Is it just me?

It would make sense to me if this was a generally occurring thing, but maybe not.

I've always given alot of handmade gifts for birthdays and Christmas. The whole family (about 30 ppl) all exchange gifts for Christmas so I often pick something that can be made en mass more cheaply and make it for everyone. I will freely admit up front here that there are several years that I look back on and cringe. Some projects which failed after I had bought everything and had no more money to redo. Other times it worked out as I'd envisioned, but my pre-teen brain just didn't have a good concept of what people would enjoy.

There are exceptions to this, but in general I feel like 'handmade' has two different connotations when it comes to gift giving. If I went to a craft fair or nice boutique and bought a cutely packaged, professional looking item that happened to be handmade then it's 'Oooo, and it's handmade! How lovely/cute/adorable!' etc. If it's something I personally made, thus no professional packaging to add to the cuteness then it's more along the lines of 'Oh, did you make this? How sweet of you!'

On the one hand, the item is nice, on the other, I am nice for taking the time. It's the thought that counts.

But why should this be? I could sell the knit items or soap that I've made and then someone else could gift them and get a better reaction than I would myself. Maybe it's in the presentation? It needs to look like a legitimate thing? I don't know. Maybe my perception of reactions hasn't always been very good and I've since skewed my memories to seem worse than they really were.

One year stands out as odd to me in particular. I made soap for everyone. Normally, people like getting handmade soap. Go to any craft show or farmer's market and there will be soap makers there. I even had a unique theme. I made little soap baskets with about 8 small bars in each one and they were all different Bible themed soaps. As far as I recall it didn't get a great reception. My mom still has hers, but it's unused. I just don't understand why handmade soap wouldn't be popular if you actually made it yourself. Maybe there was something wrong with it that I didn't notice.

Last year was actually pretty good. I can't think of anything that didn't work out well. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I often chose pretty random things, but last year I knit most of my presents and I actually knit and work on those skills year round rather than learning something new for Christmas. Or it could just be that as a teenager I wasn't a very good gift giver.

I chose something random again this year though. I'm working on something to spruce up the presentation so that it isn't obviously made by me. I just can't handle knitting presents for everyone again yet. Last year was down to the wire and I started in August! I plan to knit a few gifts, but nothing overwhelming this time around. My sister requested that I either dye or spin her a skein of yarn so that she can look at it and pet it. I'm in a couple fiber clubs so I'm hoping to get something that screams her name, otherwise I'll dye some fiber.

So is it just me or is there a general perception by non-crafters that handmade and bought = luxury item while handmade by gift giver = cheap?