Building your own Christmas gifts is a great way to make the gift-giving experience more personal. In fact, with a little hard work and know-how, you might even create a family heirloom.

Instead of battling crowded shopping malls and rising prices, Kim Jacobson is spending time in her garage, building holiday gifts in her home wood shop.

For several years, the Minnesota-based occupational therapist has been handcrafting holiday presents as part of her husband's family's unusual — and refreshing — annual gift exchange.

"There's only one rule," Gary Jacobson said. "Everything has to be homemade. You draw a name at Christmas and have the next year to make that person a present."

It's a tradition Kim Jacobson said cuts through the commercialism surrounding the holidays, to the core of what the season is all about.

"A lot of love goes into what you make," she said.

It's also part of an emerging trend, according to Ann Rockler Jackson, chief executive officer of Rockler Woodworking and Hardware, one of the nation's largest suppliers of woodworking tools.

Jackson has seen her company's gift-related supply sales increase steadily over the past five years and believes more consumers are seeking a back-to-the-basics approach to gifts.

"People are getting tired of the shopping-mall mentality surrounding holiday gifts," she said. "Building your own can be so much more personal. There are a lot of creative people out there making incredible, meaningful gifts they couldn't buy at a store. And that do-it-yourself population is growing."

Rockler organized an extensive handmade gift list on its Web site, www.rockler.com/handmade.

Some of the more popular projects are relatively simple to build — things like small jewelry or keepsake boxes. Dominoes, cribbage boards and wooden Sudoku sets are among options for beginners. And for those with wood lathes, hardware kits for hand-turned pens, Christmas ornaments and even ice-cream scoops bring the quality of homemade gifts up to the store-bought level.

With several accomplished woodworkers in the family, Jacobsons have seen some amazing creations. "Probably the most impressive was a dining room table my cousin made for his sister-in-law," Gary Jacobson said. "That will be an heirloom, for sure."

Still, the beauty of the Jacobsons' tradition — and one of the driving forces behind home gift-building's burgeoning popularity — has as much to do with fellowship as it does with craftsmanship.

"It's definitely brought us all closer together," Kim Jacobson said.