• Make this year an old-fashioned Christmas.Nichola Evans/Photodisc/Getty Images
  
  Just because your Christmas budget is a little short this year, doesn't mean you have to overlook your friends in the gift department. Make your friends homemade Christmas gifts, where you spend your time and not your money. Even those with limited crafting skills can find something to make this year.
  
  

Throw Pillows

• Make your friends Christmas throw pillows for the holidays, to decorate their homes. If you have a sewing machine and know how to use it, you have the essential skill and equipment needed to make this project. Instead of rectangular or circular pillows, make Christmas character pillows, by cutting out two identical shapes and sewing together. This might be an animal shape, such as a cat, or a Christmas shape, such as a star or bell. Fabric stores sell Christmas fabric, which you can use in this project. When designing your shape, it needs to be wide enough to compensate for the amount lost when stitching the two pieces together, before stuffing with filler. For example, if you cut out a cat shape, and you make the cat's legs too skinny, they will be impossible to stuff once you sew the shapes together.
  
  

Trinket Box

• Transform a cardboard box into a decorative trinket box as a distinctive Christmas gift. Use holiday wrapping paper or tissue paper in red or green to decorate the outside of the box. Affix the paper using the decoupage technique. Decorate the outside of the box in scrapbook fashion, by artfully affixing a random collection of Christmas-themed items. Use holiday rubber stamps to imprint the box. Decorate the box with cutouts from recycled Christmas cards, canceled Christmas postage, and other small holiday ornaments. Fill the box with Christmas candy or other treats.
  
  

Pinecone Birdfeeder

• For the bird lover, transform a pinecone into a birdfeeder by using peanut butter and birdseed. Before adding the peanut butter, twist wire around the top of the pinecone, to make a loop for hanging the feeder. Cover the pinecone with peanut butter. A quick way to do this is to spread peanut butter in a pie tine, and then roll the pinecone in the peanut butter until it is completely covered. Roll the peanut-butter-covered pinecone in birdseed, until the peanut butter is completely covered. Add a decorative red ribbon to the wire loop.
  
  

Potpourri Sachet

• Begin collecting fragrant flowers in the spring (such as cut roses from your garden) and dry the flowers to use in making potpourri sachets. Hang bunches of flowers to dry upside down, in a dry warm area. Remove the dried flower petals and save for your project. Sew fabric pouches, made from Christmas fabric and stuff with the petals. To give it a Christmas scent, add dried orange peels and a cinnamon stick. If you don't know how to sew, fill a small, decorated glass jar with the potpourri.