Christmas gifts for dad: what he actually uses

Every December I always get something painted, wrapped in tissue paper and too much sellotape, and every January I have to work out where it goes. Some of it has stayed on my desk for years, especially my Farter Christmas mug! Thanks Beth haha.

So this is my honest list of Christmas gifts for dad made at the kitchen table: the ones that get used, the ones that do not, and how to tip the odds in your favour. If you are the dad, leave this open on the kitchen table. If you are the one doing the gluing at 11pm on the 23rd, start with the link near the bottom.

Homemade Christmas gifts for dad that actually get used

A set of coasters for his desk

Salt dough or air-dry clay, cut round, painted by the kids, then sealed properly. Unsealed clay drinks tea and goes soft within a week, so give it three thin coats of varnish and leave it to cure on a windowsill. Make four: one for the desk, one for the bedside table, two spares for when the first two are used as frisbees.

A calendar with their own drawings

Twelve sheets of A4, one drawing per month, hole-punched and hung on a bulldog clip. It gets used because I look at the date every morning anyway. A bought calendar does the same job, so the drawings are the whole point: let them draw something that happens in that month, like the Easter egg or the summer holiday.

A notebook for meetings

Buy a plain hardback notebook and let them paint or draw the cover, then write the year on the front in marker. Mine has a wonky dinosaur on it and comes to every meeting I take. It works because I needed a notebook before anyone handed me one.

Golf bits that stay in the bag

Golfers lose ball markers constantly, so painted washers or old coins are genuinely useful. A scorecard holder made from card and covered in a drawing, or a drawstring shoe bag with their name painted on it, both end up in the bag pocket and stay there. I review courses by price per round on this blog, and a marker that survives eighteen holes gets my vote.

A framed photo they chose themselves

Not a handprint poem, a photo. Let them pick the picture, print it, and put it in a cheap frame they have decorated. That one goes on the desk at work, because it is a photo of them rather than a craft.

The ones that look lovely and never get touched

• Coupon books. Lovely to make. Never redeemed.

• Handprint poems and painted plates. Wonderful, but they are wall art, not a working object. Treat them as art and nobody is disappointed.

• Anything with glitter on it. It sheds into keyboards and gets banned from desks.

How to make it last past January

• Start with the job, then decorate the object.

• Seal anything that gets handled: varnish, mod podge, a proper coat, not a token dab.

• Test a painted mug in the dishwasher yourself before he does.

• Keep it small enough for a desk or a drawer.

• Do the fiddly bits yourself. Hot glue, sharp knives and varnish are adult jobs; the painting, drawing and choosing are theirs.

If you need ideas for younger children

There is a good starting list at Christmas presents made by children over on The Empowered Educator, which covers the paint-and-glue end of things better than I can. Pick two ideas from a long list, not eight. Most of these take an afternoon including drying time and cost a few pounds in materials.

The takeaway

Ask him in November what he would actually use, then build the craft around the answer. A coaster, a calendar and a notebook will all still be in service next December. The salt dough snowman with the wobbly hat will not, and that is fine, because he will still remember making it.

If your child has made something that survived past January, tell me what it was. I am collecting the ones that work and I will add them to next year's list. And if you need a present that is not made of clay, the golf course reviews here are grouped by price per round.