Homemade food gifts as christmas presents

[FlowersAndShit]

What do you all think about homemade hampers with things like hm shortbread? Would you appreciate them or would they go straight in the bin?

No, not something 'cheap and cheerful'. Really nice home made stuff, mostly made with good quality, often pricey ingredients. I think I spent £25 on Belgian chocolate chips for brownie mixes last year. Packaged nicely because it's nice to receive something pretty. Most of all, hours and hours and hours of my time and effort - probably the priciest ingredient for all becaus I'm bloody busy and chronically ill.

Fair enough if it's not something you would appreciate - but home made gifts are often far from cheap, so don't devalue them thus. I give things to people I love who recognise the effort I've gone to and enjoy the contents, and they think they're very valuable presents.

I would love homemade food as a gift.

Welshmaenad thanks for the reminder about Wares - I did once get some jam jar lids from them (I like to use fresh new lids when I give gifts) and they do them in every size imaginable so that practically all jars are reusable. Nothing pains me more than having to throw away a pretty jar because the lid is stained or smelly!

I got some jam my sister made with her daughter using fruit from the allotment. To be fair to them, the warning was there..

Their hipflask style bottles are good for liqueurs.

I like pretty reused jars for stuff I keep but I'm a bit obsessed with jar uniformity for hampers, thus:

I think givers and receivers alike tend to underestimate the cash cost of home made goods. Yes, flour is not expensive, but by the time you've bought the jars or bottles and all the different ingredients, added a few ready made goodies perhaps, cellophane bags and/or wrap, the odd pretty box, a hamper really adds up. A pound or two here and there easily adds up to at least as much as an equivalent bought gift.

So you put in the time, effort and expense and you run the risk that your recipient thinks it's, as Sazzle said, "cheapskate". Sorry to pick on you Sazzle, but I think it's a common perception.

We do give HM things but we tend to do it alongside a mainstream present, rather than instead of it. Or it's good for when you want the recipient to feel touched but also that you haven't spent too much on them, eg between teachers and parents.

I started making homemade jam for xmas gifts about 5 years ago....
I now run my own business making preserves, my kitchen is hygiene rated by the local council and I have insurance etc.

I make approx 3500 jars of "stuff" a year in my kitchen....including corporate gifts and wedding favours....

People had better bloody appreciate the work that goes into hm stuff!!

Hmm I have been following this thread and I would really like to pick up on something.

I don't have much money. I can't afford expensive presents. My family all have lots of money and can go out and buy themselves pretty much anything, not a Boots goodie pack, but an expensive Jo Malone etc.

There is no way I can compete with that. Making something homemade, (assuming it is something they like - know your audience) is a way of giving them something that they can't get for themselves. It is giving my time and love and care.
I really really hate the materialism around Christmas. My kids make things for their grandparents. I want them to give them something, rather than just receive. But I want them to learn about gifts being thoughtful and not about money.
Fortunately their grandparents would rather have something made then bought.

I also agree about home made costing more than a token gift. I had to stop making/giving "good" rocky road because it ended up costing about £15 a pan. Then add in packaging etc, it was expensive! I get the good ingredients because I'm giving it away and I want it to taste excellent, quality ingredients cost a fortune.

It's not my cup of tea. Something like chutney, or food with alcohol in, would swiftly be given away, but only because I don't enjoy such things anyway. However, I would happily receive anything sweet, such as cake or fudge etc, as I have a sweet tooth. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's a fine gift, if thought is given to the kind of foods that the recipient enjoys.

Great thread. This year I am sewing gifts for family and a few close friends - mostly little christmas tree decorations (stuffed candy canes, xmas trees decorated with sequins, snowmen etc), and bigger things such as a peg bag for my mum, dog poo bag dispenser for my sister! I got the sewing bug recently so am a complete amateur, so yes there is an element of doing it for fun for myself but also hoping that adds to the 'effort' factor... Money is tight this year but equipment/materials so far have been at least £50, and to be honest I will end up buying extra things for some people. So it's not exactly the cheap option. I will be heavily pregnant with no 2 by xmas and so I will defo not have the time or energy for this next year. I am counting on my family especially appreciating the gifts because I made them all by myself :)

One year when I was a student I made red onion chutney for everyone, my nan genuinely loved it, not sure about everyone else, but my flat stank of onions for at least a week. So I hope they appreciated it because of that!

I would always appreciate and more importantly REMEMBER a homemade gift, even if I didn't eat/use it for whatever reason :)

Welshmaenad I make a cake that needs un-Dutched, natural cocoa for increased acidity, which is £9 for 170g! It's a much, much nicer cake than you could buy anywhere outside a seriously upscale bakery - the icing is just Belgian choc and double cream ganache, and the crumb-coat invlved melted choc and cream as well as butter and icing sugar, as they lighten and flavour.

My fruit cakes involve crystallised ginger, apricot and pineapple as well as the usual suspects, and I feed it damson gin, Maker's Mark rum, or quince brandy, after baking it with the same. And has anyone tried making macarons at home? There's a reason shops charge so much for them! Baking to that standard costs a fortune. Buying them is outside most people's budget altogether.

"Cheap and cheerful" - ha.

In fairness, maybe the commenter's never had a really nice home baked pressie themselves.

I suppose my idea of a fortune may also be less than other people's, too!

I give home made, and love to receive it.

I made a hamper once for my parents. Put a lot of thought into buying their favourite things, treats, even chews for the dog. Booked a courier to deliver it to them. Tbh it was all really expensive once I'd factored in buying the basket and delivery but I was so excited at the thought of them receiving it that it was worth every penny in my mind.

Only I needed a big box to put it in. Ex worked in retail so got a big box from the stockroom, problem solved. My parents were delighted when they received a package from a courier, in a big box - advertising a huge TV. They were less than impressed to open it to find my homemade hamper and not a brand new wide screen telly

Gin, that is gutting - and also quite funny.

Agree that cooking to a gift-worthy standard is excruciatingly expensive. I used to get loads of 'hints' that folks would like one of my Christmas cakes. Not only did they cost blood, sweat & tears (I tried not to sweat or bleed into the cake mix ...) but each one worked out above £40!

Luckily, everybody knows I'm skint these days and keep a filthy kitchen.

One year I made chutneys, marmalades, cakes, all sorts to give as gifts as I (mistakenly it turned out) thought it would be cheaper. The cost was ridiculous but I didnt notice until I added it all up after Xmas as I had bought the ingredients/equipment over several months/weeks.

The worst bit is that people keep asking for them again, which is a lovely compliment but I cant afford it! And none of them will return the lovely kilner jars (which were the major cost of the operation) I put the stuff is as they are all using them for something else, so I have said that I will cheerfully refill them when they send them back!

My dad used to get a lot of home-made Christmas cakes/shortbread from kind friends who felt sorry for a poor old widower. He would thank them profusely then as soon as they were gone he would say something like, 'Jean's always been a poor cook!' I miss the old goat.

Home made jam, chutney or pickles, I would be thrilled! Someone upthread mentioned preserved lemons, I would probably kiss the feet of the giver. I love that sort of thing, but have neither the time nor the talent to make them myself.

Biscuits and baked goods with a short shelf life, less so. Probably would go to waste before we could eat them at Christmas.

I think it's a lovely idea if done well, especially for older people or the people who already have everything and are very difficult to buy for. I did it for the in laws once though (not homemade stuff but good quality bought treats) and by the time I'd bought a basket, filled it with a decent amount of stuff, packed it out with straw, tissue paper and wrapped it in cellophane etc it ended up costing me a flipping fortune - far more than if I'd just bought them a single present.

If the whole point is that you've put time and effort into it, then I'd go with some flavoured booze (Sloe Gin, Werthers Vodka, that sort of thing) some homemade shortbread or jam/chutney and maybe some homemade sweets or chocolates. I'd concentrate on making two or three things well rather than overloading it with mediocre stuff.

I've got several friends who make amazing food, but one lets her dog lick the stuff in the dishwasher (!),

Nothing wrong with that at all. The dishwasher sterilises things.

Your hamper looks lovely Welsh. I'm not overly worried about jar uniformity but they must be pretty and/or reusable. I have five boxes of jars in the corner of what used to be our dining room! I am quite sure DH is waiting for the moment I drop dead to get rid of them so obviously I keep adding to the collection! He makes pickled onions for people at his work and has requests now for about 20 jars - they are delicious and we make the jars look lovely.
I agree about the cost - it can run away with you if you're not careful. I also make chocolates to give at Christmas time and because I won't use cheap ingredients it does get costly but I'd still rather do that than give some shitey bottle of day glo pink shitey bubble shite stuff that cost £3!

Ours doesn't because it doesn't run at a high enough temperature. I find the idea of a dog or cat licking humans' crockery/cutlery/pots etc etc absolutely gross, and I have a fairly strong stomach.

It's strange to read all the comments by people who are squeamish about homemade food and will only eat factory made stuff because its the opposite when it comes to school cake sales. I know people who rough up M&s cakes to make them look homemade for the mufti day contributions.

Also, I hate to say it but if you've ever been in factory, you'd never want to eat the food produced there again. At least that's my experience.

Agree with the bit about cats on worktops though... why do people let them do that? Mil has a cat and I sterilise the worktop and cover everything I cook in her kitchen.

I'm quite squeamish about factory food, have you seen the shit they put in food especially the cheap sweet stuff and have you ever watched how they make the stuff. No, give me homemade anyday, better chance that you are eating real food rather than a pile of chemical smuck that only looks like food and taste like shit.
I only make my fudge now for the truly devoted, I'm quite happy to give that cheap commercial slop containg palm/veg oil and high frustose corn syrup to the blinkered hygene freaks with distorted palates.