Serious questions for those of you who celebrate Christmas: Do you make any of the Christmas cards or gifts you give to your inner circle? And are you typically satisfied with the amount of holiday crafting you actually get done each year?

Most years, I spend my summers making Christmas craft projects so I will not be caught empty-handed when holiday season rolls around. However, it seems like, no matter how far I plan ahead, I never quite manage to get as much done as I’d been hoping to.

This year, I am really, really far behind on my holiday crafting goals; I did get a few Christmas cards made already, but I have a lot of catching up to do. I’m thinking I need to make a big push this month to get many more Christmas cards made, and to also get some Christmas gifts completed. I have been meaning to try making some of my own Christmas giftwrap and gift boxes, too…

Pictured above is one of the new pattern books I’m planning on working from to create my Christmas gifts and decorations this year. It’s called Classic Christmas Crochet: Traditional Holiday Ornaments, Decorations and Gifts by Heidi B. Johannesen and Pia H.H. Johannesen. This is one of the most stylish, festive Christmas crochet books I’ve come across lately. If you look closely at the cover of the book, you can see a sizable number of the finished projects that are included in the book; many of them are brightly-colored Christmas tree ornaments you can crochet. So the book’s cover beautifully shows off a good number of the projects that are included within.

I’m looking forward to sitting down with my crochet hooks, yarn, and this book, and spending some quality time making some Christmas tree ornaments and other decorations using these patterns.

This book also includes patterns for making Christmas stockings and small toys, so there’s a lovely mix of Christmas gift ideas included.

If you celebrate Christmas, you want to give handmade gifts to your Christmas gift recipients this year, and you haven’t already started your holiday crafting, I highly recommend starting NOW. If you already have Christmas patterns stashed, you can get them out and use them to get started. You’re also more than welcome to use any of the Christmas craft patterns I’ve posted; I made many free Christmas patterns available, and despite the fact that they’re Christmas projects to be used in December, many of them are actually small, summer-friendly projects that aren’t challenging to work on during the summer months (that’s because I usually design and make them during the summer months, haha).

I’ve also reviewed bunches of different Christmas craft books, all of which include useful ideas and fun, festive projects. If you’re in the market to buy new Christmas patterns for yourself, I invite you to check out my book review of Classic Christmas Crochet, which is my new favorite Christmas crochet pattern book for 2023. My other favorite from the past few years is Annie’s Christmas special from 2020. Another good one to look at is Have a Happy Crochet Christmas, which is on sale for only $1.99 right now. I thought it was a decent value for the money at its original retail price of $9.99, so it’s definitely an amazing value on sale.

If you don’t celebrate Christmas, or you don’t feel like working on Christmas projects right now, no worries; I have bunches of other craft projects and patterns available you might like to work on. I invite you to check out my page of summer crafts to find other summer-friendly ideas you might want to try right now.

Thanks so much for dropping by my craft blog today. I really appreciate your presence here. Happy crafting!

XOXO,

Amy Solovay, your hostess here at KnittingCrochetCrafts.com

Don’t you just hate it when you run out of time or money before you run out of gifts you need to buy? That’s such a complete and total bummer, isn’t it?

Happily, for crafters who maintain a sizeable stash of papers, yarn or other craft supplies, this sort of thing is almost a non-issue.

If crafting has taught me anything at all over the years, it’s this: if I have supplies left in my craft supply stash, and at least a couple of hours left before I have to present the gift to its recipient, I’ll never be empty-handed in the gift department. I’ll always have a gift worth giving, and it will be a gift created exclusively with the recipient in mind. (Except, I admit that I sometimes make a few extra give-to-anybody-type-gifts ahead of any gift-giving occasion, in case an unexpected long-lost relative or guest drops by for a visit.)

We’re getting dangerously close to Christmas, given that today’s date is December 21, 2022. I’d bet money that, by now, some of you are still stressing out about about what to give somebody-or-other.

Yikes!

I’m here to help you with some suggestions for last-minute gifts you can make using supplies that most crafters would typically have on hand.

Gift-Worthy Projects You Can Whip Up in a Hurry:

If you need to crank out a quick gift, hurry up and grab any of these free patterns or free project instructions from the Internet. Then raid your craft supply stash and get busy!

Quick Christmas Ornaments

See that cute little Christmas tree-shaped ornament pictured at bottom left in the photo posted above? You don’t need anything fancy to make this — the pattern is free on our website, plus you need a little green yarn, a little brown or tan yarn, some stuffing material, and a few buttons or beads for decorations. If you don’t have any buttons or beads, you could try cutting out some little felt or fabric circles to stitch to the tree. Or embroider some little ornaments using colorful yarn, embroidery floss or crochet thread.

This is a reasonably safe idea for a gift, considering that anyone who celebrates Christmas could probably use an ornament.

An even quicker ornament: this easy lace crochet wreath is super quick to make, and it’s really pretty, too. If you have a little ball of green yarn left over from another project, you have most of what’s needed to make this project. You’ll also need ribbon and a scrap of red yarn, or other appropriate baubles for decorating your wreath.

Pouches:

Pouches make fast, easy gifts (not to mention that they make fantastic giftwrap substitutes, if you run out of actual giftwrap.) The only potential problem with that idea is, you might not have the right zippers in your craft supplies stash — but if you do, this idea is definitely a keeper.

You can give pouches to people of either gender and any age; just customize the pouch accordingly. Bonus points if you can add a few goodies to the pouch, like wrapped candies, small toys, pencils or pens, to “sweeten” the gift.

Potholders and Kitchen Gift Sets:

If you have some appropriate yarn and a few hours, you can whip up sets of potholders, or kitchen gift sets, for the chefs on your gift list. If you happen to have red, green and white or off-white yarn in either wool or cotton, you could make cupcake potholders like the one pictured. No need to have these colors specifically, though. If you have any 3 – 4 cupcake-friendly colors of yarn on hand, you could re-color the design to use what you have.

You have a head-spinning number of options for different potholders you could make, so please check out our list of potholder patterns if this idea appeals to you.

Jewelry

For the ladies on your gift list, jewelry makes a great gift. Bracelets, especially, are pretty quick to make, and don’t use up many supplies.

Quick and Easy Last-Minute Scrapbooks

If you have pictures on your phone that your gift recipients would like, plus any scrapbooking paper in your craft supplies stash, you can make quick mini albums to give them as gifts:

• Either print out your pics using your printer or upload them to the closest 1-hour photo place. You’ll want to use them as the central focus of your mini album.
• Decide on a size for your mini album; 4×6 or 6×8 are good sizes, but you can make your album whatever size you want it.
• Cut your paper down to size. If you’re making a 4×6 album, cut your papers to 4×12″. If you’re making a 6×8 album, cut your papers down to 6×12″.
• Score down the center of each paper.
• Stack your papers on top of each other with the edges and center fold lines aligned.
• Grab a ruler and an awl or paper piercing tool. If you happen to have a book binding tool on hand, that’s even better, but it isn’t a necessity.
• Make evenly-spaced holes along the mini book’s center fold line to use for stitching a saddle-stitch binding on your mini album.
• Grab a needle plus some thread, crochet thread, embroidery floss or sturdy yarn and use these items to sew a saddle stitch binding on your mini album. To accomplish this, you simply stitch up and down with the threaded needle through the holes you already made in the center fold line on your pages.
• Now grab your pictures and some adhesive, and attach your pics to your album where you want them.
• If you have stickers, stamps, inks, ribbon, washi tape or embellishments, you can embellish your album however you like.
• You can also add journaling digitally by typing it on the computer, printing it out and attaching it to your album pages where you want it. Another option is to stick letter stickers or hand write your journaling. It is also possible to hand stamp journaling blocks and / or sentiments to add to your mini album.
• Voila! You now have a handmade gift that is more meaningful than anything you could have bought from the store. YAY!!

Christmas Cookies:

If you’re a passable chef, Christmas cookies are a no-brainer as a last-minute gift. If you have a well-stocked pantry, you can usually find a cookie recipe that’ll work. Even if your pantry isn’t all that well-stocked, look for a sugar cookie recipe that doesn’t require much more than flour, sugar, butter, salt, eggs and a flavoring like almond or vanilla.

So there you have it: Those are our best suggestions for last-minute Christmas gifts for crafters who are short on either time, money, or both. I honestly hope you don’t need this list at all — it would be ideal if your Christmas shopping is all finished, and you are now kicking back, relaxing and enjoying time with your friends and family. But if you’re still stressing about gifts for your inner circle, I really hope these ideas will be useful to you.

Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate it! I hope you will enjoy every minute of your holiday.

Related Resources:

• Best Christmas Craft Books
• Christmas Patterns to Knit and Crochet
• Holidays and Special Occasions
• 5 Ways to Crochet a Christmas Wreath
• Winter Crafts

Is your Christmas tree looking a little bit bare? Or perhaps yours is beautifully decorated, but you want to make more ornaments to give as gifts to your friends and acquaintances this holiday season. Read on if you need some ideas for creative Christmas ornaments to knit — because I have suggestions for extraordinary knitted Christmas ornament patterns that I think you’ll want to know about.

A couple of ultra-talented Norwegian knitting pattern designers named Arne & Carlos are the guys behind these incredibly beautiful Christmas ornament designs. I highly recommend their book called Arne & Carlos Favorite Designs, which includes their Christmas ornament patterns plus bunches of other Christmas and holiday friendly patterns.

You can use some of the ornament patterns to create round knitted Christmas ornaments. Some of the other patterns included in the book are useful for making small knitted birds that could either be toys, or Christmas ornaments, or other types of ornaments. Like, if you decorate for Easter, some of the birds could be Easter birds, too.

In addition to all the ornament patterns, the book also includes bunches of other fun patterns for gift-worthy items ranging from dolls to slippers to blankets.

Want to Learn More About This Book?

• You can Click here to check out our detailed book review of Arne & Carlos Favorite Designs …
• …Or click here to shop for this book at Amazon…
• Or click here to get more info about this book at the publisher’s website.

About Your Book Reviewer: Amy Solovay is a freelance writer with a background in textile design. She has been crocheting and crafting since childhood, and knitting since age 16.

This page was last updated on 12-20-2022.