Last-minute Christmas gifts (and beyond): Quick gifts made from photos

These days, it's not uncommon to need a Christmas present that you hadn't expected – or perhaps couldn't have expected.

Your good friend from far away is coming to visit, the butcher next door has made such a good suggestion for the almost disastrous New Year's Eve party at the community center that he really deserves a gift... or you realize that you have simply forgotten someone, that has happened to people before, many have to work particularly hard towards the end of the year.

If you are a gifted and heartfelt giver, your presents will likely contain few consumer goods, preferring instead to focus on personal gifts. With enough time for preparation, you can create many beautiful things – sometimes fun and artistic items, sometimes true works of art.

But what about last-minute personal gifts? You're not one of those artists who can effortlessly stitch a surprisingly high-quality quilt with a beautiful design. Nor can you paint an artistic picture or quickly compose a song for a loved one?

Perhaps you are one of those people who like to take lots of photos, and then you have a realistic chance with this last-minute gift.

Don't forget: Especially in the days around Christmas, you usually have a little more time than before, particularly immediately afterwards, and that's just enough for many last-minute gifts.

Simply take all the photos you've collected over the last few years and make prints! Give photo prints as gifts? No, you shouldn't just give away simple photos you took on your last vacation.

With a little imagination, photo prints can become a beautiful and personal gift. For example, you can put together a fun series of photos , using creative flair in both selection and design, and glue them onto a blank calendar sheet – and there you have a unique photo calendar.

If you have a lot of imagination and numerous photos, you can create such Christmas gifts for many people: for example, a photo calendar with romantic flower pictures, matching the decor of your aunt, for whom you still haven't found a nice gift.

A photo calendar with quirky dog ​​faces for little Lena, who loves dogs so much. A photo calendar with spices (and descriptions of where and how to use them) for the friend who's learning to cook. And for the nice butcher who saved the party, a photo calendar with (almost) all the pig breeds in the world…

You didn't take any pictures of the pigs? That brings us to the second secret of the quick gift: there are photos on the internet, all the ones you want, and you can have them printed on photo paper at the nearest copy shop.

You probably have a few photos in your collection that possess a special kind of aura. It might be that slightly blurry photo of a hidden pond shore in the morning sun that you were actually going to discard because it's not exactly a photographic masterpiece. But as a poster-sized print in a frame, you then have an image with a presence that is truly breathtaking.

If you have one or two working days before the gift is due to be presented, you could consider having a photo print made.

The design possibilities of photo printing significantly expand your creative options; a photo print can be produced in almost any style. In terms of the material itself, this allows you to create an almost precious gift , or even a whole series of small gifts that are simply unique.

Even if you were a bit late with your gift, these presents still manage to "do justice to giving in its purest form." The giver engages with the recipient, puts thought into it, and invests time and effort.

It's important that you take some time to select the photos. Those who act in a panic are usually not very creative. But you'll find that little bit of time now and then, that's for sure; in fact, you should consciously use this time to relax so you can enjoy the rest of the festivities more carefree.

This gives you a double benefit: you get your "last-minute gifts" – gifts that are much nicer than those quickly bought with a mundane and uninspired grab from the shelf – and you build yourself a "little forced break" in the middle of the Christmas hustle and bustle, which can only do you good.