Home-made Christmas gifts

[BabyDubsEverywhere]

What have you made/are planning on making for gifts for Christmas this year, we really need to trim our gift budget a little so any ideas will be every much appreciated.

All i have on my list so far is homemade fudge and framed photos of the kids - it looks a litte poor doesnt it!

[TheArsenicCupCake]

Just marking my place to bung my list up for you later when I have a bit more time.
Do you have age ranges?

[Tippychoocks]

Jam (doing it now!)
Sloe Gin
Truffles and Christmas biscuits
cards
name tags
plants if all my cuttings take!

And some sewn stuff for family but I haven't chosen yet. Nothing too complicated - shopping bags, napkins, gardening kneeler, that kind of thing.

It's hard to do for family though, I mostly use home-made for the small presents you have to give to teachers or neighbours or other families. Or Secret santas, horrible things that they are.

[asouthwoldmummy]

Are you very good in the kitchen?
We're planning to do hampers this year. I've already made Xmas puddings and a couple of varieties of jam and chutneys. I'll probably make some peppermint creams and some cinnamon biscuits, shove it all in some wicker baskets off the Market and viola! (and also less hassle, by the time Christmas gets here the presents will pretty much be taken care of.)
I also recently ordered from amazon Christmas crafting with kids, it has a few ideas of presents the kids can make as well as homemade decorations.

[Tippychoocks]

I did hampers back when I was doing the Good Life thing and it took FORVEVER and worked out as quite pricey if you count postage. I did sugar mice, truffles, jams, chutneys, marmalades, spiced nuts and added a few home-made decorations. Was up all night making bloody whisky marmalade

[sweetnitanitro]

I am planning on making calico shopping bags which DD will be forced persuaded to decorate with fabric paint. In them I will put home brewed beer which DH is making (he's very good at it) and probably some cookies or sweets or whatever I end up making. I have also gathered loads of flower seeds from my garden and taken photos so I can make seed packets

I might do home-made mincemeat this year, I made jam last year.


I'm very poor and I have a big family so we usually do home-made presents for each other.

[TheArsenicCupCake]

Right I'm back so here is my list.

I have a lot of calico which I am going to paint up ( artist by trade so this helps).. Out of which matching aprons and tote bags will be made.

In the bags for the females according to the person.
Jar of hot chocolate mix and mini marsh mallows
fudge
homemade hand cream and cotton gloves
gardeners kneeling pad and seeds
hand painted terracotta pot nest
trowel and hand fork ( hand painted)
journal ( japanese stab bound and cover will match the apron and bag)
short bread mix jar
small Xmas cake and pudding
bottle of mulled wine.

For childrens bags ( plain but outlined name on for them to paint)
plain apron again for them to paint up
pencils, crayons and crafty bits ( poundland type
places are great for cheap bits.
Roll of paper ( actually it's lining paper that I have split between the dc's )
sponge brushes
gingerbread snow men with icing and jellys
cookie in a jar mix

for males ( they are having baskets)
Christmas puds and cakes
chutneys
marmalade
journal and pen
mulled wine
voucher for a photo shoot
Epsom salt jar

going to add in books, socks DVDs according to who
the gift is for.
Will also be making a few other bits as well, and I'm swapping some of my skills for a friend of mines to cover our famlies with a few different things this year.

[BabyDubsEverywhere]

Ive been out all day and am seriously wow'd by your suggestions thankyou so much

sure beats my photo frames

If any of you wouldnt mind, would you be able to have a guess at the cost of things per gift?

Thankyou so much

[india245]

home made toiletries go down well. You can buy a bottle of grapeseed oil in the supermarket which is pretty cheap and add a few drops of essential oils to the grapeseed and label it as 'massage' oil. Bath bombs are fun to do too and have a bit of wow factor.

Other than that I stick to foodie things - chutney, shortbread, truffles that sort of thing.

You can make up those muffin mix jars too - where you layer the dry ingredients for muffins and write a label telling the recipient what to add and how to make - nice for kiddies.

[bytheMoonlight]

Does anyone know where can I get some nice chutney recipes?

Are bath bombs easy/cheap? Could my 3 yr old daughter help me make them?

[Tippychoocks]

Google away for chutney. If in doubt, pick Good Housekeeping .
Bath bombs are supposed to be easy and there's nothing too nasty I don't think (unlike soap making where the lye is horrid) for your daughter to get hurt. There is no doubt someone on Arts and Crafts who does them.

[TheArsenicCupCake]

It will be about £2 for each plain apron £1 for the toe bags. Under £2 for a roll of lining paper. Binding for journals cost me about £2 each journal but I use leather you can use string etc. Under £1 for the paper.
the covers for journal is cardboardbox covered in calico. ( you will need a hole punch or a drill.. I use a drill and bull dog clips to keep it all together).

It's the decorations and chutney ingredients and jars that tot it up.. But google is your friend.

[asouthwoldmummy]

I save empty jam jars throughout the year (ask friends and neighbours for their too, saves them going to the bottle bank). A pack of 12 lids from Lakeland costs £2.29.
Make friends with allotment holders and keen growers, there's normally someone with a glut of something to offload (remember with a bit of imagination you can preserve almost anything). We often get bags of produce dumped on the doorstep which I can make all sorts out of!
You don't need any fancy equipment just a large stockpot and a long wooden spoon for making jam and chutney.

Moonlight - try www.allotment.org they have quite an extensive recipe section.

[tassisssss]

i love delia's christmas chutney, nigella's spiced apple (but use much less liquid than she says) and I have a tomato one too. this makes a nice triple pack of different colours/flavour...when i was weaning i kept baby food jars and made a trio of tiny jars, lovely!

we did photo coasters at a church craft thing recently and they were fab, really nice finished product...i bought the blanks in bulk from an ebay shop, reckon the grandparents/godparents could like these

my SIL decorates mirror tiles with kids names using glass pens and these look amazing...i must place orders for my older 2 (big hint as she may well read this!! xx)

[bytheMoonlight]

Just looked at Delia's Christmas chutney and it looks fab. She says to make it a month in advance, could I make it earlier than that?

DC2 is due on Nov.1st and I was hoping to get as much done as possible before that. Can't see me having the time to make chutney after that date!

[bytheMoonlight]

Great link asouthwoldmummy - I could be on there all night looking at recipes, thanks

[asouthwoldmummy]

No probs. As long as your jars are sterile chutney should keep for a year. It says a month because chutney should be kept a month before using to allow it to mature for the best flavour. :)

[india245]

bythemoonlight; bathbombs are great for your 3yo to help with - they only have bicarbonate of soda and citric acid in (citric acid can be bought from a chemist or online) and essential oils. If you stick to lavender oil, even that will be ok for her to touch.

Have fun!

[sweetnitanitro]

I save jars too and last year I went blackberry picking (if you're going to do this then you'll need to do it soon, but you can freeze them until you need them)- I made about 7 or 8 jars of blackberry jam and it only cost me a bag of sugar and a bottle of pectin

[TeaRocks]

Last year, I made some plum brandy which went down well. The brandy itself was fairly cheap and easy to make but I did buy nice bottles from eBay which put the price up a bit.

This year, I will definitely make some fudge and possibly some biscuits, too.

[Lionstar]

There is a fab recipe for White Chocolate and Cranberry Fudge in the recipes section - it is YUMMY and went down very well with the nursery staff! I put it in some cheap mugs with Xmas designs on and wrapped in those cellophane bags you can get at Lakeland with some reclaimed ribbons to finish.

[DuelingFanjo]

cake in a jar?

door stop? one of those cloth ones shaped like a dog/cat etc.

[bytheMoonlight]

Does anyone have any bathbomb recipes?

[PinkyDink]

Arsenic Cupcake - How do you make the bags & aprons? Are they easy to make?

[deemented]

I'll be making mostly homemade gifts for other this year.

Will be making fudge again and definately my Jaffa Cake Muffins - these were a huge hit with FIL last year and he's forever badgering me to make him more

[BabyDubsEverywhere]

Okay, from your wonderful lists ive put together 4 'bags'. Almost all of which will hopefully be homemade by myself/kids. Could i have your opinions on the following, very nervous that people might think im just being tight....

CHILDRENS COOKING BAG
Jar Mix - Muffin/cake/cookie
Cooks Apron
Gingerbread man
Baking Bits - Cutters, rolling pin
Chocolates

CHILDRENS CRAFT BAG
Artist Apron
Craft Bits- Glue/Glitter/Cutters
Paints/Brushes/Sponges
Pencils/Crayons/Felts
Scrap Book
Roll of Paper

PAMPER BAG
Bath Bombs
Candles
Massage Oil
Body Lotion
Bath Salts

MUNCHIES BAG (For a couple)
Chocolates
Shortbread
Sweets
Truffles
Muffins
Mince Pies
Fudge
Gingerbread
Honey Comb
Spiced Nuts
Drink of some sort?