A Maker’s Guide to Holiday Gifts for Your Friends and Family

2021-11-29 | By Maker.io Staff

Holiday shopping can be stressful, expensive, and time-consuming. Unfortunately, global shortages only fuel these problems. Many popular items are out of stock and likely won’t be available for purchase soon. So, why not break the circle of stressful shopping by making presents yourself this year?

Getting Started: What Do People Need/Want?

Before you can build a gift at home, you have to find out what your family members or friends want or need. For that, listen for clues when you talk with your friends or family members. Did your mother’s nightstand clock break, for example? Or did you overhear her talking about how she forgot to pick one up from the store the last time she went grocery shopping? A homemade alarm clock could then be the perfect gift idea.

I love gifting handy items, and I often go for things that people use a lot but don’t enjoy buying. As an added extra, they think about you every time they use the item you made for them, which is a lovely thought in itself. In addition, store-bought products sometimes lack features we would find useful. With homemade devices, you decide which features to add and which ones to leave out, which allows you to tailor the gifts specifically to one person’s needs.

A Maker’s Guide to Holiday Gifts for Your Friends and Family You can tailor DIY gifts specifically to a person’s needs or interests. Custom-made nixie tube clocks are a fantastic way of bringing some retro chic to our modern homes. Image source: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/tubedepot/NC-IN14-4-WOOD/10489697

Plan Ahead When You Make Presents

Holidays are a hectic time of the year, not just for customers. Shipping companies typically have a lot of work towards the end of the year, and even more so since online shopping saw a surge because of the Coronavirus outbreak. You’ll want to order all the components you’ll need in time and give them enough time to arrive.

Unfortunately, plans rarely play out as you intended. Therefore, you should also always have a plan “B” in place in case something goes wrong.

Sourcing the Right Parts

Once you know what you want to make, think about how you want to build it. Here, I recommend you use a platform you know, but you shouldn’t be afraid of learning something new. However, a known platform means you can more reliably predict how long it will take you to finish a project. Uncertain projects might take too long to accomplish.

Next, it’s important that you order all components from reliable and trustworthy suppliers, such as DigiKey. Doing so guarantees that you receive genuine parts and exactly what you ordered. There’s nothing worse than giving somebody a homemade gift just to watch it break after a few hours of use. Genuine parts are no guarantee of project longevity, but they reduce the chance of manufacturer defects after short usage periods.

A Maker’s Guide to Holiday Gifts for Your Friends and Family This more elaborate DIY kit only requires final assembly. It can make for an impressive homemade present for anyone who’s into handheld games. Image source: https://www.adafruit.com/product/4277 DigiKey link: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/adafruit-industries-llc/4277/10313912

If you’re inexperienced with electronics, you can always buy a readily available DIY kit that contains all the components and instructions you need. Then, you only have to assemble it at home. Some kits also come with nice-looking professional enclosures.

Getting the Right Look and Practice Makes Perfect

Visuals, for some, might be as important as functionality when you make presents for your family and friends. It’s the outside of your project that the other person sees first when they open it, and it’s the outside they see every time they use your homemade device. Therefore, make sure that you use an enclosure that fits all the electronics. Also, make sure you mount any switches, buttons, LEDs, etc., in a visually appealing way.

If you have the time and money, you can assemble a version of your gift idea that you keep for yourself. This way you can practice and make sure that you get it right when you make the present.

You should next make sure that your project is as intuitive and easy to use as possible. Carefully plan this step of the process, as it can also help you reduce the overall cost of your present by saving components. Think about button layouts and how you want to communicate with the user. Do you need a large touch display, or will a smaller LCD suffice? If the project is battery operated, make sure to pick a battery size that matches your project’s requirements. If you want to give a decorative item (for example, an illuminated picture frame), you should make sure that it’s as simple to use as possible.

Last, try to make the device sturdy. Use PCBs instead of breadboards whenever possible. This way, you ensure that your DIY project can endure some mechanical stress without falling apart.

The Bottom Line

A Maker’s Guide to Holiday Gifts for Your Friends and Family Don’t forget to wrap your homemade gifts! You can also get creative here. Image source: https://pixabay.com/photos/gifts-background-decoration-present-2998593/

Making gifts for your family and friends is fun, and they show you care. A homemade gift always communicates the message that you took your time to think about what they’d enjoy and then sat down and made it yourself. This article mainly focused on electronics, but it doesn’t matter what you make as long as you have fun in the process.

If you enjoy what you’re doing, the end product will almost always turn out nice. This principle is not exclusive to electronic projects. The same applies to other crafts, such as woodworking, knitting, painting, baking, and more. Don’t be discouraged if your plans don’t work out right away. See it as a learning opportunity and come up with a plan “B” beforehand.

Make sure to check out maker.io throughout the rest of the year to see ideas for great gifts for the whole family!