Make A Gift Day

What the day is

Make A Gift Day is observed on December 3, placed early enough in December that making something is still realistic.

Origin and background

The origin of the observance is not documented.

Two findings from research on gift-giving are worth setting side by side, because together they explain why handmade presents succeed or fail.

The first is that building something raises your own valuation of it. People who assemble an item rate it more highly than an identical ready-made one, an effect robust enough to have taken its name from the furniture company whose products demonstrated it. Effort invested becomes value perceived, at least for the person who did the investing.

The second is that givers and recipients systematically want different things. Studies of gift exchange find that givers gravitate toward presents that are unique, surprising or impressive, while recipients report preferring things they actually asked for and will use. Givers also overestimate how much the thought behind a gift registers with the person opening it.

Put together, the risk with a handmade gift is obvious. The maker can see the hours in the object and the recipient cannot, so a gift chosen to display effort tends to land worse than one chosen to suit the person. The handmade gifts that work are aimed squarely at the recipient's taste, with the effort invisible in the result rather than being the point of it.

Consumable and repeatable things travel particularly well here, since they carry no obligation to display an object permanently.

How to take part

• Start from the person, not from the craft you wanted an excuse to do.
• Consider food, which people finish rather than having to find room for.
• Be honest about the time available. An unfinished gift is worse than a bought one.
• Ask what they want. The research is unambiguous that this beats surprising them.
• Make it repairable or refillable if you want it to last.