A packet of seeds or a card promising time and help in the garden are thoughtful gift ideas
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Q. Our family has a very productive garden. We delight in growing some of our own food and we are getting by, but not with much of a surplus in resources for spending on a sumptuous holiday season. We are looking for ways to turn what we have from the garden into acceptable gifts.
A. It does seem that uncertainty hovers over many families these days and almost everywhere one looks there is need. Celebrating the holiday season in these circumstances is a challenge yet, in my view, it also has the power to simplify the season and make it more cosy and restful.
Perhaps, because of the times, many will seek an oasis of quiet holiday rejoicing in the simple things that make life warm and comfortable — like finding things, some homegrown, that they can share.
Gardening families may have ready-made (or close to it) items on hand for giving. Already I’ve been given small jars of homemade pear-ginger chutney and Cape gooseberry (ground cherry) jam. I’ll be giving kiwis recently harvested from my vine as well as sachets made with this year’s Provence lavender florets.
Gathering small branches from evergreen plants, both needle-bearing and broadleaf kinds, and tying them into swags, would be an enjoyable family venture and means of creating gifts for family and friends.
A packet of seeds, a card promising the gift of time and help in the garden, a small flowering holiday plant, garden gloves, a trowel or hand weeder are gifts with the potential to deliver an extended period of enhanced pleasure in gardening, without the dispersal of major funds.
Even in anxious, insecure times, and maybe even because of them, comfort and celebration can be found in those little gifts that are handcrafted or chosen and purchased with great care.
Times during the holidays spent relaxing into circles of family love and friendship may be the sweetest gift and celebration of all.