A handmade quilt from a great-aunt is hundreds of hours you can wrap up in. That’s what love looks like when it has time.

Handmade things carry their own labour as a visible record. Nobody sews for hundreds of hours out of efficiency. They do it because the person it is for seems worth that much attention, and the stitches hold the count. Time given on purpose is one of the few things nobody can fake or buy in a hurry.

If something handmade is in your house, find out who made it and when. Then consider making something slow for somebody this year, even badly: a mix, a drawing, a knitted thing with mistakes in it. The hours are the message.