If you'd like to make extra money to put into your Christmas fund and you're quite gifted at crafting, here are some ways you can utilise your creative skills to make this money.

Stock up on wholesale wooden toys

One of the things you could do is stock up on a selection of wholesale wooden toys (such as wooden trains, farm animals, spinning tops, etc.), decorate them with your craft supplies and sell them in the run-up to Christmas (either online or at festive markets). You could paint them bright, pretty colours, add a few embellishments (like coloured felt, faux fur, pipe cleaners and washi tape) and then perhaps offer a personalisation service, where you paint a person's name onto each toy. As an aside, you should avoid putting beads or sequins on these toys, as the children who eventually play with these toys could swallow these small items.

Although you would have to spend some money on buying these wooden toys, they won't break the bank, as you'll be buying them at wholesale prices. Furthermore, provided you decorate them neatly and prettily and put a bit of effort into marketing your wares, you could not only recoup the amount you spent on your supplies, but you may make a very impressive profit that could help you to make your own Christmas celebrations that much more indulgent and special as well.

Knit, crochet or sew Christmas stockings

Another way to utilise your craft skills is to knit or crochet some festive Christmas stockings. Again, you could offer to personalise these by adding the first letter of the recipient's name to their stocking. Because Christmas stockings have a very simple shape, you should be able to whip up a few dozen of these quite quickly (assuming your knitting, sewing or crocheting skills are reasonably good). Furthermore, because these items are mainly decorative and are not going to be worn, you don't need to use extremely high-quality wool or fabric to make them, which means the cost of producing them should not eat into your profits too much.

If you decide to sell both the wooden toys and your homemade Christmas stockings, you could sell them together by marketing them as stockings that come with readymade stocking fillers. Given that many people find Christmas shopping stressful and prefer to get it over and done with quickly, you may find that a bundle like this, which allows parents to buy both their children's stockings and fillers in one go, proves very popular.