Make a homemade gift for a friend.

“I met up with a friend (Hannah, 21) after New Year’s. I made her a cross-stitch keychain of a character from a show we both like. At one point, she had made a video listing her favorite characters, pairings, and moments from the show, and this character was listed as her favorite girl. I spent over 30 hours making it and was really happy with how it turned out. She didn’t open it in front of me, so I later got her reaction via text: * Hannah: That was unexpected. Why her? Me: I thought you liked her? Hannah: Yeah, like the rest of the characters. It was just a very unexpected choice. Me: Well, I thought it would be harder to find merch of her since she isn’t the main character, so I decided to make it. Hannah: I never looked for it, didn’t even try. She isn’t a character for merch in my world. I’m glad you tried to be attentive.”

“I usually don't exchange gifts with friends at school, but this year, three of us girls decided to do a small gift exchange with one another. One girl has been my good friend for seven years now, and the other girl just transferred to our high school last September. When I gave each of them a custom, handmade gift, I got very different reactions! My longstanding friend was happy with her gift, since it tied in to her favorite hobby and she knew I put a lot of time and effort into crafting it for her. But our new friend gave me a sour look when she opened my gift!”