Homemade Christmas Gifts - Gilbert,AZ

Apple Cinnamon Christmas Ornaments...here is a link to the recipe!

http://www.mccormick.com/Recipes/Other/Cinnamon-Ornaments...

I made these last year, and they were a hit with everyone!

Have Fun, Merry Christmas to you

The bookstore has a recipe book that is called something like "Gifts in a Jar". There are all kinds and you basically put all the dry ingredients in a Mason Jar and attach the recipe that you print out. I think homemade gifts are the best and especially one's you can eat! Good luck and have fun!

For the past couple of years my girls and I have made cookie baskets for the adults (we still buy gifts for the kids). It's yummy and I love all the time I get to spend with my girls in the kitchen.

brownie jars are cute and easy... Fairly cheap gifts, especially if you make more than one. Get a big jar, layer dry ingredients into it, find some appriate fabric to put over the lid, tie it in place with cute ribbons... Print out and attach an instruction card. Who doesn't like brownies? I have seen it done with cookies, hot cocoas, just about anything that is mostly dry ingredients.

I am making Amish Friendship bread of different varieties for our friends & family. Good luck!

If you want to do something other than baking what about a plastic bag holder. Take a dish towel and sew it right side together the long way. Open the hem at the bottom and thread some elastic through to hold the bottom closed. Sew a ribbon on the top to hang it and you have a place to store plastic bags. You can also do this with material if you want.
Family also love pictures. Make a scrapbook page or collage of picutres.
Good luck with whatever you decide

We make a White Chocolate Party Mix that everyone LOVES! This sweet and salty mix is a good change during the holidays, and it keeps well. We usually find some containers during the year really cheap somewhere, but we have been known to just use quart ziplock bags with a bow or a paper Christmas plate. I start buying the ingredients in the fall as I see them on sale. Usually by December, everything is bought. (I already have my Cheerios and Chex cereals!) The recipe makes a HUGE bowl, and we usually end up making 4-6 batches. Everyone we know considers it a tradition! Here's the recipe!

White Chocolate Party Mix

Cover three large cookie sheets with waxed paper.

Pour ingredients into LARGE bowl:

1 bag pretzels
1 lb bag M & M’s
2 cups roasted peanuts
5 cups Corn Chex
5 cups Cheerios

In a microwavable bowl, mix:

2 pkgs white chocolate (vanilla) chips
3 tbsp oil

Heat in microwave on med-high for 2 minutes, stirring half way through. Continue to heat on med-high for 20 seconds at a time if chips aren’t all melted.

Pour mixture over pretzel mixture and stir. (This step is easier with two people.) Once vanilla mixture is stirred in, pour onto three cookie sheets and cool. Enjoy!

Not sure what type of things you are looking for but I make homemade Kahlua every year for my adult family, friends and co-workers...it's delicious and always a big hit!

Check this out

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Christmas-Cookies-in-a-Jar/D...

I called them "Cookies in the Snow"

I did this last year for my kid's teachers and some of my friends. Everybody loved them and couldn't believe how pretty and how yummy they were. About a week later they came up to me and ask me for the recipe because they loved the cookies. I made it in a mason jar that you can buy a 12 pack at Walmart for really cheap. Buy the 1 quart big wide mouth mason jars. I tied a ribbon around the lid with the instructions attached on a piece of decorative paper with a hole in the corner to go on the ribbon. On some of them I placed it in a small basket with some hot chocolate packs and even a mug that you can buy at the dollar store.

They turned out so pretty and the cookies are amazing!!! Cook the recipe first if you want to. I did to make sure and I don't think I have had a better cookie since.

i make family gifts, mostly homemade baked goods, or candies etc. a couple of favorites are homemade buttermilk pancake mix (get the recipe from foodnetwork.com it is from alton brown) it is a recipe for an instant dry mix then they just add the wet ingredients, i put 2cups of mix into each container. homemade hot chocolate mix is a favorite too, you can get small containers to put it in & i always put extra cocoa in it (i use the dark chocolate cocoa)

this year i am making a graham cracker fruit cake, it was one my aunt made & is the best most moist fruit cake i have ever had, plus my family misses it since she passed...

truffles, cake balls, fudge, chocolate suckers, etc. are also great

I asked this exact question a little while ago... check out this thread.

http://www.mamapedia.com/questions/10185838989894877185

Hope this helps!
Merry Christmas!

If you have a sewing machine, you can make pillow cases or pj bottoms. Instead of baking (seems like too many cookies around the holidays) you can give the ingredients layered in a jar for them to make later. There are many recipe books called "Gifts from a Jar". Just attach a note card with instructions and a list of ingredients. I was given this book as a gift, but you may be able to find it at the library or recipes on line.

I manage a team of 6 people and that can be expensive to buy for - so I bought plates (from Walmart for like $2) and then went to michaels and bought some christmas stencils and paint that you bake and it becomes permanent. For the people with kids, I made the family of snowmen and personalized with last name across the top and names under each snowmen. I then baked some cookies - sort of of leave cookies for santa type. I also included hot cocoa mix or russian tea mix. For people without kids, I just got creative with a tree or star - i'm not all that crafty and these were really cute - they were even asking what I was making to go with them this year, they thought I should make personalized mugs - haha.

My girlfriend made me an angel out of the paper ribbon twist 10 years ago. I love it and still hang it up every year.

I've made scrap books in the past. Not very expensive, easy to make, but very time consuming.

Baked goods or homemade goodies are really nice. I especially like fudge.

I make peanut brittle and fudge and divinity. I love to make candy, but only do it this one time of year. Sometimes I will look for tins and the like at yard sales to use to package it in, or I get little baskets or decorative boxes from a craft store.

I don't mean to be a scrooge, i really don't, and i actually love to craft things and it is so much more fun when i craft them with a certain recipient in mind.
But here is what i'm thinking, you are going to spend ALOT of money on ingredients if you bake stuff, and personally it has to look super super pretty or i won't eat stuff that other people have made. and it just goes to waste, plus there are allergies and weight issues.

I don't know what other crafts you can make, but even the yarn to knit a scarf can end up costing more than goign to target to get a scarf that looks better than what I could make.

Photo gifts are awesome but again a small photo book can cost you over $15 not to mention the work you put into it.

What I have decided to do this year is give donations to charities in peoples names. You could do a local food bank or There is one our church does where you can buy chickens etc to support people in impoverised nations.
The charity usually supplies you with a note card with their logo so the recipeint knows a donation was made in their honor.

just my 2 cents i don't want to ruin anyone's christmas

Go check out the reader's digest book "home made best made" from the library...I've had it for years and Love it...I've made so many amazing gifts from it.

Check out www.designmom.com.

Great idea, but just make sure what you make is useful. Sometimes we go through a lot to make a special gift and people are in too big a hurry to appreciate the work.

I will tell you I recently went on an appointment with a bride who flipped through my book of work like it was a deck of cards. Then she was looking through my $700 album and switched gears and wanted to show me her dress. She clapped the book closed and tossed it on the table behind her and darted for the stairs. She had no idea how bent out of shape I was over that, but she just has a different appreciation for things than I do. She showed me her dress and had two dress bags, as one was ripped. She said she had taken the dress out so many times that the bag ripped. By the way she is handling things, she will need a new dress before she is married. Granted the bag they come in are a plastic vinyl, but it is a wedding dress and should be handled with care.

Anyway, just make sure you don't over due the work and then they don't appreciate it. I think to save money, I will do family gifts.

I don't know if you bake or not but cookies make a great gift. Everyone is so busy these days that they have very little time to bake so they really love getting a plate of cookies. I have a choc. chip tea cake recipe that everyone loves and I just put them on a fancy paper or cheap plastic plate. Or if I ship them I get the decorated plastic containers (Wal-Mart). My out-of-town family look forward to my cookies every year.
The recipe I use can be frozen so I just make up a big batch when I get the chance and freeze them. I have a big freezer so I start at the end of October. By Christmastime all I have to do is pull them out and ice them. The biggest expense is the butter (I always use real) so I buy it in bulk at Costco. If you want the recipe I use, I'll be glad to send it to you but maybe you have your own special recipe.

C.

Some of my most treasured gifts are homemade ornaments. I write the year on the back with a permanent marker. Every year I think of my kids or a niece or nephew as we decorate.

I'm also interested in the other ideas from other moms!

I recommend making bath salts....there are tons of recipe and scent ideas - just google away. I scent with eucalyptus and peppermint at the holiday's. EVERYONE loves getting a bag, except people who don't take baths, so tell them it's also a great body scrub.

I have a lot of nieces & nephews and christmas can get pretty expensive. This year I realized that over the years I have taken so many photo's of them. So I am going to get little photo books from the dollar store & personalize the front of it with their names & some decorations. I have photo's ranging from birth to now for most of them. These are pics that some of them have never even seen. And I think they will really enjoy it especially the nieces & nephew from one of my sister-n-laws, because she has never really been the type to take pics! I guess this idea for saving money will only work if you have photo's of the ones your making the gifts for, so hopefully you do! Hope you find this helpful!

PS. when my 7yr old & 4yr old found out I was doing this for my nieces & nephews they begged me to do it for them too!

mommy of 2 girls