Cookies. Cards. Beer. Everything’s better when you make it yourself, right?

Christmas pressies are no different. There’s nothing like that homemade charm to sweetly say, ‘Oh dear lord I had NO idea what to get you, but isn’t this cute?!’

Making your own gifts will also save you some cash cash money, and maybe even a tree or two, if you choose the right ingredients. NOT-SO-FUN FACT: Aussies spend about $50 billion on presents each year, and around $700 million of that ends up as landfill come February.

Tell Santa to shove it and say hello to your very own Christmas elf: City of Sydney’s Green Villages team. With the help of the creative geniuses at Etsy, they’ve created a series of DIY videos to show you how to make some fail-proof last-minute gifts: a macramé pot holder and terrarium. (“A what now?!” Just watch the video, mmkay.)

There’s also a vid to show you how to wrap your gifts with gorgeous fabric that can be re-used again and again, rather than watching that overpriced piece of shiny paper you carefully selected from the newsagent get torn to shreds and tossed away.

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How to make a macramé pot holder

With Kit from Handmade by Kitiya Palaskas

How to make a terrarium

With the Etsy Admin Team 

How to wrap with cloth

With Penny from Uptights

Find out more and get step-by-step instructions at greenvillages.com.au