Hi MomDotters!  I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

This weekend we are going to share ideas for Christmas gifts you can make yourself.  Times are tough in a lot of households right now, but we still want to give our family and friends something to let them know how much we love them at Christmas time. First up are food gifts.  Yep, everyone loves to indulge during the holiday season, so why not give them a little something sweet?

Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix in a Jar is super sweet and cute for someone on your list that you know likes to bake, but is not quite a pastry chef yet.  You will layer the follow ingredients in a 1 quart wide mouth canning jar:
1/2 cup sugar, 1 cup chocolate chips, 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar, 2-1/2 cups flour premixed with 1 tsp. baking soda and 1/4 tsp. salt

Include the following recipe on a printed gift tag, handmade gift tag or recipe card:

• 1. Empty jar into large mixing bowl.
• 2. Add 1-1/2 sticks butter (softened), 1 egg and 1 tsp. vanilla.
• 3. Mix until blended.
• 4. Shape into 1″ balls and place 2″ apart on cookie sheet greased with non-stick cooking spray.
• 5. Bake at 350 degrees for 14 minutes. Cool 10 minutes, then move to wire racks to completely cool.

I also love the Best Hot Cocoa Mix recipe from Family Fun Magazine. Paired with a really cute mug or travel mug, this would be a sweet gift.

Herbed Rice Mix recipe from Family Fun Magazine is also a great idea. Doesn’t everyone eat rice as a side dish at dinner, I know my family does at least once a week.  I love their idea of using a glass jar and some ribbon to embellish it.  I have several of these jars in my pantry, they used to hold mixed nuts, and I keep saving them for a project just like this one.

Don’t forget your pooch obsessed family and friends. You know that special someone that loves their dog just a little bit too much…Well, they will be touched if you make some biscuits for their fur baby. This site has a ton of dog treat recipes you can bake up to wow the barkers on your list.

Along with the food theme goes Paper Fortune Cookies, but instead of fortunes each one will contain a coupon for a favor or service from you. You make the fortune cookies out of paper baking cups, you know the things you put in the muffin tin before you pour in the batter. You grab each side of the paper cup with your thumb and forefinger bending it back onto itself so that the flat bottom meets up and makes a fortune cookie shape. You use a glue dot or some tacky glue and adhere it together. Then write out your favors on little strips of white paper, they can be anything from free babysitting for a friend or a back rub for your husband. Then tuck the “fortunes” inside the cookies. These are adorable if you package them in one of those Christmas themed carry out looking gift boxes.

Now onto ornaments you and/or your children can make. I know it’s totally cliche to give Christmas stuff as gifts for Christmas, but I happen to enjoy it now that I have a child that gets excited about decorations.

Last year my son and I made Cinnamon Applesauce ornaments. These are so simple and fun. You mix 1 cup of ground cinnamon, 3/4 cup applesauce and 1/4 cup white glue. I bought all the ingredients at the dollar store to keep costs down. Mix well until it forms a dough. Roll it out with a rolling pin and use holiday or heart shaped cookie cutters make the ornament shape. Use a plastic drinking straw to punch a hole near the top for ribbon. Let dry on wire racks for a couple days. After that you can attach ribbons to hang on the tree from and paint them with acrylic paints if you wish. We made gingerbread men and hearts and made sure to add the year on some. These are very fragrant because of all the cinnamon and look so cute hanging on the tree. My son was able to help a lot with the cookie cutters last year and he was only three.

Little kids will love seeing their hand prints come to life as ornaments. You can trace their hands on paper and cut that out as your template. Then using the paper template cut out their hand print from stiff felt or craft foam. You can also let the children decorate the hand print with glitter, buttons or even their name and year depending on their age. You may want to add some festive ribbon to hang their ornament on the tree with.  Another take on this is using Crayola Model Magic to make a hand impression. You make an impression of your child’s hand in the Model Magic and let it air dry into a permanent keepsake. You will want to add a hole for ribbon or a hook before it dries in order for this to be used as an ornament.

For older children, try tackling the Button Wreath Ornaments from Martha Stewart’s website.  These are so pretty and older children can spend the time to string the buttons on and decide the color pattern they will use.  Grandparents will think they are store bought and the children can reveal that the artistic ornament was made by their own hands.

More Christmas gift ideas to come next weekend, so stay tuned.

Happy Christmas Crafting!

Andrea

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