We all have special holiday traditions. Years ago I began making Christmas presents for my family. It’s always a great opportunity for me to spend time in my workshop and everyone seems to enjoy the results. In fact, I’m now told it just isn’t Christmas unless there is something under the tree from ‘Santa’s Workshop.’
So having had a bit of practice at making last minute gifts, I thought I would share a couple of easy gift ideas that can be made quickly and will please the most discriminating person on your list:
Trivets
This is an easy one. All you need is a board that is about ½” thick. Cut three or four trivets of varying sizes. I generally start with one that is about 5×5 and scale them up to 8×12 to handle various size dishes. Once you have them cut, you can ease the edges with a router or with sandpaper and then sand them smooth. After finish sanding, I find the best finish to be Butcher Block Oil – you just wipe on a couple of coats and you are good to go. Even better, if the trivets begin to look dry you can renew them any time with another coat of oil. For an even better gift, make a u-shaped holder from a contrasting wood to hold the trivets when they are not being used.
Clocks
With today’s quartz clocks, making a clock is nowhere near as complicated as it sounds. You literally just need to put the right size hole in an attractive object and you have a clock. Quartz clocks are available as ‘inserts’ which resemble a pocket watch or they come in post styles where you mount the box behind your façade with the post thru the hole, screw the locknut down to hold it tight and then add hands. The best part is that the body of the clock can be anything you want; a piece of driftwood, a favorite photo laminated to a board or you can construct something as complicated as a miniature grandfather clock. Let your imagination run wild.
Pendants
Wooden pendants are easier to make than you might think. A simple pendant is basically an interesting shape with a hole in it. Thread a chain or leather necklace through the hole and presto – you have a pendant. There are no rules or limitations on the design but you do want it to hang properly and be small enough to be comfortable to wear. I like to glue up contrasting wood species to get an interesting texture and then I use files, rasps and sandpaper to get an interesting, non-linear shape. Once you have the pendant sanded you can finish it with an oil or poly finish, depending on the look you want to achieve.
You can’t go wrong with a hand-made gift. For my part, I’m not sure what Santa will come up with this year. But I know that I still have a little time…
