Have someone that you need a gift for but can’t think of anything? Themed kits are a great way to go. These are going to take a little more brain power than just getting that someone a giftcard, but I promise its so worth it. Mine was Harry Potter themed but these can be geared towards any fandom your loved one may be a part of.
Full disclosure this idea is heavily pulled from an episode of one of my favorite podcasts “Witch Please.” Total side note, but if you love Harry Potter this podcast is amazing. It will have you looking at the books from a totally different angle and somehow loving them more. In Season 2 Episode 2: Witch, Please and the Phenomenal Foggos they talk with a family that made Harry Potter themed survival kits for each other. I ran with this idea to make a gift for my best friend last Christmas.
Step 1: Choose Your Theme
The idea is to create a “Wizarding Survival Kit” with everything a wizard needs to survive in the real world. A general wizard kit is fine, but if you can personalize it just one step more it makes it feel like a truly custom gift. My friend had just graduated college so I themed mine towards a wizard graduating Hogwarts, but this can be easily translated. Are they a teacher? Make a kit for a Hogwarts potions professor. Are they an accountant? Make a kit for someone working at the Ministry of Magic. Cop? Auror Kit. Animal Lover? Grounds Master at Hogwarts Kit. Athlete? Quidditch Kit. Find something about this person that you can translate into the wizarding world and you are off and running.
Step 2: Gather Your Items
This is where you are going to need to sit down and do some thinking. What are some small items your gift recipient would like? And then how can you theme them towards the wizarding world? This kit is great because it lets you combine a bunch of small items that may not have been enough to be a gift on their own. This is also where your personalized theming from step 1 is going to help guide you. To get you started here is what I put in my kit and with what I themed it as:
- A Bottle of Wine -> Veritaserum
- A Vodka Shooter -> Felix Felicis
- A Bar of Chocolate -> Dementor Relief
- A Pair of Socks -> To Free a House Elf
- A Gold Bath Bomb -> A Golden Snitch
- A Wand
The final item was a wood wand I had lathed, but this kit could be down without any major crafting being done. Here are some more general ideas to keep you going:
- Any booze -> Any Potion (Amortentia, Polyjuice, Skele-Gro…)
- Their Favorite Non-Alcoholic Drink -> Wolfsbane (with some joke like: you aren’t you without it)
- Gold Chocolate Coins -> Galleons, Niffler bait
- Tea -> For Trelawney’s class
- A Small Mirror -> In Case of Basilisk
- A Journal -> “I Promise it isn’t Tom Riddle’s Diary”
- Hand Warmers -> For A Long Quidditch Match
Take a walk through the dollar store and get some ideas. Almost anything can have a wizard slant if you try hard enough.
Step 3: Make Some Labels
Take all the original labels off the stuff you found and replace them with custom themed labels of your own. I made mine with my Cricut, but good handwriting and a steady hand and you can easily make some simple ones without. After cutting mine out I lightly dabbed them with some tea bags to make them look aged.
For the wand box I used a box that had come with some Ikea shelves we had recently purchased. I think it had originally held all the screws for the shelves, but now its a dope ass wand box.
Step 4: Write a Letter
Now write a letter that explains the whole box. A box full of booze and a pair of socks could seem random until you write a themed letter to have it all make sense. I took inspiration for my letter from the first Hogwarts letter Harry receives in Philospher’s Stone and from the Foggo’s letter. Here is mine for example:
Again I made mine with my Cricut using two of the defaults fonts that they have. But this handwritten could have a great touch too.
Step 5: Put It All In a Box
I then took all of my items and put them in a big box. For extra theming I then covered the box in tons of fake shipping labels that I made to make it look like this package had been around the world. There was even a small owl label to take the whole thing over the top.
Step 6: Win Christmas
This is a super heartfelt gift that can be a great way to cross a hard to shop for person off your list. Mine was Harry Potter themed but yours can be Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Firefly, Lord of the Rings, etc. The list goes on. Now go make something!
Wonder Crafter 