5 Handmade Gifts Your Teen Will Treasure
By GalTime Teen Parenting Expert, Barbara Greenberg, PhD
My daughter is in her early twenties now. I recently asked my girl what some of her favorite holiday gifts from me were over the years.
And for goodness sake, I bought her countless gifts during the teen years that ranged from technology presents to trips to handmade collages.
I am not kidding when I tell you that her favorite gift ever was a card in which I pasted photos of her younger self next to her older self.
It was such a joy to watch her looking at this gift. Even now, she pulls this card out and refers to it as her special treasure. This year, why not consider making some special homemade gifts? I promise that they will be appreciated for many years to come. Here are a few of my favorite DIY gifts for your teen.
1. Making a very special video of some of their funniest and most joyful moments
Use iMac or another simple, intuitive video uploading and editing program to pull together favorite bits of video, set it all to music and even share it on Facebook, YouTube or on a DVD.
RELATED Six Reasons Your Teen Is Stressed Out By the Holidays
2. Try the collage idea of photographs with a creative theme
Use real photos, color-printed copies of photos or create a digital collage on PicMonkey (a free and easy app for photo editing and collage-making).
3. Make a scrapbook of some of their childhood artwork
Use a photo printing site to organize and create a custom or template scrapbook digitally. Or DIY it the old-school way, getting creative with funky paper, fancy scissors, fun stickers, journaling squares and other accoutrement perfectly personalized for your teen.
4. Make a card with cutouts of their handwriting over the years
This also works with handprints, self-portraits and other treasured scribbles and snippets from each year.
RELATED 10 Great Tools To Fill Those College-Bound Teens' Stockings
and
5. Make a playlist of some of their favorite music
If you're overwhelmed by the sheer amount of music you COULD include, narrow down a theme -- favorite lullabies and songs to soothe, favorite songs about being a girl/boy/kid/rebel/dancer/musician, hits from the year your teen was born, family sing-along favorites, show tunes, or alternate one of your favorite songs with one of your teen's favorites.
I promise to return all of my holiday gifts if your teens don't really enjoy some of these handmade gifts! Everything else gets lost or outdated over the years, but these sorts of presents that recount and illustrate memories will last a lifetime.
Do you have any other ideas for creative gifts? More from GalTime.com:
