Monday, October 13, 2008

Homemade Holidays: Nostalgia baskets

"I know this year is going to be much more about needs than wants," my sister e-mailed me the other day.

I'm sure our family is far from alone. Each day brings more news of financial crisises on a worldwide scale and how retailers are bracing for a tighter-than-usual Christmas shopping season.

Still, I know gift-giving won't go away as part of holiday traditions. Sure, this year, our gift-giving will be severely amputated. In fact, I think what we do give will be more about what's heart-felt than a treat.

This week starts my "Homemade Holidays" series. Each Monday, I'll feature different ideas for greener gift-giving on a budget. If you have other ideas, please post them as well!

A little nostalgia
Remember those fabulous treats Grandma used to make? Create a gift basket of homemade goodies for your loved ones, packaged with cards featuring the treasured recipes. If you're feeling very creative, hunt down photos of the grandkids in the kitchen or the family around the holiday table to include in it.

A few years back we compiled my Grandmother's recipes, which had found homes at random relatives' houses. After a few weeks of effort and some time with the word processor, we created a 100+ page cookbook. We printed a copy, which included family photos, for her, and e-mailed a PDF to the family, so they all had copies on hand for the future.

4 comments:

Cathy said...

What a lovely gift!! I'll have to try that. I so hear you about Xmas. The gift-giving gets so out of hand after you have kids. I want to put a lot of thought into gifts this year, and not just shop.

Anonymous said...

I love this idea and I am so excited that you are going to post something new each week! I need some great ideas for homemade gifts this year! And what a great gift to use grandma's recipes with photos to share with the whole family!

Farmer's Daughter said...

My grandmother made a cookbook of my great-grandmother's recipes for us the year after great-grandma died and gave it to us for Christmas. It's huge, with her 99 years of cooking experience in it. We were all fighting over who would get her journals of recipes, so my grandmother figured this way out. I like to look through that book first when I'm looking for a recipe.

Robbie said...

Abbie,
We were in the same boat with my grandmother's recipes. She is in her mid-90s, and each of us had a few recipes, but tended not to have some of the favorites. (I still laugh that my cousin who lived in the same town as grandma wanted the raspberry dessert recipe if anyone had it!)
Someday, I'll print my copy off and bind it, but until then, it's kind of fun to scan through the PDF, especially at holiday time.
Are you planning to post any of your recipes online?