Victorian gift giving and Christmas traditions

[joyeuxcherie]

Comments

[milkteamilk]

These are all very cute ideas! I love the site you linked to as well, so thank you for that! I wish more people would make more handmade gifts for the holidays, I rarely ever get handmade gifts, so I rarely give them.

[deadtree]

I agree, I wish more people gave handmade gifts... especially because the idea of people getting together in groups to make them sounds like a lot of fun!

[joyeuxcherie]

Homemade gifts are awesome! My mom quilts and has given them away as gifts or made novelty items. I still have them even the first ones, when I was very young. It's very dear to me.

[kitty_loaf13]

this is certainly right up my alley! reading this really inspired me to do some of these things-- especially making cards, gifts, and baked goods for people. i can't wait to get home for christmas break and start crafting ^w^

[joyeuxcherie]

I definitely want to give baked goods as gifts next holiday. There are many delicious and unique recipes and since I'm passionate about baking, especially for friends and family, it would be an ideal gift!

[hermieluver]

I vaguely recall hearing about wonder balls when I was growing up, but I had forgotten about them until you posted this. For those interested, here is a story about it in a book of children's stories: http://books.google.com/books?id=UkoRAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA184&lpg=PA184&dq=wonder+ball+yarn&source=bl&ots=XbRm9nzlJj&sig=5XhyexLWekzC13-yA_OXF5Um-gs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=X6rCUMfqL4Su9AT6z4Fg&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=wonder%20ball%20yarn&f=false

I wish I knew more people who knitted/crocheted, so I could give them wonder balls as gifts. It is just such a lovely tradition. <3

[joyeuxcherie]

Thank you for linking to the story! What a gem to find on Google Books :O.
It is a great tradition and it also reminds me of the Nestle Wonder Balls with a toy in the center - from the 90s!

[hermieluver]

You're welcome! Now I hadn't heard of the candy wonder balls...I'll have to look them up.

[rommily]

Thank you for writing this interesting article in your blog!
I have a question regarding "Gift making was a communal activity, with the family and friends spending happy hours together planning and creating their gifts."
Nowadays, the surprising part of the gifts is important and gifts that you did not know about before are often the best.
But when the family sat together as you wrote, everyone already knew before what he/she woud receive from the others? Or did I misunderstand the sentence?

[joyeuxcherie]

This is a good question and I did ask myself that, from what I read, the gifts that were made together were more of a communal get together, however there was an emphasis on the commercialization at the time which would lead to personal gift giving and the element of surprise.

[deadtree]

this is cute! And thank you for linking that Victorian crafts site, I'm having fun on there :)

[joyeuxcherie]

It's a great site ! I do wish I had some of my American Girl "Samantha" books left over for they had crafts in there - it was the inspiration for this blog post too!

[deadtree]

omg, I wish I had mine now! Samantha was the best.