what presents can I make with my toddler?

[everybodysang]

Right, clever crafty types, I need your help.

DD (23 months) likes baking with me. I was thinking of making some biscuits for Christmas presents, but some of them will have to be sent quite early and so that wouldn't work.

I was considering Rocky Road but she's never had any chocolate (I know, that makes me sound like total control freak woman but she does get treats, cake etc, I just want to put off sweets and chocolate for a bit longer). So I don't really want to go for that or anything with chocolate in.

Can anyone think of any good food presents we could do that won't be dangerous/full of chocolate/go off?

Or non-food presents too if you have good cheap ideas.

I thank you.

[misscph1973]

It's a bit tricky at such a young age, but it can be done! When my DD was 2, I got a mug for Christmas that she had decorated with porcelain pens at day nursery, she is 8 now, and it is still my most loved item ever.

This is how it was decorated: The nursery worker had drawn the outline on her hand on one side of the mug and she had decorated the other side. They also wrote her name and the year on the handle.

Porcelain pens will cost you £10-20 for a set, but they do last, we are now using ours for the 3rd year running and many relatives now have quite the collection of our china ;)

We have another project that is coming on quite nicely: I keep my Illy coffee tins (as the coffee is so expensive, I feel the need to get the most out of them) and I spray paint them red or another colour (spray paint from Wilkinsons, needs 10 coats or more, unfortunately). My kids have decorated shells with nail varnish (just because we had it) found at the beach this summer and we have glued one on the top of each lid (Bostik glue). They have also decorated the side of the tin with nail varnish. We are going to bake biscuits (you could make fudge, perhaps?) to put in for presents, they last longer than cake. You may not want to use nail varnish with your child, and you may not have similar tins, but in place of tins you could use jam jars, paint the lids and glue nice buttons on top of the lids. Your child can decorate the jar with the porcelain pens.