Are you hoping to cut costs and shop more thoughtfully this holiday season? Homemade gifts are a fantastic option: they can help you save money while offering your loved ones something truly unique that you’ve made yourself.
If time is running short, think about DIY gifts that can be produced in larger quantities. Some projects, such as a wall tapestry or denim tote bag, require a considerable time investment, making them less feasible if you need to create gifts for several people.
To assist you, we reached out to Canadian artist and YouTuber Rajiv Surendra, who provided some of his preferred batch gifts along with his best advice for making them feel more polished and gift-ready.
Taper candles
During high school, Surendra learned how to craft beeswax taper candles from a beekeeper, and has been creating them for over two decades. “They make a lovely gift, and when you’re making them, it’s very efficient to produce 50 or even 100 candles at once,” Surendra explained.
Unlike pillar candles, making dipped candles doesn’t need moulds or meticulous attention to air pockets. “You only need one container to melt the wax, and you can set up an assembly line that works beautifully to create a hundred candles simultaneously,” Surendra noted. “You can’t really create a hundred pillar candles unless you have a hundred moulds.”
After crafting your tapers, it’s essential to include a sleeve or band to keep each pair together and give them a polished appearance for gifting. You might use decorative paper with double-sided tape; Surendra suggested Japanese washi and papers from Cavallini — or even create and print custom labels for your items. “The label is quite an important element,” Surendra remarked. “[It] transforms these candles into something that appears quite expensive.”
Goat’s milk soap
Surendra spent ten summers at Black Creek Pioneer Village (now known as the Village at Black Creek) in Toronto, where he acquired knowledge on how early settlers created their own soap. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to try,” he recalled. After relocating to New York City, he finally gave it a go, inspired by the desire to make Christmas gifts for friends. “I aimed to create a batch of something I could cut up and share with many people.”
He employs a loaf mould and uses a wire to slice the soap into rectangular bars but mentions that inexpensive plastic moulds can also be utilized to produce multiple soaps in various shapes quite swiftly.
Surendra’s goat milk soaps, which he now also offers on his website, include pure frankincense and myrrh. “Frankincense and myrrh possess healing properties, and they have been used since ancient times for anointing the skin,” said Surendra. For homemade soaps, he advises keeping the scents uncomplicated — “stick to one or two at most” — and to smell essential oils in person before purchasing, as they can differ significantly by manufacturer.
For packaging, Surendra opts for glassine paper for his soaps due to its grease-proof nature. “It seals everything effectively,” he noted. Glassine paper can also be stamped with rubber to easily personalize your soaps.
Linen tea towels
(iStock/Getty Images)
If you own a sewing machine, tea towels are a cost-effective gift that can be produced in quantity. Surendra recommends purchasing linen fabric — whether new or vintage — and cutting it into tea towels. “Pure linen tea towels are incredibly useful in the kitchen as they are highly absorbent,” he stated. “[They don’t] require extensive sewing; it’s merely hemming all four sides. Alternatively, if you use the selvage of the towel, you only need to hem two or three sides.”
To add a special touch, you could embroider the recipient’s initials onto the tea towel using your sewing machine’s embroidery feature or by hand with cross-stitching.