Handmade Gifts
Up until the Industrial Revolution, all gifts were handmade. However, mass-produced items soon replaced handmade gifts, leading to a small cultural backlash against mass-produced gifts. In the early 1930’s a group of advertisement writers devised a manifesto to explain the superiority of handmade to mass-produced gifts.
Their reasons are:
1. Handmade items are able to distinguish themselves from the uniformity of mass production and are one-of-a-kind.
2. The gift giver makes the item with the recipient’s tastes in mind, making the gift more personal.
3. It took more time to produce handmade items than to go out and pick out a gift for a friend, symbolizing the giver’s commitment and willingness to give their own time to please the recipient.
4. Handmade items were not contaminated by profit-seeking companies.
Today, there is not the same backlash against mass-produced gifts, but the reasoning behind the manifesto is still very true. Especially in our fast-paced, over-programmed culture, handmade gifts show a deep personal and emotional commitment to a relationship.
Adapted from: The Modern Christmas in America: A Cultural History of Gift Giving by William B. Waits.
