed ourselves the exception of purchasing books from a local independent retailer. You can see all the details in the original post here, update #1, update #2, and update #3!

My friends and family will tell you that I took this challenge to heart this year, and it was really a fantastic experience and for the first time in years, I thoroughly enjoyed shopping for Christmas gifts! I’d estimate that, in the end, the gifts that we exchanged within our immediate family were about 80% handmade in Canada. There were a few exceptions that we just couldn’t purchase handmade (a Strider prebike for our youngest, cross country skis for the oldest, a couple of shirts for my husband and some iPad accessories for me, some new board games and the books that we just couldn’t imagine Christmas without!), but the gifts under the tree and from Santa’s elves were overwhelmingly handmade. I’m happy to say that I didn’t even step foot in a mall this holiday shopping season :) It can definitely be done, especially when you have younger children who aren’t gunning for new iPads or the latest video game console!

On a personal note, I was so pleased that my husband got into the spirit of the Handmade Holiday Challenge as well, registering for both an Etsy AND Cargoh account of his very own and even making a beautiful crokinole board for the family. We both grew up playing crokinole over the holidays with family and grandparents, and I love that he wanted to continue that tradition with our girls. I had planned to make some gifts as well, but ran into that old problem of “not enough time even though you start planning in August”. I ended up making just 2 canvasses (like these – full disclosure: that’s my own little Etsy shop, empty right now because I spend all my spare time here!), although I had hoped to get more done. There’s always next year, right?!

I attended no less than 8 craft shows in November and December, in Alberta and BC, and spent lots of time checking out online markets looking for the perfect gifts. In the process, I discovered so many more fantastic artists, and learned that even if you don’t think it’s possible, it probably is. And someone is out there making it!

Some of the big hits Christmas morning included:

Beer bottle glasses from Artech Studios for my husband (found at OOAK Vancouver)

Locally made bunk beds for the girls’ many dolls, with bedding made by Grandma in Ontario (mattress, quilt, knit blanket and pillow with pillow case! Grandma rocks.)

Our youngest daughter and my niece (Jenn’s little girl!) each received this sweet fishing game from Cerra.

I already blogged about Redfish Kids here, but wanted to share a quick snapshot of our girls – they LOVED their dresses (Emily kept trying to see the bow in the back, and Julia spent the day spinning!)

I gave a pair of these armwarmers (from Banbutsu, found at OOAK Vancouver) to one of my best girl friends, and I’m pretty sure she squealed when she opened the package. Then she wore them for the rest of the morning. A hit, I’d say!

Grandma also likes to be cozy, so we sent her this lovely cowl from Impossibly Alice (thanks, Sheryl!)

Our girls each gave Daddy a pair of cufflinks – one set from Billy Would Designs and one from Nostalgic Links… he was confused, until he opened the next box with 2 new cuff-link-ready shirts ;)

My husband found me a lovely bag from Saskatoon’s Refresh Accessories and earrings from Dominic Design:

There were plenty of other purchases, many from artists that we’ve featured here in the past, like Nisse.Works, Cloud+Lolly, Dombot, Prairie Peasant, Penny People, Soul Sister Soaps, Tall Buildings and Her Flying Horses! I also wanted to thank our friends and family for choosing handmade for many of their gifts as well! Spread the love!

Will we do it again next year? I’m not sure that we’ll aim for 100% handmade, but there will always be a huge percentage of locally made, lovingly crafted gifts under our tree and in our stockings. Thanks for following along on this journey with me. I hope that you had a joyful holiday filled with family, friends and lots of laughter!

Cheers,
~Sarah