Hi Gifty Girl,

Every Christmas my immediate family draws names and instead of purchasing a gift, we have to give a homemade gift.  I love this tradition, as there are no expectations and the gifts are more sincere and sentimental.  We are encouraged to be as frugal as possible, and not spending a dime is encouraged.  This year my husband has my 15 year old brother and he is struggling with ideas.  My brother loves sports, hunting, video games, music, etc.  He’s a very typical teen.  What are your recommendations?

Getting Creative

Dear Creative,

Since I grew up with ONLY sisters and my son is 5 years old, my experience with teenage boys is…well…pretty much what I learned when I was a teenage girl in love with them.  ;) When I was 14 I bought the BEST GIFT EVER for the 15 year old boy I was so totally in love with. “The Bodyguard” CD. You know, that sappy love movie with Whitney Houston? With the song “I will always love you.” HA! Not sure what I was thinking with that gift choice…other than thinking I would always love him. At any rate, gifts for teenage boys are a challenge for anyone, I think. Add on the stipulation of not spending much money and we will definitely need to get creative! I hope your husband is a good sport, the ideas I thought of will need him to give it his all. Let’s go easiest to hardest, shall we?

Get Advice-y Gift: Your brother is about to (or perhaps already has) entered the world of dating. I remember being nervous as the girl, but I can’t imagine being a boy and having to do the asking out/getting rejected part. Yipes! One fun gift I thought of is an advice book about dating/relationships coming from members of your family. I picture it printed out, maybe bound by an office supply place (but not necessary). You could have your husband secretly interview (by phone or even email) to ask members of your family old and young about dating stories/pickup lines, advice etc. The more lighthearted the better, although it would be valuable to have some serious advice in there too! I also think the shorter the quotes the better! I would group the advice by topic. For instance, you could ask, “What is the best way to ask a girl out?” Then on one page have a quote from Aunt Sandy saying, “The best way I was ever asked out on a date was by a handsome young man who handed me a rose and asked me to a movie. It didn’t cost a lot of money, but was so sweet and romantic.” The next page would be by cousin Jake, Age 10. “Why would anyone want to ask a girl on a date? That’s disgusting!” I bet you and your husband could come up with some great questions to ask everyone. I think the key to this gift would be secrecy, so it is a big surprise for your brother. Chances are he will be a bit embarrassed at the notion of dating advice from family, but I bet deep down in his teenage heart he would appreciate it.

Get Crafty gift: I am assuming a few things for this gift. 1) That your brother has old t-shirts from sports and such. 2) That you have access to a sewing machine 3) That your husband will give sewing a try!  My gift suggestion is a t-shirt rag quilt. What’s great about this is that if you use old jeans or fabric you already have as a backing, and old t-shirts as the front of the quilt, you won’t have to buy any fabric. The rag quilt is a super easy quilt that even I did (I am not an expert seamstress). Here are the basic things you need to do: have your mom or dad gather up as many of your brother’s old t-shirts that they can find, beg and borrow material/batting for the inside and back of the quilt, decide on how big you can make the quilt squares (depending on how many shirts you have and how big you want the quilt to be), cut out material and fabric into squares and then sew it together following this incredibly detailed tutorial.  Here is a picture of a fancy t-shirt quilt (much harder than a rag quilt IMO, but will give you an idea of how a t-shirt quilt looks). The rag quilt is pretty much just sewing straight lines, even if your husband has never set his foot to a sewing machine pedal before, he can totally do this! Then you snip the edges, throw it into the washer and dryer and voila! A unique gift for very little (or no!) money. If your family has anyone who sews I’m guessing you will have access to both fabric and machines.

I hope one of these ideas work for you and your husband. Good luck and Happy Giving!

The Gifty Girl