Tag Archives: Christmas Gift Ideas

Gift Idea #36 – Family T-shirts

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idea numbers36It would be fun to design a t-shirt for your family. You don’t have to have a family reunion to have matching shirts made. Just come up with something that represents your family, its values and what makes it unique. The t-shirts could include the family name or the relationship of the family members, like uncle, sister, grandfather etc. They could feature an image of a common ancestor or place of origin. A family in our neighborhood loves Disneyland. Disneyland is really a big part of their family traditions, so a t-shirt for their family would have to include something about Disneyland. It will probably take some brainstorming to come up with a good design. You could get lots of family members involved in a project like these. You might want to have a contest to decide the design. Or narrow the designs down and then have a vote to select the final t-shirt.

 

Gift Idea #35 – Charm Necklace (Bracelet or Key Chain)

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idea numbers35Charm necklaces and bracelet are very popular these days. I’ve made a charm necklace for the puppies that I raise for Guide Dogs for the Blind. Then when they leave us to return for training I wear it everyday until their graduation. When I miss them, I can reach up and feel the charms and think that they are close to my heart.

The same principle will work for family members too. Pick a few charms that represent the person in someway. The family member could be someone who is far away for some reason or one who has recently passed away or even someone from the distant past that your family is focusing on. You could make a card to give along with the charms to explain the symbolism behind your choices. I think key chains would be a good choice for male family members or someone who doesn’t like jewelry.

Gift Idea #34 – Maps

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idea numbers34I love maps and I think they would make a great gift for young and old alike. By hanging a map of the country or area where an ancestor lived it gives you the opportunity to talk about that person and to learn a little more about what life was like for them. The map could be very graphical and simple like these:

My Roots Collection

Or something with lots and lots of details. The map could be a world map with pins or stickers to make important locations to your family or it could be the map of just a city and show the different addresses where your family has lived. The map could be modern or it could be a copy of an old antique map. By googling maps I found this store with all kinds of cool maps.

Maps.com

They even do custom maps. Wow, this makes me want to continue to explore all the options of map. There are so many options, one (or more) is sure to work for your situation.

 

Gift Idea #33 – Family Calendar

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idea numbers33I’m working on my calendar to give this Christmas. It is still in process but I’m getting close. I’ll post about it when I get it finished. I’ve done a calendar many times before and there are lots of ways to do them. Most local copy centers are set up to do a calendar. You supply the photos and they do the rest. There are tons of online sources for calendars too. Here are just a few.

Shutterfly

Snapfish

Walgreens

Lulu

Zazzle

Cafepress

Minted

I’ve always made my calendars myself, using Adobe InDesign, so I can’t recommend any of these options but I’m sure that they all make some great calendars. It is fun to add family birthdays and special events to your calendar. I’ve seen calendars where you put the photo of the person on the date too. You can use current family photos or historical photos. This can be a quick project by using one of the services available or a longer project if you do it yourself from scratch. The possibilities are endless but a family calendar is sure to be a big hit.

Gift Idea #32 – Family Trivia Game

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idea numbers32I love this idea that I stumbled across on Martha Stewart to create a family trivia game to be played at a family gather such as after dinner. Just put together a set of questions ahead of time about your family members and see how much fun everyone will have guessing the answers and learning new facts and stories about their family.

There is even a little Trivia Booklet you can download to put your quiz questions in. I bet that this game will become of treasured family tradition for many years to come. Have fun with this idea!

Gift Idea #31 – Interview Recording

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idea numbers31How about recording an interview with one of the members of your family (usually an older family member) and then share that interview with your family on a cd or dvd? To me the hardest part of this is coming up with a good set of questions for the interview. Well StoryCorps.org has the answer. They have a list of great questions or you can use their Question Generator to create a customized list of questions based on your circumstances.

With today’s computers it is so much easier to edit an interview and make copies than it was even 10 or 15 years ago. What a precious thing to have some of your families stories recorded in the voice of a beloved family member. It will be well worth the effort. Besides you don’t have to get their whole life history recorded in one sitting. Just a story or two would be great. Sometimes we think we have to do it all but we don’t. Getting something recorded and shared is the most important thing.

Gift Idea #30 – Family Home History

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idea numbers30Many families have a home they have lived in for many, many years. If your family is one of them, consider putting together a history of your family home. It can be interesting and enlightening to see the role a house can play in your families history and the memories made there.

I did a small book about the home the my mother and most of her siblings were born in. This home was built by her father and when it was time to sell the old family home she had a really hard time with the idea. I put together the book in hopes that it would help her be more at peace with selling the home. I’ll post about this project sometime.

Gift Idea #29 – On this Date

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idea numbers29For this idea you will share with your family through out the year or a specific time frame important things that happened to your family on this date in the past. You could follow the life of a single person or a group of people. You could focus on just one year or you could draw from a bunch of years.

I did my version of this for my family with my great-great-grandmother, Mary Taylor this past year. I focused on her journey from England to Utah in 1856 as a handcart pioneer. I shared this information with my family via e-mails, either daily or weekly depending on the amount of information I had. You could also put together a book or binder with the information.

A second version I did this past year was for my mom’s trip to Europe in 1952. Sharing a story with lots of details makes it easy in some ways because it breaks it into bite sized pieces, that can be more manageable to digest in our busy lives.

Another version would be to share with your family important dates such as wedding anniversaries, birthdays etc. for present and past family members. One way to do this would be with a personalized calendar.

Gift Idea #28 – Duplicate Old Family Photos

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idea numbers28A really nice gift to share with family is their own copy of the best family photos. My mom did this for us one year. She had enlargements made of a family group shot from her childhood and from my dad’s. If you want to make it really nice you could a frame so that it is ready to go on display.

Having up pictures of ancestors or family members when they were much younger helps to connect the generations and create opportunities to share who they are. Name plaques would be a nice addition to the project.

Gift Idea #27 – Re-purpose Men’s Items

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idea numbers27So after I finished Idea #26, I thought well what about the little trinkets that men collect? Wouldn’t it be neat to take your grandfather’s tie clip or cufflinks and make them into something fun and useful? Men don’t usually have as much jewelry as women but they do have some. Cufflinks would make great earrings. A tie clip or tack could easily be used as a pin. Many of the ideas for re-purposing costume jewelry would work here too.

What about the other little trinkets that men often hang onto? An old pocket watch would make an awesome necklace. Maybe some parts from his toolbox or workshop could be put together in steampunk fashion. It is much harder to find ideas for men’s things on the internet but if you have a specific item, a google search is sure to bring up some ideas if you play with the search terms a bit.